USC-UCLA Notes : Donahue Disputes the Notion He Remains a Gutty Little Bruin

UCLA Coach Terry Donahue said Monday that the public perception that he revels in the role of the underdog is a misconception.

“A lot of people want to perceive me as enjoying the underdog role,” Donahue said. “That’s not necessarily true, but a lot of people perceive me in other ways that might not be accurate, either.

“I would say there is a feeling on the part of a lot of sports people that I relish the underdog’s role more than the favorite’s role. That’s a perception they’ve decided is accurate.

“I don’t feel like that, but maybe I’m supposed to. So maybe I will. But I don’t. So, figure that out.”

USC (9-0 overall, 7-0 in the Pacific 10 Conference), is favored to beat UCLA (9-1, 6-1) in their Rose Bowl showdown Saturday in Pasadena.

As an 8 1/2-point favorite last season, UCLA lost to USC, 17-13.

“I felt comfortable as a favorite,” Donahue said. “I just didn’t feel comfortable with the final score.”

Medical Note: USC quarterback Rodney Peete missed practice Monday because of the flu.

Donahue walked off the field at the Rose Bowl Saturday with the 70th conference victory of his 13-year career, equaling the number won by former USC Coach John McKay.

“I wondered when I did that if McKay did it to a chorus of boos like I did,” Donahue said with a smile. “I wasn’t sure if his reception was quite as loud.”

The crowd voiced its displeasure with Donahue’s decision not to score in the closing seconds of a 27-17 victory over Stanford.

Only Don James of Washington, whose team gave him his 71st conference victory last Saturday, has won more Pac-10 games than Donahue and McKay.

“I’ve lasted a lot longer than a lot of you suckers thought I would,” Donahue told a group of reporters.

A crowd of more than 100,000 is expected Saturday, which would be the largest for a USC-UCLA game since 1954, when the teams drew 102,548 at the Coliseum. UCLA won that day, 34-0, to complete a 9-0 season and wrap up its only national championship.

Flashback: Former UCLA kicker Zenon Andrusyshyn came to be known among USC fans as Zenon Andru- missin’ after he botched a conversion attempt and a field-goal attempt and had two field-goal attempts blocked in a 21-20 loss to USC that cost the Bruins the national championship in 1967.

The moniker was deserved, according to former UCLA Coach Tommy Prothro, who led the Bruins from 1965 to 1970.

“He had the best leg of anybody who ever lived, but he didn’t make many when it meant much,” Prothro said recently.

In 1969, UCLA trailed USC, 7-6, late in the game because Andrusyshyn missed a conversion attempt. But the Bruins drove to the USC 7, where they faced a third-and-goal situation with less than 3 1/2 minutes left.

After sending in a pass play, Prothro called his kicker to his side.

“I had a problem,” Prothro said. “I knew he choked, he knew he choked, and he knew I knew. So I said very confidently and very firmly, ‘Zenon, if this pass is incomplete, I want you to go in and drill that ball right through the middle of those uprights.’

“He looked at me and he thought for a minute. He said, ‘Coach, what do you think about a fake?’ ”

Quarterback Dennis Dummitt passed 7 yards to Gwen Cooper to give UCLA a 12-7 lead with 3:07 remaining, but a 2-point conversion attempt failed.

USC won, 14-12, on a 32-yard touchdown pass from Jimmy Jones to Sam Dickerson with 1:32 left.

USC, which has allowed only 67.6 yards a game to rank first in the nation in rushing defense, has given up only 90 yards on the ground in its last 4 games.

“That’s virtually unheard of,” Donahue said. “I’ve never heard of anything like that.”

UCLA has been unimpressive in its last two victories--over Oregon and Stanford--but Donahue said his team is not in a slump.

“I wouldn’t say it was on a roll, either,” Donahue said. “It’s kind of on a slumpy roll.”

Figure that out.