COLLEGE FOOTBALL / DAILY REPORT : USC : Robinson Doing Job on Johnson

John Robinson was talking about quarterbacks who win with grit as opposed to style.

“The one year I coached on the Raiders’ staff, I went into the locker room at halftime once and saw Kenny Stabler sitting on a stool, smoking a cigarette and drinking a cup of coffee,” he said.

“He’d had a two-for-15 first half, really bad. But he just told everyone: ‘Don’t worry, we’ll get it going--I’ll figure something out.’

“Well, he completed something like 19 passes in the second half and we won.”

He told the story at his Tuesday media luncheon to illustrate the sales job he’s doing on his USC quarterback, Rob Johnson. A junior, Johnson is 46 of 61 for two games in Robinson’s high-percentage, short-pass offense.

“Johnson, like most quarterbacks, wants to go back there and throw that ball deep down the field,” Robinson said. “I’m trying to convince him that by first completing a high percentage of short passes, it will enable him to be more effective with long balls.

“Another thing he has to learn is that the best competitors are not perfectionists. I’m talking about guys like Joe Montana, Stabler, Joe Kapp, Bill Kilmer . . . guys who aren’t great passers, but guys who find a way to win. I want him to understand that I don’t care if he throws the thing end-over-end, as long as we win.”

*

Beaver Stadium, where USC plays Penn State Saturday, is the nation’s second-largest on-campus football stadium. It seats 93,967, second only to Michigan Stadium’s 102,000. . . . The Trojans are 3-1 against Penn State. In the most recent meetings, USC defeated Penn State at the Coliseum twice, 19-14 in 1990, and 21-10 in 1991. . . . USC tailback Shawn Walters, who broke a 54-yard touchdown run against Houston, missed Tuesday’s practice due to flu.