Woods sparks USC to 32-21 win over Minnesota
Robert Woods returned a kick 97 yards for a touchdown to jumpstart USC's sluggish offense and the 18th-ranked Trojans pulled away for a 32-21 victory over Minnesota on Saturday.
Allen Bradford rushed for 131 yards and a touchdown on 12 carries as the Trojans (3-0) returned to a power running game with quarterback Matt Barkley struggling.
Barkley threw for 192 yards and two touchdowns. But he also threw his first two interceptions of the year.
Adam Weber had a tough day for the Golden Gophers (1-2). He was just 15 of 29 for 224 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions.
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USC trailed 14-13 with under six minutes to go in the third when Woods came through with his big return. They scored 19 straight points before a Minnesota garbage-time touchdown.
The disjointed performance against a team that lost at home to FCS South Dakota last week likely will do little to quell the uneasiness for Trojans fans back home. Sanctions or no sanctions, much is expected of USC every season, and this year is no different.
Coach Lane Kiffin, who graduated from Bloomington Jefferson High School in suburban Minneapolis and interviewed for the Gophers job in 2007, took over the troubled program this year after Pete Carroll bolted to the Seattle Seahawks. The NCAA levied heavy sanctions in his wake stemming from star running back Reggie Bush's time with the Trojans, including a two-year bowl ban and the loss of 30 scholarships that have weakened the powerful program's foundation.
That much has been evident early this season, with a 17-14 squeaker at home over Virginia last week and a young team that has committed 31 penalties in three weeks.
It was more of the same early against Minnesota, with the Trojans committing five penalties in the first half, including one that led to DeLeon Eskridge's 1-yard TD run that gave Minnesota a 7-0 lead.
Kiffin also made several curious strategic decisions. He went for the 2-point conversion three times, failing on all, and didn't show much confidence in his offense at the end of the first half with some conservative play-calling.
"How does a guy like this end up with two jobs with historic football teams like Tennessee and USC?" former Tennessee coach and CBS analyst Phillip Fulmer said on the network's halftime show.
Minnesota coach Tim Brewster has plenty of skeptics himself three games into his fourth year on the job. The loss last week against the Coyotes had many fans calling for his ouster and he vowed his team would be ready for the Trojans.
Weber threw a 31-yard TD pass to Da'Jon McKnight that gave the Gophers a 14-13 lead, and Minnesota had some hope.
That lasted all of 8 seconds.
Woods took the ensuing kickoff and darted through a gigantic hole on the left side and then outran kicker Eric Ellestad to the end zone for a 19-13 lead.
The big play injected some life into the Trojans offense.
Barkley hit David Ausberry for a 21-yard touchdown and Bradford put the game on ice with a 56-yard run midway through the final period - the third Trojans TD of at least 50 yards. Ronald Johnson had a 53-yard TD catch in the second quarter.
Weber threw a 22-yard touchdown to MarQueis Gray with 11 seconds to play. Gray had four catches for 98 yards.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
