1987 USC Trojans football team

1987 Pacific-10 Conference football standings
	+ – Conference co-champions; Rankings from AP Poll

1987 USC Trojans football
1987 USC Trojans football
Pac-10 co-champion
Rose Bowl, L 17–20 vs. Michigan State
Conference	Pacific-10 Conference
Ranking
Coaches	No. 17
AP	No. 18
1987 record	8–4 (7–1 Pac-10)
Head coach	Larry Smith (1st season);
Offensive coordinator	Chuck Stobart (1st season)
Captain	Dave Cadigan; Greg Coauette
Home stadium	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum (c. 92,516, grass)
	Seasons ← 1986 1988 →

The 1987 USC Trojans football team represented the University of Southern California (USC) in the 1987 NCAA Division I-A football season. In their first year under head coach Larry Smith, the Trojans compiled an 8–4 record (7–1 against conference opponents), won the Pacific-10 Conference (Pac-10) championship, and outscored their opponents by a combined total of 321 to 229.^[1]

The Trojans lost their inaugural game of Larry Smith's tenure to Michigan State in the first night game ever played at Spartan Stadium. USC secured a Rose Bowl berth by tying UCLA for the Pacific-10 championship and winning the head to head match. They faced Michigan State again, and lost 17–20.

Quarterback Rodney Peete led the team in passing, completing 197 of 332 passes for 2,709 yards with 21 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. Steven Webster led the team in rushing with 239 carries for 1,109 yards and six touchdowns. Erik Affholter led the team in receiving yards with 44 catches for 640 yards and four touchdowns.^[2]

Schedule[]

Date	Time	Opponent	Rank	Site	TV	Result	Attendance
September 7	5:00 p.m.	at No. 17 Michigan State*	No. 19	Spartan Stadium East Lansing, MI	ABC	L 13–27	77,922
September 19	12:30 p.m.	No. 19 Boston College*		Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Los Angeles, CA	ABC	W 23–17	46,205
September 26	1:00 p.m.	at California		California Memorial Stadium Berkeley, CA		W 31–14	62,000
October 3	6:30 p.m.	Oregon State		Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Los Angeles, CA		W 48–14	47,979
October 10	1:00 p.m.	at Oregon		Autzen Stadium Eugene, OR		L 27–34	39,587
October 17	12:30 p.m.	at Washington		Husky Stadium Seattle, WA	ABC	W 37–23	71,678
October 24	12:30 p.m.	at No. 10 Notre Dame*		Notre Dame Stadium Notre Dame, IN (rivalry)	CBS	L 15–26	59,075
October 31	1:30 p.m.	Washington State		Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Los Angeles, CA		W 42–7	24,834
November 7	12:30 p.m.	Stanford		Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Los Angeles, CA (rivalry)	ABC	W 39–24	58,922
November 14	1:30 p.m.	Arizona		Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Los Angeles, CA		W 12–10	51,428
November 21	12:30 p.m.	No. 5 UCLA		Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Los Angeles, CA (Victory Bell)	ABC	W 17–13	92,516
January 1, 1988	2:00 p.m.	vs. No. 8 Michigan State*	No. 16	Rose Bowl Pasadena, CA (Rose Bowl)	NBC	L 17–20	103,847
*Non-conference game Homecoming Rankings from AP Poll released prior to the game

Roster[]

1987 USC Trojans football team roster

Players

Coaches

Offense

Pos.	#	Name	Class
WR	`42`	Erik Affholter	Jr
WR	`88`	Gene Arrington	Jr
RB		Aaron Emanuel	So
RB	`34`	Ricky Ervins	Fr
TE	`86`	Scott Galbraith	So
TE	`17`	Paul Green	Jr
OT		John Guerrero	Jr
RB	`39`	Leroy Holt	So
QB	`4`	Pat O'Hara	Fr
C	`63`	Brad Leggett	So
QB	`16`	Rodney Peete	Jr
OG	`75`	Mark Tucker	Fr
WR	`83`	Gary Wellman	Fr

Defense

Pos.	#	Name	Class
S	`7`	Mark Carrier	Fr
CB	`2`	Chris Hale	Jr
DT	`93`	Pat Harlow	Fr
DT	`90`	Dan Owens	So
LB	`35`	Scott Ross	Fr
DT	`99`	Tim Ryan	So
LB	`55`	Junior Seau	Fr

Special teams

Pos.	#	Name	Class
K	`11`	Quin Rodriguez	Fr

Head coach

Larry Smith

Coordinators/assistant coaches

John Matsko

Legend

(C) Team captain
(S) Suspended
(I) Ineligible

Injured
Redshirt

Rankings[]

Game summaries[]

Arizona[]

	1	2	3	4	Total
Arizona	7	0	3	0	10
USC	3	3	0	6	12

^[3]

UCLA[]

USC clinches berth in the Rose Bowl with the win.^[4]

References[]

^ "Southern California Yearly Results (1985-1989)". College Football Data Warehouse. David DeLassus. Archived from the original on July 22, 2015. Retrieved July 20, 2015.
^ "1987 Southern California Trojans Stats". SR/College Football. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved July 21, 2015.
^ Gainesville Sun. 1987 Nov 15. Retrieved 2019-Jan-06.
^ "Southern Cal takes roses from UCLA." Gainesville Sun. 1987 Nov 22.

[1] "Southern California Yearly Results (1985-1989)". College Football Data Warehouse. David DeLassus. Archived from the original on July 22, 2015. Retrieved July 20, 2015.

[2] "1987 Southern California Trojans Stats". SR/College Football. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved July 21, 2015.

[3] Gainesville Sun. 1987 Nov 15. Retrieved 2019-Jan-06.

[4] "Southern Cal takes roses from UCLA." Gainesville Sun. 1987 Nov 22.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

v t USC Trojans football
Venues	Athletic Park (1895–98) Fiesta Park (1897–98, 1902, 1904–06, 1916) Chutes Park (1900) Prager Park (1903) Bovard Field (1904–10, 1914–15, 1917–22) Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum (1923–present) Jones Field/Kennedy Field (practice)
Bowls & rivalries	Bowl games Notre Dame Stanford UCLA Victory Bell Crosstown Cup
Culture & lore	Traveler George Tirebiter Giles Pellerin "Fight On" Spirit of Troy Student Body Right Tommy Trojan Athletics scandal 1967 "Game of the Century" "Bush Push" 2007 Stanford game So This Is College
People	Head coaches Starting quarterbacks NFL draftees Statistical leaders
Seasons	1888 1889 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911–1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
National championship seasons in bold

v t Pac-12 Conference football champions
Pacific Coast	Washington (1916) Washington State (1917) California (1918) Oregon & Washington (1919) California (1920) California (1921) California (1922) California (1923) Stanford (1924) Washington (1925) Stanford (1926) Idaho, Stanford, & USC (1927) USC (1928) USC (1929) Washington State (1930) USC (1931) USC (1932) Oregon & Stanford (1933) Stanford (1934) California, Stanford, & UCLA (1935) Washington (1936) California (1937) California & USC (1938) USC (1939) Stanford (1940) Oregon State (1941) UCLA (1942) USC (1943) USC (1944) USC (1945) UCLA (1946) USC (1947) California & Oregon (1948) California (1949) California (1950) Stanford (1951) USC (1952) UCLA (1953) UCLA (1954) UCLA (1955) Oregon State (1956) Oregon & Oregon State (1957) California (1958)
AAWU	UCLA, USC, & Washington (1959) Washington (1960) UCLA (1961) USC (1962) Washington (1963) Oregon State & USC (1964) UCLA (1965) USC (1966) USC (1967)
Pacific-8	USC (1968) USC (1969) Stanford (1970) Stanford (1971) USC (1972) USC (1973) USC (1974) California & UCLA (1975) USC (1976) Washington (1977)
Pacific-10	USC (1978) USC (1979) Washington (1980) Washington (1981) UCLA (1982) UCLA (1983) USC (1984) UCLA (1985) Arizona State (1986) USC & UCLA (1987) USC (1988) USC (1989) Washington (1990) Washington (1991) Washington & Stanford (1992) Arizona, UCLA, & USC (1993) Oregon (1994) USC & Washington (1995) Arizona State (1996) UCLA & Washington State (1997) UCLA (1998) Stanford (1999) Oregon, Oregon State, & Washington (2000) Oregon (2001) USC & Washington State (2002) USC (2003) USC (2004) vacated USC (2005) vacated California & USC (2006) Arizona State & USC (2007) USC (2008) Oregon (2009) Oregon (2010)
Pac-12	Oregon (2011) Stanford (2012) Stanford (2013) Oregon (2014) Stanford (2015) Washington (2016) USC (2017) Washington (2018) Oregon (2019) Oregon (2020) Utah (2021)
National championships in bold

1987 Pacific-10 Conference football standings
v t	Conf					Overall
Team	W		L		T	W		L		T
No. 18 USC +	7	–	1	–	0	8	–	4	–	0
No. 9 UCLA +	7	–	1	–	0	10	–	2	–	0
Washington	4	–	3	–	1	7	–	4	–	1
No. 20 Arizona State	3	–	3	–	1	7	–	4	–	1
Oregon	4	–	4	–	0	6	–	5	–	0
Stanford	4	–	4	–	0	5	–	6	–	0
Arizona	2	–	3	–	3	4	–	4	–	3
California	2	–	3	–	2	3	–	6	–	2
Washington State	1	–	5	–	1	3	–	7	–	1
Oregon State	0	–	7	–	0	2	–	9	–	0

+ – Conference co-champions Rankings from AP Poll