'98 TROJANS ARE HOOKED ON A FEELING.

Byline: KEVIN MODESTI

One Trojan talked about a certain ``feeling.''

Another described it as an ``energy.''

One said it was more like a ``belief.''

Another described the ``thrill'' of merely standing on the sidelines in the fourth quarter.

One said it was as if everybody was ``amped up.''

Another said it was the feeling of a team coming ``together.''

And whatever the words they chose, it was the answer to the same question, the question that hung over USC football all summer.

Will it be any different under head coach Paul Hackett than it was under head coach John Robinson?

After USC's come-from-behind, 35-24 victory over Arizona State at the Coliseum on Saturday evening, you can stop asking.

This was a game the Trojans had every right to lose. They were favored by a field goal but the smart money was taking the points.

USC didn't have its leading ground-gainer, tailback Chad Morton, because of a back injury. And it was facing the best ball carrier, J.R. Redmond, it has faced in five games.

USC was coming off a loss at Florida State, a loss that silenced any early talk of a Hackett Miracle. And ASU was beginning to look like last year's UCLA team, coming into its own after two season-opening losses.

Besides, ASU had embarrassed the Trojans last year 35-7 and how much difference could a year have made?

After this, you can stop asking.

In the locker room at halftime, Hackett referred to the score, ASU by 10, and told his players a funny thing.

``We've got 'em right where we want 'em,'' he said.

The funnier thing was, the players believed their rookie coach.

``We believe everything he says,'' said safety Ifeanyi Ohalete with a shrug.

``They were up by 10 points and it didn't feel like they were ahead,'' Ohalete said.

When does a miracle begin, anyway?

When the coach tells his team at the break, ``If there was ever a time to step up and play your best football, this is the time''?

Or when one of those players returns the second-half kickoff 62 yards to set up a touchdown pass?

When a junior wide receiver visits a freshman quarterback at home and tells him, ``If you want to start, you've got to make something happen''?

Or when the freshman quarterback audibilizes on third-and-5 and throws a 20-yard touchdown pass to the junior wide receiver on the first play of the fourth quarter?

When the special-teams coach sets a goal - he wants his scrappy bunch to score or set up a score in every game?

Or when they come through by scoring, incredibly, for the fourth time in five games, blocking a punt and running it in for the go-ahead touchdown?

When a USC safety picks off a pass and runs it back for a game-clinching touchdown?

Or when he momentarily regrets it, when most of the roster piles on him in celebration behind the end zone, the wildest USC celebration in recent memory?

``Games like this are character-builders,'' said David Gibson, the junior who made that fourth-quarter interception and lived to tell about it. He added that after this, the Trojans feel like ``we're on the way to the Rose Bowl.''

Let's not get ahead of ourselves, David.

Hackett and the Trojans have work to do. Choosing a quarterback. Mending Chad Morton. Cutting their penalty count in half. Slowing down runners like Redmond.

But even at 3-1, 2-0 in the Pacific-10 Conference, they've done something they never could in 1997.

They've put some magic back in USC football. They're fun to watch again.

Here's the stat on fun: The Trojans are outscoring their opponents 66-13 in the fourth quarter this season. Take away their loss to the superior Florida State team, and it's 66-3.

They came from behind to beat Purdue and ASU, and beat Oregon State after being tied in the third quarter.

``The (team's) whole motto this year has been, `The fourth quarter, come on strong,' '' Gibson said.

One reason for the big stretch runs is stamina: Hackett emphasized conditioning all spring and summer.

But if winning the fourth quarter was as simple as cutting out the fat, Jenny Craig would be coach of the year.

It's something more. It's a feeling.

``You could feel it in the fourth quarter,'' Hackett said. ``That's the way we have to play USC football.''

It's a great new feeling.