DON'T LOOK NOW, BUT ...

Byline: KEVIN MODESTI

USC coach Pete Carroll had warned his team and its fans not to look past Saturday's game, and they followed orders, though they cut it close. They didn't start thinking, talking, shouting, singing and generally obsessing about the USC-UCLA game until the USC-Arizona State game had been over for a good, oh, 45 seconds.

The players were still making their way off the Coliseum field when the fans listening to the band's 964,784th recital of ``Tusk'' began belting out their own lyric, familiar off-color - though perfectly rhythmic - commentary on UCLA.

All-America safety Troy Polamalu felt a Trojans partisan pat him on the shoulder pads and heard the man say, ``Now, beat the Bruins.''

Defensive end Kenechi Ukeze took a deep breath and said dramatically, ``Here we go.''

Here we go, indeed.

It's not that the Trojans' 34-13 victory over the Sun Devils on Saturday evening wasn't significant. It was significant because it was the last game of what now feels like an extended preseason for USC. It was significant because it was the last game before the game against UCLA at the Rose Bowl next Saturday and the against Notre Dame at the Coliseum on Nov. 30.

The 11 games the Trojans have played so far this season, and the nine games they've won, are significant because those games set them up for these games.

The games that will make or break their season.

As wonderful as their second year under Carroll has been, none of this will be remembered - at least, remembered well - if the Trojans lose to UCLA or Notre Dame or (don't even tease them with the possibility) both.

It has all been building to this.

``It's still going to be one game at a time,'' defensive tackle Bernard Riley said before leaving the field, ``but it's not going to be hard to get up for UCLA.''

Riley was referring to the possibility - actually, it's not very likely - the Trojans will look past its unranked rival UCLA to its ninth-ranked rival Notre Dame.

The Trojans have done a great job this year of making ``one game at a time'' more than a cliche, more like a way of life.

People wondered whether they'd look past an awful Stanford team last week because they knew they had high-scoring Arizona State coming up. They concentrated on the Cardinal and won 49-17.

Then, people wondered whether they'd look past Arizona State because they had UCLA and Notre Dame coming up. They focused and turned the high-scoring Arizona State of the previous paragraph in to an erratic pop gun.

And now ...?

``It all comes down to this one game,'' Polamalu said in correcting a reporter who referred to the UCLA and Notre Dame games in the same breath. ``This next game speaks for itself.''

Having come this far, the Trojans don't know exactly where they're going even if they sweep their rivals on the next two Saturdays. A spot in one of the four major games of the Bowl Championship Series seems to be out of reach. A Pacific-10 Conference title is unattainable if conference leader Washington State beats Washington and UCLA.

It might be that even if it wins out, USC can do no better than a lesser bowl like the Dec. 27 Holiday Bowl.

So all they can do for now is take it one game at a - oh, you can finish this line yourself.

``Tell you the truth, I don't know anything about the BCS,'' Riley said. ``I don't even know what bowl we can get to. Can we get to the Rose Bowl? I don't know.''

Not likely, unless Miami or Ohio State falters and Washington State breaks through into the Fiesta Bowl national-championship game Jan. 3, leaving the Rose Bowl to the Trojans on New Year's Day.

``These two games (UCLA and Notre Dame) are bowl games for us,'' Riley said. ``These two games are games to test how good we are. We've got to win these next two games. We've got to win these next two games.''

These next two games wouldn't matter, of course, if the Trojans hadn't beaten Arizona State on Saturday. It wasn't a pretty victory - it was 20-13 after three quarters - but the Trojans' defense stopped another opponent and the diversified offense led by Carson Palmer and Justin Fargas took advantage.

``Nobody was looking forward,'' Palmer said.

``Now we can look forward,'' defensive end Kenechi Udeze said.

Here we go.