FOR FOX, PRIZE COMES AFTER GAME.

Byline: Kevin Modesti

Louisiana Tech quarterback Tim Rattay piled up the numbers again Friday evening at the Coliseum, setting one record, nudging another.

But USC quarterback John Fox got the win - and the girl.

No wonder Fox was afraid to compare himself to Rattay. He didn't want to embarrass the poor guy.

``I'd have killed myself if I tried to pay attention to (how Rattay was doing), he's so good,'' Fox said after the Trojans beat the Bulldogs 45-19 despite Rattay's 35-for-68, 405-yard passing performance.

``I couldn't worry about trying to match him.'' The USC offense, he noted, is ``not set up for that.''

Of course, Fox was just being polite, respectful.

He knew better than anybody that the last act of the USC football season wasn't about passes attempted and completed. Football, and life beyond the final gun, require more than a strong right arm.

Sometimes, corny as this sounds, it's all about heart. Fox proved it on the field for the third straight week, his earnest efficiency and leadership a big reason the Trojans finish this 6-6 season with a three-game winning streak.

Then he proved it on the stadium video screen for the remainder of the crowd to watch.

As USC players celebrated with family and friends on the field minutes after the game, Fox knelt in front of girlfriend Nicole Barros and presented her with an engagement ring.

``Nicole, Will You Marry Me?'' read the video screen.

We've seen fans propose to their sweethearts at a ballgame - but a player?

``She said OK,'' Fox said later in typical understatement.

They kissed as fans cheered.

Fox explained that he'd been planning the stunt for 12 weeks, making sure it was all right with his coach, with the video crew, with the NCAA rulebook.

Twelve weeks ago, Fox was a linebacker, at the most improbable stage of the odyssey that took him from starting quarterback for nine games as a sophomore to taking nary a snap as a junior and back.

He couldn't have known how perfectly it would all work out.

USC head coach Paul Hackett gave Fox his approval.

``I said, `I think it's a fantastic idea. I don't know if you have the (guts) to do it, but I think it's a fantastic idea,' '' Hackett said.

Yes, Fox had the (guts).

He made sure Barros' mother was at the game, and asked his mother to fly in from Nebraska for the occasion. He entrusted Jack Ward, the trainer emeritus who has been a USC fixture since the 1950s, with holding the ring during the game.

By the time Fox popped the question, nobody was surprised except Nicole and the 45,070 football fans who shared the couple's precious moment.

``It was a big surprise. I thought they were just going to show pictures of the family (on the video screen),'' she said on the field.

Fox said she tried to pull away as she realized what was happening.

``Hold on, hold on, let me get through this thing the way I've been planning it for 12 weeks,'' he told her.

She's a USC student too. They began dating at Centennial High in Corona.

``It just made my dream come true,'' Fox said. ``She's definitely the one for me. To have my whole team behind me and congratulating me . . . it was incredible.''

Of course the whole team was behind him. It has been behind him ever since he reclaimed the starting quarterback job from Mike Van Raaphorst following the fourth of USC's five straight losses.

He doesn't put up stats like Rattay's. Fifteen completions and 148 yards in the loss to Arizona State; 12 and 117 to beat Washington State; 17 and 216 to beat UCLA last week.

Friday he went 11 for 20 for 137 yards, 53 of them to R. Jay Soward for the game's first touchdown. He didn't make mistakes, though; a second-quarter interception marked his first turnover in three weeks.

``We all know he's been the catalyst through the last three weeks,'' Hackett said. ``I was just hoping for John that we would win this one and win it big.''

It was supposed to be Rattay's big night - the nation's most prolific passer facing a USC secondary missing the injured Antuan Simmons and starting two freshmen and a sophomore.

And Rattay did show off, to the extent his fumble-fingered receivers and the resolute young Trojans would allow. His 68 attempts were the most ever against USC and his 35 completions were the most against USC since Oregon State's Erik Wilhelm had 37 in 1988 and his 405 passing yards were the most against USC since UCLA's Tommy Maddox had 409 in 1990. His 113th, 114th and 115th touchdown passes placed him second to BYU's Ty Detmer (121) in NCAA history.

There will be other nights for Rattay. He'll go high in April's NFL draft.

Fox might have played his last football game. He's been training to become an elementary-school teacher.

Who would you rather have been Friday night?