REPEAT AFTER ME: TITLE IS DIFFICULT TO DUPLICATE.

Byline: KEVIN MODESTI

If you're going to have an honest discussion about what it will take for USC to repeat as national football champion, the first thing to do is remove the word ``repeat'' from your vocabulary.

Cross ``repeat'' right out of your cranial dictionary. While you're at it, drop all references to how with a break here or there a couple of seasons back, USC would be going for a ``three-peat'' this season. And before you get on with it, promise to resist any wordplay in which the Trojans coach becomes ``Re-Pete'' Carroll.

Repeating isn't the issue here.

I'm not talking about the fact the Trojans are in fact trying to do better than last season when they lost a game to Cal and finished No. 1 in the writers' poll but not the coaches' poll, winning one version of the national championship, in effect one-half of a national title.

I'm not talking about the fact the Trojans aren't really going for two in a row, they're going for 1.5 in a row.

No, there's a bigger reason that repeating isn't the issue.

Repeating would mean the Trojans go out and do the same things they did last season, face exactly the same challenges, react to precisely the same twists.

But, of course, that's not the way it works for any team in any sport, no matter how good the team was last year, how good it considers itself to be this year, how many star players it does or doesn't keep, how easy or hard the schedule appears to be, how many prognosticators say the title is theirs for the taking.

Carroll was acknowledging this when he spoke broadly about the Trojans' challenges at the beginning of the summer practices.

``I think we're faced with a very obvious challenge,'' Carroll said, ``to deal with all that comes with (last season's) accomplishment.''

That is: The Trojans must get over their 2003 selves.

``It strikes at a basic philosophy of dealing with what you've already accomplished,'' Carroll continued. ``We don't dwell on the last season, we don't dwell on the last game, we don't dwell on the last quarter. We always look ahead.

``We've already talked about the (2003) national championship and the possibility of being the preseason No. 1.''

Which the Trojans are: No. 1 in both polls going into Saturday's season- opening game against Virginia Tech in Landover, Md.

``Now we have to move on and concentrate on how to deal with it,'' Carroll said.

That sentiment bears, well, saying again.

As reigning co-champions, if that's not a contradiction in terms, the Trojans stand at the peak of a mountain. As they ponder another championship run, though, they look across a vast void toward the peak of another mountain. They know they must get from here to there but have no idea how they're going to do it.

That's sports. Things never go quite as expected. Ballyhooed stars (Heisman Trophy candidate quarterback Matt Leinart, perhaps?) disappoint. Unknowns (who knows?) step into major roles. Opponents play out of their minds. Coaches make mistakes. Kids get in trouble.

Do they ever.

If the Trojans needed to be reminded that fulfilling those awesome expectations is going to be rough duty, that the fates may be gunning for them every bit as hard as the Bruins will, they should have got the message during one of the more nervous offseasons any No. 1 team will suffer through.

Receiver Mike Williams' eligibility question is still out there, the only near-certainty being that he won't play in the opener. Receiver Whitney Lewis, who could have helped to replace Williams, lost his eligibility to academics. Offensive tackle Winston Justice was arrested over an incident with a pellet gun. Tight end Dominique Byrd broke a kneecap in a pick-up basketball game. And last week, running back Hershel Dennis became embroiled in a police investigation into an alleged sexual assault and was suspended from the team.

You can wring your hands about the depleted receiving corps. You can worry about the inexperienced offensive line. You can fret about whether the Trojans, based on their September-October slip-ups the past two seasons, might be vulnerable in the early going.

But what you really have to look out for is the unexpected, the out of the blue, the devil you don't know. However this season goes, it's going to be different from last season. Oh, USC ought to be No. 1 again; it just can't repeat.