TROJANS HEAR BOOS AT COLISEUM.

Byline: BOB KEISSER

After 35 consecutive wins at the Coliseum spanning six years that arguably includes the best run in USC football history, Trojan fans responded to the unexpected as only fans can.

They booed.

They booed Pete Carroll, who had won 63 of his past 69 games. They booed the players who were part of last year's Rose Bowl title team. They booed a program that had reestablished USC's national football profile. They booed a team that was ranked No. 2.

And no one in the Trojan locker room blamed them.

"That's football, especially here because the expectations are so high," John David Booty said without any bitterness. "Not just the fans, but all of us. Inside, I was booing, too."

Congress' approval ratings didn't fall this fast.

Stanford's 24-23 win was about as stunning as they come, considering Stanford was a 41-point underdog, with a first-year coach who had never coached in BCS country, was starting a new quarterback, had lost 18 of their past 21games, and were meeting the nation's No.2 team that hadn't lost a home game in six seasons.

"This one came out of nowhere," Carroll said, shaking his head.

On the bright side, Lawrence Jackson said there will not be any finger- pointing, probably because there aren't enough fingers to go around.

Booty, who played the second half with a cracked middle finger of his throwing hand, threw four interceptions. Patrick Turner dropped three passes, two in wide-open space. The running game that has been hyped relentlessly for its depth managed 95 yards and couldn't score on a fourth- and-goal plunge at the end of the first half.

A PAT was blocked, and the defense upchucked a nine-point lead to a team that had 135 net yards after three quarters. The defense allowed Stanford to convert a fourth-and-20 pass to keep their last drive alive and a fourth-and-goal pass from the ten for the winning score.

"It's hard to realize how many positives we've (had at the Coliseum), 35 games, and to give it up when we played so miserably," Carroll said. "Stanford just hung. They waited until we made enough mistakes."

In a season in which Appalachian State beat Michigan, Notre Dame was carrying around a six-game losing streak and Top10 teams were being mowed down like industry clearing a rain forest, maybe no one should have been surprised.

USC has given its fans signs that their Bionic era is fading, even as they talk as if they're still invulnerable.

There was last week's messy win over Washington. Their other wins this season were to teams in the Palouse, Idaho and Washington State, and a Nebraska team Bob Devaney and Johnny Rodgers wouldn't recognize.

Last season, the Trojans were sluggish in the first half of their Rose Bowl win over Michigan, were beaten by an unheralded Oregon State team in similar fashion as Saturday evening, and lost to a Karl Dorrell coached-UCLA team that can't even beat Notre Dame at its lowest ebb in almost 50 years.

Considering the Trojans were coming off that dreadful performance against Washington and had dropped from the top spot in the writer's poll, it was alarming to see the team play so poorly and misfire so often.

The Trojans showed no energy in the first half, and really didn't wake up until late in the third quarter, after Stanford had scored and realized the No. 2 team in the land was resting on its attitude.

"They played like they had some entitlement," an overjoyed Stanford tight end Ben Ladner said walking up the tunnel.

Stanford managed just 86 yards rushing, and a third of those yards came on scrambles by quarterback Tavita Pritchard. The sophomore who had thrown just two passes in his collegiate career was just 11-for-30 passing, but five of those completions and 61 of his 149yards came in the fourth quarter.

"We don't have any high expectations, but we know what we're capable of doing," said Mark Bradford, who made the touchdown catch and swore he didn't know his team was expected to lose by 41. "We sort of took their first shot and survived, and then got more confident as the game went on."

The entire team celebrated wildly afterwards, no one more so than first- year Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh, who completed a hat trick of sorts Saturday.

It was Harbaugh who, moments after he was hired, said Carroll would leave USC for the NFL after the 2007 season, then said at Pac-10 media day that the 2007 Trojans were perhaps the greatest ever. Now he beat that "greatest" team.

"It's the greatest feeling I've ever felt," he said in-between chest bumps and hugs and "What do you think of that?" screams with various Stanford personnel. The USC-Stanford rivalry is officially reborn.

"The only thing we can do is begin again," Carroll said. "From now on, it's not about the loss, it's about how we bounce back. There's nothing we can do to get that loss back. So now it's all about what's ahead of us."

"It's not devastating," Jackson said, looking for any upside. "We've lost before. We're not perfect. We're still a good team, with good players and good coaches. Just because we walked out of the Coliseum with a loss doesn't mean the season is over."

There is a bright side if the Trojans care to look for it. They no longer have to wake up early Sunday mornings to see if they're No. 1, they can now recycle the reams of newspaper stories about their depth at tailback, and Booty can forget about that trip to New York for the Heisman Trophy announcement.

They can start going to work Mondays with more purpose than attitude, too. If the loss doesn't get their attention, maybe the boos will.

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