USC SENIORS NOT LEAVING QUIETLY.

Byline: KAREN CROUSE

It's easy to pick out the journalists and fans who didn't compete in sports in college. They're the ones saying today's USC-UCLA game is a meaningless one for the Trojans.

So USC finds itself chained to the Pacific-10 cellar and the Fates have thrown away the key. So what?

The rest of us ex-college jocks know the real score. We realize it has nothing to do with records or rankings. We appreciate why the USC players would no sooner trivialize so colorful a rivalry than a terminally ill person would pooh pooh a beautiful sunset.

Understand: Being a college sportsman is a terminal sentence of sorts. The second you sign the scholarship papers, the clock starts ticking. Every time you walk off the field, it brings you that much closer to the end of your athletic career.

At best, football players have four years and fortysomething games and then it's curtains for all but a fortunate few who survive to play in the pros.

So for the 22 USC seniors, in particular, today's game couldn't loom any larger if a Pacific-10 title or a berth in the Bowl Championship Game was riding in the balance. For the likes of linebacker Zeke Moreno and running back Petros Papadakis, this is the last time they'll perform in the Rose Bowl, the last time they'll have all of L.A.'s divided attention.

Good God, next year will probably find them working alongsideBruins.

They'll take sides and bets this week every year for the rest of their lives. But the rivalry will never feel this personal again. For the seniors, this is their last chance to lord over this city in a way the mayor or the city council or the Lakers or the latest Hollywood heartthrob never will.

``If you've lived it, if you've experienced it, you realize this could never be a meaningless game,'' Moreno said.

As he spoke, he was standing on the practice field, smoldering. Forty-five hours before today's opening kickoff and Moreno was giving off more sparks than the student bonfire flaring nearby.

``I can't wait for game day to come around,'' Moreno said. ``The waiting is the hardest part.''

Losing has grown tedious, but you should know Moreno hasn't tired of football. He is excited to be able to play UCLA one more time. He had an interception and three tackles in a losing cause the last time the teams met at the Rose Bowl.

Last year he had an interception and a fumble recovery and two sacks among his game-high seven tackles as the Trojans posted their first win over UCLA since 1990.

The rivalry has brought out the best in Moreno. He can't imagine how he'll feel when he walks off the field Saturday, his college career wound down to a single game, next week against Notre Dame.

All he can say for sure is that USC football is like other matters of the heart: 'Tis better to have played and lost than never to have played at all.

``This is the city championship,'' Moreno said. ``The history of the competition is so rich. To be a part of it is a privilege.''

It's a huge deal to Papadakis, whose body is nearly as chipped and cracked as the plates thrown at his family's Greek restaurant. As soon as the season is over, he'll require two surgeries on his feet.

If today's game is meaningless, somebody clearly forgot to tell Papadakis.

``When we play UCLA, it's always a duel,'' he said. ``You don't ever want to get embarrassed.''

Papadakis feels no shame in the way things have turned out this year. How could he when it's a small miracle he's playing at all after a foot injury cut short his 1999 season?

``Coming back from that injury, it's been a triumph for me, even though I'm kind of falling apart,'' he said.

And the Trojans haven't thrown in the towel in any of their games, even if their fans have. That's some consolation for Papadakis, one of the prominent team leaders. Of course it kills him that he will go down in school history as a captain of the USC team that finished last in the Pac-10.

``That's a little upsetting,'' Papadakis said.

It also bothers him more than he lets on that the football team has supplanted the men's basketball team as the university's resident lepers.

``We're kind of (perceived as) losers around campus,'' Papadakis said. ``You think about SC, anybody older than the age of 30 knows it as a football school. So when you lose here, you start to experience a lot of different things you wouldn't normally see.''

That can be hurtful but also helpful, Papadakis explained.

``You have an easier time putting things into perspective if you're smart,'' he said. ``You realize it's hard for people to stick by somebody when they're going through tough times and not succeeding.''

Which brings to mind the main reason it's foolish to say today's game is meaningless for the Trojans. Never mind beating the Bruins, USC is out to prove it can win the battle of It against The World.

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For Trojans linebacker Zeke Moreno, the USC-UCLA rivalry will never be meaningless matchup.