LOS ANGELES _ In his news conference following a blowout win on Saturday, University of Southern California Coach Clay Helton reserved some of his most glowing praise for the very end of the session.
He complimented a team that physically punished its opponents, a team that controlled the clock and pounded the ball.
It was a team that was not, in fact, his team _ at least not yet. He was talking about Stanford.
"They are," Helton said, "what we try to be."
USC's game at Stanford on Saturday will be a referendum on Helton's early efforts to establish a power-run offense, because USC will be playing the team that does it better than anyone, at least in the Pac-12.
Helton said Stanford has transformed itself into a feared team that runs to set up big play-action strikes. Stanford has the elements that USC has lacked since being hit by NCAA sanctions, such as a stable coaching staff and a roster loaded with experienced players, Helton said.
"They've done a tremendous job," he said. "And, as you know, they were Pac-12 champions last year."
Helton has tried to establish a similar, no-nonsense culture at USC, though his early efforts have returned uneven results. The running game fizzled in USC's opening game, though it improved last week. Off-the-field issues, the kind Stanford has, generally, deftly avoided, have trailed the team.
The matchup blossomed into an almost-rivalry as early as 2007, when Jim Harbaugh's 41-point underdog Stanford team shocked USC. By the time Zach Banner, now a fifth-year senior, arrived at USC, he said, the game had extra importance.
"It's not UCLA or Notre Dame," Banner said. But, he added, "Stanford is a rivalry game."
Quarterback Max Browne said both teams should know what to expect.
"You kind of know the mold with them," he said. "They're going to run the ball, they're going to be big up front, they're going to be real sound defensively."
The Trojans hope that, soon, the same can be said about them.
