The 2009 USC Trojans football team represented the University of Southern California during the 2009 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The team played its home games at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and was coached by Pete Carroll, who was in his ninth and final season at USC. They finished the season 9–4, 5–4 in Pac-10 play and won the Emerald Bowl over Boston College 24–13.
Before the season Recruiting class
The Trojans signed a top-5 recruiting class.
Schedule
Roster Name Yr. Ht./Wt.
Quarterback 7 Matt Barkley Fr. 6-2/230 15 Aaron Corp Jr. 6-3/200 14 Garrett Green Sr. 6-2/210 6 John Manoogian Fr. 6-1/200 16 Mitch Mustain Jr. 6-3/210
Running back 21 Allen Bradford Jr. 5-11/235 2 C.J. Gable Jr. 6-0/200 45 Adam Goodman Sr. 6-1/240 31 Stanley Havili Jr. 6-0/225 13 Stafon Johnson Sr. 5-11/215 4 Joe McKnight Jr. 6-0/200 6 Curtis McNeal Fr. 5-8/180 34 Ahmed Mokhtar So. 6-0/210 10 D.J. Shoemate So. 6-0/220 26 Marc Tyler So. 6-0/220 36 Simione Vehikite Fr. 6-0/245
Wide receiver 9 David Ausberry Jr. 6-4/235 83 Steve Blackhart Fr. 6-2/180 49 Robbie Boyer Fr. 6-0/185 19 Brice Butler Fr. 6-3/200 46 Sean Calcagnie Jr. 6-0/190 23 Jordan Cameron Jr. 6-5/220 80 Brandon Carswell So. 6-1/185 41 Preston Cavignac Jr. 6-0/185 1 De'Von Flournoy Fr. 6-0/180 41 J.B. Green Fr. 6-1/195 8 Ronald Johnson Jr. 6-1/185 28 Drew Ness So. 6-0/190 17 Travon Patterson Jr. 5-10/175 47 Scott Stephens Jr. 6-1/180 81 Spencer Vigoren Sr. 6-4/220 18 Damian Williams Jr. 6-1/190
Tight end 88 Blake Ayles So. 6-5/255 40 Rhett Ellison Jr. 6-5/250 82 Bryson Lloyd Fr. 6-3/225 86 Anthony McCoy Sr. 6-5/255 67 Michael Reardon So. 6-5/275 87 Ian Wandler Jr. 6-4/270 73 Steve Gatena So. 6-5/270
Offensive line 71 Charles Brown Sr. 6-6/295 53 Jeff Byers Sr. 6-4/285 72 Martin Coleman So. 6-5/315 77 Kevin Graf Fr. 6-6/315 74 Zack Heberer Jr. 6-5/300 78 Khaled Holmes Fr. 6-4/305 76 Nick Howell Sr. 6-5/280 75 Matt Kalil Fr. 6-6/290 68 Butch Lewis Jr. 6-5/300 50 Abe Markowitz Fr. 6-2/280 59 John Martinez Fr. 6-3/275 64 Garrett Nolan Sr. 6-4/280 61 Kris O'Dowd Jr. 6-5/300 56 Alex Parsons Sr. 6-4/300 62 Chris Pousson So. 6-4/240 70 Tyron Smith So. 6-6/270 85 Cooper Stephenson Jr. 6-3/215
Defensive line 94 Armond Armstead So. 6-5/290 16 James Boyd Fr. 6-5/230 91 Jurrell Casey So. 6-1/295 92 Hebron Fangupo Jr. 6-2/330 93 Everson Griffen Jr. 6-3/265 98 DaJohn Harris So. 6-4/285 96 Wes Horton Fr. 6-5/245 97 Malik Jackson So. 6-5/230 42 Devon Kennard Fr. 6-3/255 8 Nick Perry Fr. 6-3/240 90 Derek Simmons Jr. 6-4/285 99 Averell Spicer Sr. 6-2/295 44 Christian Tupou Jr. 6-2/280
Linebacker 43 Will Andrew Fr. 6-2/225 52 Luthur Brown Sr. 6-2/235 37 Jordan Campbell So. 5-11/230 46 Ross Cumming So. 6-1/220 59 Dan Deckas Jr. 5-10/210 54 Chris Galippo So. 6-2/255 57 Nick Garratt Sr. 6-1/235 81 Kevin Greene Fr. 6-3/235 10 Jarvis Jones Fr. 6-3/225 35 Uona Kaveinga So. 6-1/235 17 Mike Morgan Jr. 6-4/220 53 Marquis Simmons Fr. 6-0/215 6 Malcolm Smith Jr. 6-1/225
Defensive back 30 Brian Baucham Fr. 5-11/190 1 T.J. Bryant So. 6-0/180 45 Omari Crittenden Jr. 6-0/185 38 Robert Erickson Jr. 5-11/190 25 Patrick Hall Fr. 6-1/185 22 Daniel Harper So. 5-11/185 4 Torin Harris Fr. 6-1/175 26 Will Harris Sr. 6-1/200 28 Justin Hart Sr. 6-0/175 47 Michael Helfrich Fr. 6-0/190 23 Shane Horton So. 6-1/210 27 Marshall Jones Jr. 6-0/185 2 Taylor Mays Sr. 6-3/230 19 Drew McAllister So. 6-1/200 7 T. J. McDonald Fr. 6-2/205 49 Ryan McMahon So. 6-0/200 9 Byron Moore Fr. 6-1/205 36 Josh Pinkard Sr. 6-2/210 34 Spencer Spiegel So. 5-11/175 29 Jawanza Starling Fr. 6-1/190 15 Kevin Thomas Sr. 6-1/185 24 Shareece Wright Jr. 6-0/180
Kickers/Punters 38 Jordan Congdon Sr. 5-9/180 48 Jacob Harfman Jr. 5-10/190 30 Joe Houston Jr. 5-8/170 39 Billy O'Malley Jr. 6-1/195 27 Boomer Roepke So. 5-9/180
Game summaries
San Jose State
The #4 Trojans opened their season against the lightly regarded San Jose Spartans. Though the Spartans outscored USC 3–0 in the 1st quarter of play, the Trojans quickly recovered, scoring 56 consecutive points for a 53-point victory.
Ohio State
A crowd of 106,033, the largest in Ohio Stadium history, were in attendance as the #3 USC Trojans came to Columbus, Ohio to face the #8 Ohio State Buckeyes. Both teams showed great defense with the game close at the half tied 10–10. After a safety and a field goal, Ohio State led 15–10 with less than five minutes to go. However, Matt Barkley and the Trojans drove down the field to score a touchdown and a two-point conversion to end the game. The final score was USC 18, Ohio State 15, with the Buckeyes losing to the Trojans for the second straight year.
Freshman quarterback Matt Barkley injured his right shoulder.
1st Quarter 11:37 USC Johnson 2-yard run for Touchdown (Congdon kick) 7–0 USC 8:06 OSU Herron 2-yard run for Touchdown (Pettrey kick) 7–7
2nd Quarter 14:56 OSU Pettrey 18-yard field goal 10–7 OSU 0:00 USC Congdon 21-yard field goal 10–10
3rd Quarter 9:03 USC High snap out of the end zone for Safety 12–10 OSU 4:43 OSU Pettrey 22-yard field goal 15–10 OSU
4th Quarter 1:05 USC Johnson 2-yard run for Touchdown (Barkley pass to McKnight) 18–15 USC
Washington
Quarterback Aaron Corp took over for Matt Barkley.
The Huskies became the latest Pac-10 team to upset the Trojans, only two Pacific-10 Conference teams have failed to beat USC during the Pete Carroll era: Arizona and Arizona State. Other Pac-10 teams have defeated USC at least once during this period; Oregon State did it twice, 2006 and again in 2008, as did Stanford in 2001 and 2007 (and would do so again in 2009).
1st Quarter 12:28 USC McKnight 7-yard run for Touchdown (Congdon kick) 7–0 USC 4:36 USC Congdon 42 yd field goal 10–0 USC 0:11 UW Jake Locker 4yd run for Touchdown (Erik Folk kick) 10–7 USC
2nd Quarter 4:09 UW Folk 28 yd field goal 10–10 Tied
3rd Quarter None
4th Quarter 9:53 UW Folk 46 yd field goal 13-10 UW 4:07 USC Congdon 25 yd field goal 13–13 Tied 0:03 UW Folk 22 yd field goal 16–13 UW
Washington State
California
The Trojans dominated the Bears, scoring the most points since their season opener against San Jose State.
Notre Dame
The Trojans marched into South Bend ranked #6 in the nation after a 30-3 beating of #24 Cal. The Fighting Irish lived up to their name, staying with highly ranked USC through two quarters, only trailing by 6 points, 13–7. In the third quarter, the Trojans started to run away with the game, outscoring Notre Dame 14–7. Going into the fourth quarter, USC had a commanding lead, 27–14. USC scored another touchdown early in the fourth quarter to go ahead, 34–14. It looked like Notre Dame would get beat badly by their rivals once again. But, it wasn't to be for the Fighting Irish. Instead of losing by double digits to the Trojans again, they rallied and found themselves down 34–27 with 1 second left at the USC 1-yard-line. Jimmy Clauson fired an incomplete pass and USC extended their winning streak over Notre Dame to 8. The freshman Matt Barkley attempted 29 passes, completing 19, on his way to 380 yards and 2 touchdowns. Clauson went 24–43 with a mere 260 yards and 2 touchdowns. Anthony McCoy led the Trojans (5-1) in receiving yards with 5 catches for 153 yards. Notre Dame's (4-2) leading receiver was Golden Tate with 8 catches for 117 yards.
Oregon State
Last year the #1 Trojans went to Corvallis and were upset 27–21. It was the second straight trip to Corvallis for USC that resulted in defeat. Jacquizz Rodgers ran for 187 yards on 37 carries and two touchdowns in the win last year. Oregon State was the second Pac-10 Conference school to have beaten USC twice during the Pete Carroll era in 2006 and 2008 (Stanford was first with victories in 2001 and 2007 (and would do so again in 2009).
The last time Oregon State won against USC in the Coliseum was when Dwight D. Eisenhower was the President of the United States.
USC scored first when quarterback Matt Barkley passed to Anthony McCoy for an 8-yard touchdown. The Beavers got on the scoreboard with two field goal kicks from Justin Kahut (both 48 yards). In the second quarter, Matt Barkley completed a pass to Ronald Johnson for a 22 yards touchdown. On second and goal, Barkley rushed for a 1-yard touchdown for the Trojans. Kahut kicked a 33-yard field goal for Oregon State just before the half.
In the third quarter, Sean Canfield passed to Jacquizz Rodgers for a 6-yard touchdown for the Beavers on a 3:06-drive that took 8 plays for 61 yards. The Trojans countered with a 7-play drive for 70 yards with Allen Bradford rushing for 2 yards for a touchdown. Canfield narrowed Oregon State's gap by completing a 15-yard scoring pass to Damola Adeniji. USC answered with Allen Bradford scoring a 43-yard touchdown.
Oregon State became the first team to score more than 10 points on the Trojans in their last ten home games.
Oregon
Prior to the game, USC had lost three in a row in the state of Oregon, but had won four of the last five against the Ducks. The Trojans lost the game 47–20, which was the worst defeat suffered by USC since 1997.
1st Quarter
8:32 USC Jordan Congdon 28 field goal 3–0 USC 7:30 Oregon Morgan Flint 32-yard field goal 3–3 tied 1:37 Oregon Jeremiah Masoli 3-yard run for Touchdown (Morgan Flint kick) 10–3 Oregon
2nd Quarter
10:55 USC Matt Barkley 3-yard pass to Ronald Johnson for Touchdown (Jordan Congdon kick) 10–10 Tied 8:39 Oregon Andre Crenshaw 1-yard run for Touchdown (Morgan Flint kick) 17–10 Oregon 3:17 USC Matt Barkley 4-yard pass to Damian Williams for Touchdown (Jordan Congdon kick) 17–17 Tied 1:49 Oregon Jeremiah Masoli 17-yard pass to Jamere Holland for Touchdown ( Morgan Flint kick) 24–17 Oregon
3rd Quarter
11:58 Oregon Morgan Flint 35-yard field goal 27–17 Oregon 8:26 USC Jordan Congdon 39 field goal 27–20 Oregon 5:50 Oregon LaMichael James 5-yard run for Touchdown (Morgan Flint kick) 34–20 Oregon 0:00 Oregon Kenjon Barner 3-yard run for Touchdown (Morgan Flint kick) 41–20 Oregon
4th Quarter
8:00 Oregon Morgan Flint 22-yard field goal 44–20 Oregon 2:05 Oregon Morgan Flint 23-yard field goal 47–20 Oregon
Arizona State
Stanford
Stanford's 55–21 victory was the highest number of points any team had scored against a USC Trojans football team in the 121-year history of Trojan football. The 34-point loss was the worst defeat USC had suffered since 1966. This was Stanford's third victory against USC in their last five games against each other at the Coliseum (Stanford winning 2001, 2007, and 2009, with USC winning in 2003 and 2005), with USC having defeated every non-Stanford opponent in the Coliseum since 2001, going 47–2 since Stanford's September 29, 2001 victory in the Coliseum. It was the first defeat in a November game for the Trojans under Coach Pete Carroll's nine-season tenure. For the first time in since Carroll's first season, USC lost more than two games in one season. For the second time in three weekends, Carroll suffered the worst loss of his USC tenure (the other being the Oregon game). This was the largest margin of victory for Stanford in a Stanford-USC game since the two teams' rivalry began in 1918. Harbaugh became the only coach in college football with a winning record against Carroll, going 2–1 in the three times the two coaches have faced each other. Stanford would eclipse the all-time point spread record it set from the 2007 Stanford vs. Southern California football game, as USC was a 41-point favorite.
UCLA