By Robyn Norwood, Times Staff Writers

Somebody needed to interrupt Mike Williams on Saturday and tell him there is one thing there is absolutely not a shred of doubt about.

He has UCLA's respect now.

"That dude is Terrell Owens," Bruin defensive end Mat Ball said.

Williams destroyed UCLA in half-a-day's work, hauling in 11 passes for 181 yards and two touchdowns without even playing in the second half because of a sore ankle.

"Williams just diced us up," Ball said.

He kept it up after the game in spite of himself, trying to corral his mouth only to see it break free again, still upset at slights — real or imagined — by the Bruins.

There was talk of T-shirts that disrespected USC, Bruins stomping on the Trojan 50-yard line and UCLA cornerback Matt Ware saying this week that he hated USC.

"I have great class. I try to be soft-spoken about the opponent, but the disrespect went to extremes," Williams said.

And then he went on a diatribe worthy of the fan on the sideline wearing a replica of Williams' No. 1 jersey — former Trojan Keyshawn Johnson.

"I really don't like 'em. I don't like 'em at all," Williams said.

"I honestly feel everybody at UCLA wishes they were here — aside from their medical school, because their medical school has a prestigious reputation.

"Everybody who came here in baby blue [paraphernalia], they wish they were in our student section…. Most of them probably didn't come because they knew they were probably going to lose."

Every time he tried to shut up, he started again.

"Every chance we get, long after us guys are gone, we'll still be smacking them around," Williams said. "That's just my personal opinion."

He smacked them around early and often.

Williams beat the Bruins for a touchdown less than three minutes into the game on third and eight from the 21-yard line, plucking the pass from above the head of 5-foot-9 cornerback Matt Clark, then drew an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for saluting over Clark.

"That was me and [receiver Keary Colbert's] little thing," Williams said. "We talked about what Kellen Winslow said about soldiers. We were just trying to celebrate, but it turned bad. We got a flag."

Miami's Winslow had to apologize publicly for saying he was an "[expletive] soldier," and comparing a game to war, but Williams only took a penalty.

No problem. Before the first quarter was over, he had caught eight passes for 139 yards and by the time he took a seat at halftime, UCLA trailed by 31 points in a 47-22 USC victory.

Williams caught passes over Clark, the short cornerback the Bruins left matched against him more often. He beat Ware, one of the Bruin stars. Who was going to stop him?

"I mean, Mike is a phenomenal player. My job is to get the ball to him when he's open," USC quarterback Matt Leinart said.

He seemingly always was, and at 6-5, 230, it didn't matter whether he wasn't.

Why didn't UCLA adjust and at least put the 6-3 Ware on Williams? There were few answers except that's how they play, sticking largely to their cover-two defense and not flip-flopping their corners to get matchups.

"It's like plain ridiculous, because they know Mike Williams is going to go get the ball," USC safety Darnell Bing said. "Why not put your best man on him?"

Maybe they could slow him down, maybe not.

If they did, fine, Williams said.

"If we beat 'em, I'd take five yards, I really don't care," he said.

"Not only is it a rivalry, but they add more fuel to the fire. You just want to bury them."

UCLA has lost five in a row to USC, and Bruin seniors find it hard to believe that they never beat the Trojans

By Mike DiGiovanna, Times Staff Writer

As if UCLA's 47-22 loss to USC wasn't humiliating enough, the Bruins

were serenaded by Trojan fans as they walked off the Coliseum field Saturday with chants of "Five more years! Five more years!"

Several Bruins said they tuned the fans out as they headed up the tunnel to their locker room, but senior defensive end Dave Ball couldn't help but notice.

Ball came to UCLA in 1999 with visions of victories over USC — the Bruins had won the previous eight meetings, after all — and of contending for Pacific 10 Conference championships and possibly national titles. He will leave with none of the above.

USC extended its win streak over UCLA to five games with Saturday's blowout, the last three Trojan victories coming by a combined score of 126-43, and the Bruin fifth-year seniors who entered school in 1999 will leave having never beaten USC.

"It's extreme bitterness and frustration," said Ball, who extended his UCLA single-season (16 1/2) and career (30 1/2) sack records with a sack Saturday. "Honestly, I feel like I'm a curse to this team. Someone cursed the class of 1999, or something. Each year, something has happened, and we lose. It's like there's a big voodoo doll or something."

Actually, Saturday's loss had a lot more to do with a big USC receiver. Mike Williams, the Trojans' 6-foot-5, 230-pound sophomore, chewed up the UCLA secondary with 11 receptions for 181 yards and two touchdowns.

The defense was supposed to be the Bruins' strength, but UCLA failed to put any pressure on Trojan quarterback Matt Leinart, who had plenty of time to dismantle UCLA by completing 23 of 32 passes for 289 yards and two touchdowns in about three quarters of work.

"It's definitely going to bug me — it's going to eat me alive," Bruin linebacker Brandon Chillar said of UCLA's futility against USC. "One of the biggest parts of coming to UCLA is you want to beat USC. I was told that on my recruiting trip here. It's disappointing. This is not what I envisioned doing when I came here."

Saturday's game was essentially over by the first play of the second quarter, when Leinart's four-yard touchdown pass to Williams gave USC a 21-0 lead. The Trojans needed 25 plays to consume 225 yards in a mere 10 minutes 1 second to complete their first three scoring drives.

USC had a 33-2 lead by halftime, at which point it had outgained UCLA, 346-36. The Bruins, whose once-promising regular season ended with four straight losses, had more yards in penalties (50) than offense.

USC was so dominant that Williams' services were not even needed in the second half. It was 40-2 midway through the third period when USC Coach Pete Carroll pulled Leinart for backup John David Booty.

There was no doubt the second-ranked Trojans were far superior to the Bruins this year, but UCLA must deal with a troubling question as it heads into an off-season that probably will follow an appearance in a lower- echelon bowl game: Is the disparity between Southern California's two major college football programs as wide as it seemed Saturday?

"That's a good question," Ball said, his voice beginning to crack with emotion. "That's the way it seems, but I'm telling you, Coach [Karl] Dorrell is going to show you guys something. They're going to turn it around. He's going to will this team to do it.

"They're going to get the players, and the old way of doing things is out. This is the last year of mediocrity, I'm telling you that right now. Knowing I'm not going to be able to join in that is tough, but it's going to happen."

Asked if he was concerned about what seems like a Grand Canyon-sized gap between the programs, Dorrell, the first-year coach, said, "I can't answer that right now….

"We put a lot of effort into what we did, we kept fighting, but we could not keep up, that's the bottom line," he added. "I have no answers as to why we're where we are and they're where they are. We have to use this as a measuring stick for our program, and right now, we have a lot of work to do."

Bill Plaschke

Westwood Ho!

That was the headline that ran atop the sports page in this newspaper in October 2001.

That's what got this whole sugary business started.

That day, some savant wrote that UCLA had finally claimed neighborhood football rights from USC.

"When it comes to college football," the genius penned, "Los Angeles clearly belongs to the Bruins."

In the wake of Saturday's public defacing of those Bruins at the Coliseum — a 47-22 USC victory that could have been 147-22 — the brilliant one must now confess.

That story was a ploy. A veiled attempt to breathe fire into one of this town's great traditions. A covert effort to awaken a sleeping Trojan.

You're welcome, USC, and feel free to buy me dinner in New Orleans.

"This is a Bruin football town, and has been a Bruin football town, and will continue to be a Bruin football town as long as the Bruins continue running the consistent, directed program so lacking across town," wrote the Mensa man.

Since those words, the Trojans have gone 25-4 while the Bruins have gone 15-15.

Since those words, the Trojans have won three consecutive games against the Bruins, outscoring them, 126-43.

Yet since those words, I have been a haunted man, mocked with cries of "Westwood Ho!" in grocery store lines, hotel lobbies and while standing in restrooms.

At least once a week, I see it on the top of a gloating e-mail. I was all of five steps removed from the press box Saturday when I heard it shouted from the stands.

Maybe now everyone will understand?

USC needed a spark, I sacrificed my sterling reputation for objectivity to light one, and Pete Carroll took it from there.

I mean, something happened, right?

One minute, in losing eight consecutive games to them, the Trojans gave the Bruins the aura of Vince Lombardi.

The next minute, the Trojans are turning them into Pop Warner.

Saying Saturday's game wasn't close is like saying Pete Carroll's hair needs a comb.

Said Bruin Matt Clark: "They were all over us."

Said Trojan Kenechi Udeze: "If that's the way it looked, well, we're glad."

The day began, as expected, with Ohio State being publicly tried and convicted of fraud in the Big House of Ann Arbor, Mich.

I, too, proved to be a bit of a loser in my opinion that the Trojans could beat the overblown Buckeyes by two touchdowns.

Make that three touchdowns.

Anyway, USC took the field early Saturday afternoon with, finally, the Jan. 4 national championship game in clear sight.

That made UCLA the gutty little blue bugs on their windshield.

After six possessions, USC had six scores.

After six possessions, UCLA had 26 yards.

Matt Leinart and Mike Williams were like two laughing kids playing catch in the backyard.

Drew Olson and Maurice Drew were like two horrified kids being chased by dogs in the street.

This wasn't a cross-town rivalry, it was a cross-town bus, careening out of control, leaving a trail of broken glass and debris.

Fair fight? This wasn't a fight, period.

By the end of the game, the UCLA section was mostly empty while Karl Dorrell's throat was mostly full.

"Ohhhh," he said, opening his news conference.

Then he stated the obvious, even if he had to invent a word to do it.

"Their team was well-personnelled," he said. "To a large extent, we could not keep up."

And there it is, as plain as the frown on Dorrell's face.

The Trojans simply have better players. Those players are responding to better coaching. And that all points to one man.

"The difference between then and now is obvious: It's Pete Carroll," defensive tackle Shaun Cody said. "The way he inspires you, the way he comes to work each day, you would die for him."

At the time of the "Westwood, Ho!" story, Carroll was struggling in his first year here. He has since turned it around so fast, he even raised the eyebrows of the man who deserves the credit for taking the chance and hiring him.

"This is what we've been trying to do for 10 years, and it's wonderful," said Mike Garrett, the Trojan athletic director. "But I'm really surprised he did it so quickly."

He's doing it constantly, judging by the local high school talent that regularly fills the Trojans' postgame locker room.

"I embrace recruiting as much as anything I do, and we'll keep fighting those battles," Carroll said. "Now, guys who are coming here know who they are coming with."

Indeed, they are coming with a Trojan team that, when it comes to college football, owns this …

No, no, no. That sort of magical story works only once.

Which reminds me of the time, while boarding an airplane at 5 a.m. in Miami, I was tapped on the shoulder by a stranger.

Security check? Boarding agent? Beggar?

No, Trojan fan.

"Westwood Ho!" he muttered.

It's now Sugar Bowl, Ho! And you're very welcome.

Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com.

Keys to the Game

USC

Gary Klein's keys to the game, and how the Trojans measured up:

Protect Leinart: Leinart completed 23 of 32 passes for 289 yards and two touchdowns and was not sacked. Freshman John David Booty, however, suffered a broken left wrist when he was sacked by Dave Ball.

Establish the run: Sophomore Hershel Dennis rushed for 62 of his team-best 69 yards in the first half. The Trojans finished with 123 yards, the first time in seven games they were held to fewer than 195 yards.

Stay focused: Even though most players said they knew that Michigan had defeated Ohio State at some point during the game, the Trojans accomplished their goal against the overmatched Bruins.

UCLA

Mike DiGiovanna's keys to the game, and how the Bruins measured up:

Rattle Leinart early: The Bruins didn't rattle Leinart early … or late. No UCLA defender got close enough to harass Leinart.

Stay close: Again, the Bruins failed miserably. USC scored touchdowns on its first two possessions and added another touchdown on the first play of the second quarter.

Avoid special teams meltdowns: USC's Reggie Bush returned a kickoff 96 yards for a touchdown to end the third quarter, and Chris Kluwe shanked a 10- yard punt in the second. Tyler Ebell had a 58-yard kickoff return called back because of a penalty, and Craig Bragg had a 60-yard punt return nullified by a penalty.