After interviewing more than 50 USC athletes, a review committee announced Wednesday that it found no evidence of regular or systematic cheating in the school's drug-testing program.

Mike Garrett, an associate athletic director who is one of eight committee members, said he interviewed 22 football players who refuted a Times article that reported problems with USC's drug-testing program.

The remaining athletes were interviewed by other members of the review committee.

"I interviewed people that if I mentioned their names everyone would know who they are," Garrett said. "Many of them said, 'Hey look, I didn't know there was a problem until I read it in the paper.' "

A task force was appointed by Mike McGee, USC athletic director, two days after Trojan quarterback Todd Marinovich was arrested on Jan. 20 for possession of cocaine.

In the aftermath of Marinovich's arrest, The Times reported that football players had been cheating on drug tests since USC started its program in 1985. The article reported that 15 present and former players, most speaking on condition that their names would not be used, said they had cheated or had known players who had cheated. They said the players cheated by trying to cleanse their systems with diuretics or by hiding clean urine given to them by friends in their underclothes during testing.

McGee said in the article that athletic officials suspected one player of cheating, but was unable to prove his guilt.

"They (the players) said none of those things happened," Garrett said of his interviews, which included four players no longer on the team. "They said there was little or no cheating at all. Again, it was rumor. 'I heard this guy did this.' I said, 'Did you in fact see this?' They said, 'No, I didn't.' There was never any witness to anything expect what they heard."

Garrett said the players felt they were so closely monitored that it would have been difficult to cheat if they had tried.

Garrett said he asked each athlete three questions:

--Had they been tested throughout the year.

--Had they cheated on the test, and did they hear of cheating.

--Did they know of anybody who cheated before.

Garrett defined systematic cheating as that which would permeate the system. He defined regular cheating as that which would occur at a "frequency where someone felt they could beat the system at any interval they wanted."