Trojans' win a tale of woe, and ... whoa!

Don't ask USC about the current sad state of Washington football.

Forget that Washington quarterback Jake Locker, one of the most dynamic players in the Pacific 10 Conference, is on the shelf because of a broken thumb.

Or that the Huskies are now the only winless team in major college football.

Or that Coach Tyrone Willingham was fired this week, effective at the end of the season.

"I know they've been through a lot -- that's their problem, not ours," USC receiver Patrick Turner said after the Trojans routed the Huskies, 56-0, on Saturday at the Coliseum. "We just want to win."

For the third time in four games, the Trojans did that without giving up a point.

Like their 28-0 victory over Arizona State and 69-0 win at Washington State, the Trojans dominated defensively from start to finish.

And after struggling with offensive inconsistency throughout a victory last week at Arizona, the Trojans executed pretty much whatever they pleased to remain in the race for a possible berth in the Bowl Championship Series title game.

"I don't know that we could have done a whole lot better," said Coach Pete Carroll, whose team improved to 7-1 overall and 5-1 in conference play. "I thought we answered the challenge of this game in great fashion and did everything we needed to do."

USC, ranked No. 7 in the Associated Press poll, entered the game No. 5 in the BCS standings. That position could change, for better or worse, after BCS No. 7 Texas Tech defeated No. 1 Texas on Saturday night and No. 8 Florida crushed No. 6 Georgia earlier in the day.

Regardless, the Trojans have now won five consecutive games since losing at Oregon State on Sept. 25.

The loss at Corvallis, however, continues to haunt Carroll.

"We've missed two quarters of play in this whole season," he said. "It's unfortunate that it's still hanging there."

But players continue to reference their defeat to explain the run of success.

"We're a completely different team," said middle linebacker Rey Maualuga, who had one of the Trojans' three interceptions against Washington. "That loss against Oregon State couldn't have come at a better time as far as finding leadership and character. We're not looking back."

On Saturday, the Trojans looked across the line of scrimmage at Washington players still reeling from the announcement that Willingham would step down after the season finale against one-win Washington State.