USC is ready for one more stand on defense

Rey Maualuga has heard the talk, seen the highlights.

More important, USC's All-American linebacker spent the season smack dab in the middle of it all.

So when college football observers describe USC's defense as the best of the Pete Carroll era, and perhaps one of the top units in college football history, Maualuga just shrugs his broad shoulders.

"The best is yet to come," he said matter-of-factly.

Fifth-ranked USC (11-1) probably will have to be at its very best today when it plays sixth-ranked Penn State (11-1) in a Rose Bowl game that is expected to be a defensive battle.

Statistically, Penn State is a near mirror image of USC, which rode its defense to a seventh consecutive Bowl Championship Series berth.

And like USC, one stumble cost Big Ten Conference co-champion Penn State a chance to play for the BCS title.

USC Coach Pete Carroll and his players spent the run-up to the Rose Bowl emphasizing that the Nittany Lions were only one point away from playing next week in South Florida instead of today in Pasadena.

However, Penn State Coach Joe Paterno said the Pacific 10 Conference champion Trojans might be the nation's top team, despite its loss to an Oregon State squad that Penn State annihilated.

"I'm not trying to blow smoke," Paterno says. "I think Southern Cal is as good as any football team in the country.

"If you told me they were going to play Florida, Texas, Oklahoma tomorrow and you said, 'Which is the best?' I think Southern Cal might be the best team of them all."

There is little debate about USC's defense, at least from a statistical standpoint.

The Trojans rank first nationally in total defense, first against the pass and fifth against the run. USC recorded three shutouts and gave up only a field goal in three other games.

Maualuga, All-American safety Taylor Mays and linebacker Brian Cushing have been the defensive poster boys for a team that is a 9 1/2 -point favorite going into USC's fourth consecutive Rose Bowl appearance. After losing to Texas in the 2006 BCS title game, the Trojans passed, ran and blitzed Big Ten opponents Michigan and Illinois out of the Arroyo Seco the last two years.

"It's their stage; we're just visiting it," Penn State linebacker Navarro Bowman said. "We've been underdogs, and we feel like we've got a lot to prove."

But Bowman also noted, "People counting us out real early -- they'll be in for a rude awakening."