1974 USC Trojans football team

American college football season

1974 USC Trojans football
Coaches' Poll national champion Pac-8 champion Rose Bowl champion
Rose Bowl, W 18–17 vs. Ohio State
Conference	Pacific-8 Conference
Ranking
Coaches	No. 1
AP	No. 2
Record	10–1–1 (6–0–1 Pac-8)
Head coach	John McKay (15th season)
Captains	Pat Haden Richard Wood
Home stadium	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
Seasons ← 1973 1975 →

1974 Pacific-8 Conference football standings
v t e	Conf					Overall
Team	W		L		T	W		L		T
No. 2 USC $	6	–	0	–	1	10	–	1	–	1
Stanford	5	–	1	–	1	5	–	4	–	2
California	4	–	2	–	1	7	–	3	–	1
UCLA	4	–	2	–	1	6	–	3	–	2
Washington	3	–	4	–	0	5	–	6	–	0
Oregon State	3	–	4	–	0	3	–	8	–	0
Washington State	1	–	6	–	0	2	–	9	–	0
Oregon	0	–	7	–	0	2	–	9	–	0

$ – Conference champion Rankings from AP Poll

The 1974 USC Trojans football team represented the University of Southern California (USC) in the Pacific-8 Conference during the 1974 NCAA Division I football season. In their 15th year under head coach John McKay, the Trojans compiled a 10–1–1 record (6–0–1 in Pac-8, first)), and outscored their opponents 363 to 142.^[1] The team was ranked #1 in the final UPI Coaches Poll and #2 in the final AP Poll due to Oklahoma being on probation from the Coaches’ Poll.

Quarterback Pat Haden led the team in passing, completing 70 of 149 passes for 988 yards with 13 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. Anthony Davis led the team in rushing with 301 carries for 1,421 yards and 13 touchdowns. J.K. McKay led the team in receiving with 34 catches for 550 yards and eight touchdowns.^[2] Vince Evans backed up Haden. Allen Carter backed up Davis. The fullbacks were Ricky Bell, Dave Farmer and Mosi Tatupu. The starting flanker, Shelton Diggs, caught the two point conversion that lifted USC over Ohio State in the January 1975 Rose Bowl.

Schedule

Date	Opponent	Rank	Site	Result	Attendance
September 14	vs. No. 20 Arkansas*	No. 5	War Memorial Stadium Little Rock, AR	L 7–22	54,622
September 28	at No. 8 Pittsburgh*	No. 18	Pitt Stadium Pittsburgh, PA	W 16–7	52,934
October 5	Iowa*	No. 9	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Los Angeles, CA	W 41–3	52,095
October 12	vs. Washington State	No. 7	Joe Albi Stadium Spokane, WA	W 54–7	32,000
October 19	at Oregon	No. 6	Autzen Stadium Eugene, OR	W 16–7	32,500
October 26	Oregon State	No. 6	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Los Angeles, CA	W 35–10	52,392
November 2	California	No. 6	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Los Angeles, CA	T 15–15	53,921
November 9	at Stanford	No. 11	Stanford Stadium Stanford, CA (rivalry)	W 35–10	83,500
November 16	Washington	No. 8	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Los Angeles, CA	W 42–11	51,157
November 23	at UCLA	No. 8	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Los Angeles, CA (Victory Bell)	W 34–9	82,467
November 30	No. 5 Notre Dame*	No. 6	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Los Angeles, CA (rivalry)	W 55–24	83,552
January 1, 1975	vs. No. 3 Ohio State*	No. 5	Rose Bowl Pasadena, CA (Rose Bowl)	W 18–17	106,721
*Non-conference game Homecoming Rankings from AP Poll released prior to the game

Roster

1974 USC Trojans football team roster

Players

Coaches

Offense

Pos.	#	Name	Class
RB	`42`	Ricky Bell	So
RB	`28`	Anthony Davis	Sr
WR	`26`	Shelton Diggs	So
QB	`8`	Vince Evans	So
QB	`10`	Pat Haden	Sr
G	`61`	Donnie Hickman	So
G	`65`	Melvin Jackson	Jr
WR	`25`	J.K. McKay	Sr
OT	`76`	Marvin Powell	So

Defense

Pos.	#	Name	Class
DB	`44`	Mike Burns	So
DT	`79`	Gary Jeter	So
LB	`57`	David Lewis	So
LB	`52`	Rod Martin	So
CB	`46`	Danny Reece	Jr
LB	`55`	Eric Williams	So

Special teams

Pos.	#	Name	Class
K/P	`39`	Glen Walker	So

Head coach

John McKay (15th year)

Coordinators/assistant coaches

Legend

(C) Team captain
(S) Suspended
(I) Ineligible

Injured
Redshirt

^[3]

Game summaries

Washington

	1	2	3	4	Total
Washington	0	3	0	8	11
• USC	7	14	14	7	42

Date: November 16
Location: Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum • Los Angeles, CA
Game attendance: 51,157

Scoring summary

1	USC	Diggs 36-yard pass from Haden (Limahelu kick)	USC 7-0

2	USC	Davis 7-yard pass from Haden (Limahelu kick)	USC 14-0

2	USC	Davis 1-yard run (Limahelu kick)	USC 21-0

2	WASH	Robbins 46-yard field goal	USC 21-3

3	USC	Carter 1-yard run (Limahelu kick)	USC 28-3

3	USC	Evans 3-yard run (Limahelu kick)	USC 35-3

4	USC	Ford 36-yard run (Limahelu kick)	USC 42-3

4	WASH	McBride 4-yard run (Conley pass from McBride)	USC 42-11

^[4]

References

^ "Southern California Yearly Results (1970-1974)". College Football Data Warehouse. David DeLassus. Archived from the original on July 22, 2015. Retrieved July 20, 2015.
^ "1974 Southern California Trojans Stats". SR/College Football. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved July 21, 2015.
^ "Trojans vs. Cougars: probable starters". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). October 12, 1974. p. 14.
^ Eugene Register-Guard. November 17, 1974

External links

Game program: USC vs. Washington State at Spokane – October 12, 1974

v t e 1974 USC Trojans football—UPI national champions
Bill Bain Ricky Bell Mike Burns Allen Carter Marvin Cobb Anthony Davis Shelton Diggs Vince Evans Pat Haden Melvin Jackson Gary Jeter Dave Lewis Chris Limahelu Clay Matthews Bob McCaffrey J. K. McKay Charlie Phillips Marvin Powell Danny Reece Mosi Tatupu Dennis Thurman Richard Wood Head coach: John McKay Assistant coaches: Foster Andersen Willie Brown Wayne Fontes Raymond George John Robinson Bruce Snyder

1974 USC Trojans football—UPI national champions

Bill Bain
Ricky Bell
Mike Burns
Allen Carter
Marvin Cobb
Anthony Davis
Shelton Diggs
Vince Evans
Pat Haden
Melvin Jackson
Gary Jeter
Dave Lewis
Chris Limahelu
Clay Matthews
Bob McCaffrey
J. K. McKay
Charlie Phillips
Marvin Powell
Danny Reece
Mosi Tatupu
Dennis Thurman
Richard Wood

Head coach: John McKay

Assistant coaches: Foster Andersen
Willie Brown
Wayne Fontes
Raymond George
John Robinson
Bruce Snyder

v t e USC Trojans football
Venues	Athletic Park (1895–1898) Fiesta Park (1897–1898, 1901–1902, 1904–1906, 1916) Chutes Park (1900) Prager Park (1903) Bovard Field (1904–1910, 1914–1915, 1917–1923) Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum (1923–present) Jones Field/Kennedy Field (practice)
Bowls & rivalries	Bowl games Notre Dame Stanford UCLA: Victory Bell
Culture & lore	Traveler George Tirebiter Giles Pellerin "Fight On" Spirit of Troy Student Body Right Tommy Trojan Tribute to Troy Athletics scandal 1967 "Game of the Century" "Bush Push" 2007 Stanford game So This Is College
People	Head coaches Starting quarterbacks NFL draftees Statistical leaders
Seasons	1888 1889 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911–1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
National championship seasons in bold

v t e College football national champions (poll era)
1936–1949	1936: Minnesota (AP) 1937: Pittsburgh 1938: TCU 1939: Texas A&M 1940: Minnesota 1941: Minnesota 1942: Ohio State 1943: Notre Dame 1944: Army 1945: Army (AP) / Oklahoma A&M (Coaches) 1946: Notre Dame 1947: Notre Dame 1948: Michigan 1949: Notre Dame
1950s	1950: Oklahoma (AP, Coaches) 1951: Tennessee 1952: Michigan State 1953: Maryland 1954: Ohio State (AP) / UCLA (FWAA, Coaches) 1955: Oklahoma 1956: Oklahoma 1957: Auburn (AP) / Ohio State (Coaches, FWAA) 1958: LSU (AP, Coaches) / Iowa (FWAA) 1959: Syracuse (AP, Coaches, FWAA, NFF)
1960s	1960: Minnesota (AP, Coaches, NFF) / Ole Miss (FWAA) 1961: Alabama (AP, Coaches, NFF) / Ohio State (FWAA) 1962: USC 1963: Texas 1964: Alabama (AP, Coaches) / Arkansas (FWAA) / Notre Dame (NFF) 1965: Alabama (AP, FWAA) / Michigan State (Coaches, FWAA, NFF) 1966: Notre Dame (AP, Coaches, FWAA, NFF) / Michigan State (NFF) 1967: USC 1968: Ohio State 1969: Texas
1970s	1970: Nebraska (AP, FWAA) / Texas (NFF, Coaches) / Ohio State (NFF) 1971: Nebraska 1972: USC 1973: Notre Dame (AP, FWAA, NFF) / Alabama (Coaches) 1974: Oklahoma (AP) / USC (FWAA, NFF, Coaches) 1975: Oklahoma 1976: Pittsburgh 1977: Notre Dame 1978: Alabama (AP, FWAA, NFF) / USC (Coaches) 1979: Alabama
1980–1991	1980: Georgia 1981: Clemson 1982: Penn State 1983: Miami (FL) 1984: BYU 1985: Oklahoma 1986: Penn State 1987: Miami (FL) 1988: Notre Dame 1989: Miami (FL) 1990: Colorado (AP, FWAA, NFF, USAT/CNN) / Georgia Tech (Coaches) 1991: Miami (FL) (AP) / Washington (Coaches, FWAA, UPI/NFF)

v t e Pac-12 Conference football champions
Pacific Coast	Washington (1916) Washington State (1917) California (1918) Oregon & Washington (1919) California (1920) California (1921) California (1922) California (1923) Stanford (1924) Washington (1925) Stanford (1926) Idaho, Stanford, & USC (1927) USC (1928) USC (1929) Washington State (1930) USC (1931) USC (1932) Oregon & Stanford (1933) Stanford (1934) California, Stanford, & UCLA (1935) Washington (1936) California (1937) California & USC (1938) USC (1939) Stanford (1940) Oregon State (1941) UCLA (1942) USC (1943) USC (1944) USC (1945) UCLA (1946) USC (1947) California & Oregon (1948) California (1949) California (1950) Stanford (1951) USC (1952) UCLA (1953) UCLA (1954) UCLA (1955) Oregon State (1956) Oregon & Oregon State (1957) California (1958)
AAWU	UCLA, USC, & Washington (1959) Washington (1960) UCLA (1961) USC (1962) Washington (1963) Oregon State & USC (1964) UCLA (1965) USC (1966) USC (1967)
Pacific-8	USC (1968) USC (1969) Stanford (1970) Stanford (1971) USC (1972) USC (1973) USC (1974) California & UCLA (1975) USC (1976) Washington (1977)
Pacific-10	USC (1978) USC (1979) Washington (1980) Washington (1981) UCLA (1982) UCLA (1983) USC (1984) UCLA (1985) Arizona State (1986) USC & UCLA (1987) USC (1988) USC (1989) Washington (1990) Washington (1991) Washington & Stanford (1992) Arizona, UCLA, & USC (1993) Oregon (1994) USC & Washington (1995) Arizona State (1996) UCLA & Washington State (1997) UCLA (1998) Stanford (1999) Oregon, Oregon State, & Washington (2000) Oregon (2001) USC & Washington State (2002) USC (2003) USC (2004) vacated USC (2005) vacated California & USC (2006) Arizona State & USC (2007) USC (2008) Oregon (2009) Oregon (2010)
Pac-12	Oregon (2011) Stanford (2012) Stanford (2013) Oregon (2014) Stanford (2015) Washington (2016) USC (2017) Washington (2018) Oregon (2019) Oregon (2020) Utah (2021) Utah (2022) Washington (2023)
National championships in bold