Arizona Wildcats	Southern Cal Trojans ©
Played November 13, 2004 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Los Angeles, California

  

 

Teams' Belt Records

 

Team	Belt Reigns	Overall Record				Home Record				Away Record				Neutral Record
		W	L	T	PCT	W	L	T	PCT	W	L	T	PCT	W	L	T	PCT
Arizona	5	13	12	0	.520	6	4	0	.600	6	8	0	.429	1	0	0	1.000
Southern Cal ©	9	54	10	3	.828	23	3	2	.857	24	6	1	.790	7	1	0	.875

 

Previous Belt Meetings

 

 

 

The 2-7 Arizona Wildcats with first-year coach Mike Stoops met the top-ranked, 9-0 Southern Cal Trojans of coach Pete Carroll.  The Wildcats had held The Belt 5 times with a 13-12 record in Belt games but they had not beaten Southern Cal in their 3 Belt match-ups & were 35-point underdogs in this game against the reigning champions.  Southern Cal's RB LenDale White scored 3 touchdowns for the Trojans on their way to a 49-9 victory.  The Wildcats could not stop the Southern Cal offense in the 2^nd half as Heisman Trophy winning, All-American QB Matt Leinart threw for 280 yards with 3 touchdowns.  Midway through the 1^st quarter, Arizona took the lead for the only time when PK Nick Folk kicked a 48-yard field goal.  The Trojans responded with a 12-play, 57-yard drive that Leinart finished with a 5-yard touchdown pass to RB David Kirtman for a 7-3 Southern Cal lead.  The Trojans pushed the lead to 14-3 with a 5-play, 71-yard drive highlighted by a trick play.  Southern Cal's RB Desmond Reed took a handoff before throwing a 55-yard completion to WR Dwayne Jarrett to the Wildcats' 3-yard line.  White carried the final 3 yards on the next snap for a 14-3 halftime advantage.  The Trojans opened the 3rd quarter with an 11-play, 66-yard scoring drive with White scoring from 2 yards for a 21-3 edge.  Arizona's touchdown was set-up by a fumble by Southern Cal's All-Pac 10 RB Reggie Bush giving the Wildcats the ball at the Trojans' 40-yard line.  It took just 2 plays, a 31-yard run by WR Syndric Steptoe & a 9-yard touchdown pass from QB Richard Kovalcheck to WR Steve Fleming but the missed 2-point conversion attempt left Arizona trailing 21-9.  White's 54-yard run highlighted the following drive before he scored on a 6-yard touchdown run for a 28-9 lead.  Leinart & Jarrett took over on the next Trojans' drive as the connected on a 44-yard pass on the first play & a 13-yard scoring pass on the second play to complete the drive for a 35-9 advantage.  The 4^th quarter was more of the same dominance from Southern Cal with Leinart throwing a 12-yard touchdown pass to Jarrett & RB Hershel Dennis finishing the scoring with a 1-yard touchdown run.  Trojans' All-Pac 10 LB Lofa Tatupu led the Southern Cal defense with 11 tackles including 1 ½ sacks as the Wildcats were held to 90 yards rushing & converted only 2 of 12 third down chances.  For the Trojans, White finished with 118 yards rushing with his 3 scores & WR Dwayne Jarrett had 6 catches for 144 yards with 2 touchdowns.  Kovalcheck threw for 165 yards with a touchdown but also had 2 passes intercepted & was sacked 3 times.  Southern Cal finished the season 11-0 which does not include 2 wins that were vacated by the NCAA as Bush was ruled ineligible for the final 2 games of the season; Pac 10 Champions & National Champions while the Wildcats finished 3-8.  Arizona would play for The Belt again in 2005.