If USC holds any lingering feelings, if it plans on barging through the gates of Stanford Stadium on Saturday to shred the Cardinal for ruining its quest for last year's national championship, the Trojans aren't showing it — at least not publicly.

"That was last year," USC defensive end Kyle Moore said, echoing the theme his teammates have been preaching this week.

Stanford safety Bo McNally isn't buying it.

"They might not say they're thinking about last year, but I'm sure they are," he said.

Thirteen months ago, Stanford showed up at the Los Angeles Coliseum for a game many thought would be more decisive than the point spread (40 points). The Trojans had won 35 consecutive games at home and new Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh dug under their skin that off-season, saying he heard 2007 would be Coach Pete Carroll's last season at USC and that the Trojans might be the greatest college football team in history.

But when Mark Bradford leapt toward the heavens with 49 seconds left to catch a 10-yard, fourth-down touchdown pass from Tavita Pritchard and McNally hauled in John David Booty's fourth interception moments later, the Cardinal had stunned the giant 24-23.

"I played a quarterback with a broken bone in his throwing hand; that's what went wrong," Carroll said this week. "John David really struggled in the second half of that game. We weren't playing great up till then, but he threw some picks in that game that he'd never

done before. I should have taken him out. I just made a mistake in judgment that he could perform at a good level, good enough for us to win. That was the big mistake on our part."

McNally, the captain of this year's Stanford defense, said he didn't know Booty was injured until after the game.

"If his hand was hurting that much, maybe he shouldn't have played," McNally said. "That's just kind of football. Everybody has those broken bones, those bumps and bruises. If you can't play through it, then you shouldn't play."

Asked if it bothers him that USC seems to use Booty's injury as the reason for losing, McNally said, "It's fine. They can do whatever they want to help themselves feel better about the loss. The bottom line is, on any given day, anybody could beat anybody."

Even if Booty's injury affected his accuracy, it must be noted that Stanford hardly had a seasoned All-American behind center. Pritchard was making his first start since high school, filling in for senior T.C. Ostrander, who suffered a seizure six days before the game.

But Pritchard overcame an erratic 2 › quarters to become part of one of the biggest upsets in college football history. Ninety-eight of his 149 passing yards came in the final 16 minutes, including a 37-yarder to Bradford to set up the Cardinal's first offensive touchdown, a 20-yarder to Richard Sherman on fourth-and-20 and then the 10-yarder to Bradford four plays later for the winning score.

Pritchard addressed his teammates this week, telling them that preparation was paramount to last year's upset.

"The SC game week was probably the best week of practice we had," Pritchard said. "We didn't win that game down in the Coliseum. We won it up here under the lights on our practice field. That's really where we won that game, preparing for this team. It was an incredible week of practice, and that's what we have to replicate."

Center Alex Fletcher credited Harbaugh for the victory.

"It starts with Coach Harbaugh," Fletcher said. "Coach Harbaugh believed the whole entire time that we could beat USC. Coach Harbaugh gave us a game plan to beat USC. We didn't execute as well as we could at times. But what we did against USC last year was we gave ourselves a chance."

The only difference this time, Stanford figures to face an angrier bunch from USC — whether the Trojans, a 23-point favorite, care to admit it or not.

"The thing our team understands is that USC is a tremendous football team," Harbaugh said. "They understand that it's a great challenge. But it doesn't change the expectations for our ballclub — the expectations we have to prepare for the game and to ultimately go out and win the game. You play USC, you're at the center stage of college football."

And if you beat USC — as Stanford discovered last season — you find yourself at the center of the sports universe.