1983 USC Trojans football team

American college football season

1983 USC Trojans football
Conference	Pacific-10 Conference
Record	4–6–1 (4–3 Pac-10)
Head coach	Ted Tollner (1st season)
Captain	Tony Brewer Jeff Brown Keith Browner Fred Cornwell Tony Slaton
Home stadium	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
Seasons ← 1982 1984 →

1983 Pacific-10 Conference football standings
v t e	Conf					Overall
Team	W		L		T	W		L		T
No. 17 UCLA $	6	–	1	–	1	7	–	4	–	1
Washington	5	–	2	–	0	8	–	4	–	0
Washington State	5	–	3	–	0	7	–	4	–	0
USC	4	–	3	–	0	4	–	6	–	1
Arizona	4	–	3	–	1	7	–	3	–	1
Arizona State	3	–	3	–	1	6	–	4	–	1
Oregon	3	–	3	–	1	4	–	6	–	1
California	3	–	4	–	1	5	–	5	–	1
Oregon State	1	–	6	–	1	2	–	8	–	1
Stanford	1	–	7	–	0	1	–	10	–	0

$ – Conference champion Rankings from AP Poll

The 1983 USC Trojans football team represented the University of Southern California (USC) in the 1983 NCAA Division I-A football season. In their first year under head coach Ted Tollner, the Trojans compiled a 4–6–1 record (5–2 against conference opponents), finished in fourth place in the Pacific-10 Conference (Pac-10), and were outscored by their opponents by a combined total of 238 to 210.^[1]

Quarterback Sean Salisbury led the team in passing, completing 142 of 248 passes for 1,882 yards with ten touchdowns and nine interceptions. Michael Harper led the team in rushing with 151 carries for 685 yards and six touchdowns. Timmie Ware led the team in receiving yards with 23 catches for 481 yards and five touchdowns.^[2]

Schedule

Date	Time	Opponent	Rank	Site	Result	Attendance	Source
September 10	1:30 pm	No. 18 Florida*	No. 9	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Los Angeles, CA	T 19–19	53,948	^[3]
September 17	6:00 pm	at Oregon State	No. 14	Parker Stadium Corvallis, OR	W 33–10	28,000
September 24	1:30 pm	Kansas*	No. 10	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Los Angeles, CA	L 20–26	49,255
October 1	4:00 pm	at South Carolina*		Williams–Brice Stadium Columbia, SC	L 14–38	74,200	^[4]
October 8	1:30 pm	Washington State		Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Los Angeles. CA	W 38–17	43,106
October 15	1:30 pm	No. 18 Arizona State		Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Los Angeles, CA	L 14–34	58,664
October 22	11:30 am	at Notre Dame*		Notre Dame Stadium Notre Dame, IN (rivalry)	L 6–27	59,075
October 29	1:00 pm	at California		California Memorial Stadium Berkeley, CA	W 19–9	65,867
November 5	1:30 pm	Stanford		Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Los Angeles, CA (rivalry)	W 30–7	50,867
November 12	1:00 pm	at No. 18 Washington		Husky Stadium Seattle, WA	L 0–24	60,690
November 19	1:30 pm	UCLA		Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Los Angeles. CA (Victory Bell)	L 17–27	83,763
*Non-conference game Homecoming Rankings from AP Poll released prior to the game All times are in Pacific time

Game summaries

Florida

Oregon State

Kansas

South Carolina

Washington State

Arizona State

Notre Dame

California

	1	2	3	4	Total
• USC	0	6	10	3	19
California	0	0	3	6	9

Date: October 29
Location: California Memorial Stadium
Game attendance: 65,867

Scoring summary

Q2	USC	Jordan 28 yard field goal	USC 3–0

Q2	USC	Jordan 45 yard field goal	USC 6–0

Q3	USC	Harper 2 yard run (Jordan kick)	USC 13–0

Q3	USC	Jordan 33 yard field goal	USC 16–0

Q3	CAL	Pratt 37 yard field goal	USC 16–3

Q4	CAL	Pratt 44 yard field goal	USC 16–6

Q4	CAL	Pratt 48 yard field goal	USC 16–9

Q4	USC	Jordan 27 yard field goal	USC 19–9

USC sacked Pac-10 total offense leader Gale Gilbert eight times. ^[5]

Stanford

Washington

UCLA

References

^ "Southern California Yearly Results (1980-1984)". College Football Data Warehouse. David DeLassus. Archived from the original on July 22, 2015. Retrieved July 20, 2015.
^ "1983 Southern California Trojans Stats". SR/College Football. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved July 21, 2015.
^ "USC rallies to tie Florida, then flubs extra-point try". The Fresno Bee. September 11, 1983. Retrieved November 4, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
^ "Trojans outclassed in the battle of USCs". The Los Angeles Times. October 2, 1983. Retrieved January 29, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
^ Eugene Register-Guard. 1983 Oct 30. Retrieved 2016-Nov-24.

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