Arizona State is unsure if quarterback Rudy Carpenter is healthy enough to play today against USC. The Sun Devil sprained his left ankle last week against Cal, and his 36-game starting streak is in jeopardy.

MCT 2008

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LOS ANGELES — The USC-Arizona State matchup was supposed to be the Pac-10's game of the year. The way things have turned out, it's barely the conference's game of the week.

No. 8 Southern California and the struggling Sun Devils, the Pac-10's co-champs last season, and favorites heading into this one, meet today at the Los Angeles Coliseum. The loser will find itself in a huge hole in the conference race.

USC (3-1, 1-1) rebounded from a shocking 27-21 loss at Oregon State in its conference opener to bury Oregon 44-10 last weekend. ASU (2-3, 1-1), coming off a 24-14 loss at Cal, is trying to avoid its first four-game losing streak since 2003.

At the top of the early Pac-10 standings are Arizona (4-1, 2-0), which plays at Stanford (3-3, 2-1) today, and Cal (4-1, 2-0), which is idle this week.

"We can't look further down the road," USC defensive end Kyle Moore said. "The Pac-10 knows us the best. The Pac-10 teams aren't intimidated."

The Trojans didn't just have hopes to win the conference title; they were a near-unanimous No. 1 in the country before the Oregon State debacle.

"We're still in the (national championship) picture," Moore said. "We know we have to play hard every game. All those good teams in the Big 12 and SEC, they've got to play each other. All those teams are going to cancel each other out."

The Trojans, favored by 28 points today, enter with an eight-game winning streak over the Sun Devils, and they've won those games by an average of 19.1 points.

In addition, USC has won 40 of its last 41 games at the Coliseum.

"They have good players, and they do a good job at coaching them," Sun Devils coach Dennis Erickson said. "They have a system that they believe in and they stay with it. There aren't many (programs) like it."

As if things didn't appear challenging enough for the Sun Devils, there is a good possibility they'll be without Rudy Carpenter, who has started 36 straight games — the nation's second-longest active starting streak for a quarterback. Carpenter sprained his left ankle against Cal and didn't practice until Thursday.

"I'd be surprised if he can play, but I'm not ruling it out," Erickson said.

"I said Monday I had to get 10 to 15 percent better every day," Carpenter said. "It's been on that track."

If Carpenter can't go, Danny Sullivan would make his first career start for ASU. Sullivan, a junior, has completed one pass this season.

"I think Danny's a good player," Carpenter said. "He's got a strong arm. He can make good decisions. He's been here for a little while, so I think that if he's given an opportunity, I think he'll do well."

Sullivan is 26 of 52 for 211 yards in his career.

It appeared earlier in the week that USC might have to go with a backup QB as well, but Mark Sanchez completed a full practice Thursday, five days after suffering a bone bruise in his left knee against Oregon.

Sanchez, a junior, has already been selected the Pac-10 offensive player of the week three times this year, having thrown for 1,069 yards and 13 TDs.

ASU scored a total of 71 points in beating Northern Arizona and Stanford to begin the season, but has scored only 44 in losing to UNLV, No. 10 Georgia and Cal since then.

"I know they haven't won their games the last couple of weeks, but they look very much the part of the same team they were a year ago," USC coach Pete Carroll said. "They've got a lot of firepower."