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Richard Sherman can measure the change in Stanford's rivalry with Southern California by the reaction he gets when he goes back home to Compton.
Once scoffed at for playing for a team that supposedly had no chance against the mighty Trojans, Sherman is now blamed for the beatdown Stanford put on USC last year.
''It used to be, 'You all have no chance. Are you going to keep it within 40?''' Sherman said. ''Now it's changed a little bit. My cousins were a little mad at me acting like I was the reason we won. ... They're a little peeved at me.''
That's what last year's 55-21 victory will do.
Now, the 16th-ranked Cardinal (4-1, 1-1 Pac-10) head into this year's meeting with USC (4-1, 1-1) as the favorite in a vast turnaround from the situation coach Jim Harbaugh inherited when he took over a 1-11 team after the 2006 season. This is the first time since 1986 that Stanford heads into the USC game ranked higher than the Trojans.
The Cardinal pulled off a memorable upset in Harbaugh's first season as a 41-point underdog, with Sherman catching a key pass to convert a fourth-and-20 on the game-winning drive.
Sherman had a big play in last year's win as well, this time as a defender, returning an interception for a touchdown to help put the game away in the fourth quarter.
The most memorable play in that game came later in the fourth quarter, when Harbaugh chose to go for a 2-point conversion with a 27-point lead and less than 7 minutes remaining.
That led to the infamous postgame exchange between Harbaugh and then-USC coach Pete Carroll, who pointedly asked his counterpart ''What's your deal?'' with Harbaugh responding with the same question.
''We're not even going to talk about it,'' said USC coach Lane Kiffin, who replaced Carroll after the season. ''We're not really worried about what happened last year as far as a 2-point conversion. All that motivaton stuff as soon as the ball kicks off, a lot of that stuff goes away.''
USC quarterback Matt Barkley threw a career-worst three interceptions in last year's game and said talking about the loss does not bring back fond memories.
But as far as providing some kind of boost in terms of motivation this year, Barkley knows better, especially after the Trojans were unable to avenge a 2009 loss to Washington last week, when they fell 32-31 to the Huskies.
''That didn't really work this last weekend, so you can't really say that's a factor,'' he said.
The Cardinal turned the hubbub into a marketing campaign, offering three-game ''What's Your Deal'' ticket packages that include the USC game.
Harbaugh said he has no regrets about his decision to go for 2 or his postgame run-in with Carroll, and says it won't play any role in this year's game.
''That horse has been beaten pretty well,'' he said. ''It couldn't be anymore irrelevant to anything that's going on this weekend and what we're trying to accomplish.''
Both teams are trying to bounce back from their first losses of the season. While the Trojans fell in the closing seconds, Stanford got blown out in the second half at Oregon, losing 52-31.
The high-powered Cardinal offense was held scoreless in the second half, with star quarterback Andrew Luck throwing two interceptions.
''Both teams come in with a little chip on their shoulder and something to prove,'' Sherman said. ''A lot of people are counting them out as an irrelevant team in the Pac-10, a middling team. People forget, they're still USC.''
It's just not the same USC as it was when Kiffin was an assistant on those title-winning teams last decade. The Trojans have lost five of their last 11 conference games, after losing just five of the previous 50 against Pac-10 foes.
In last week's loss, Joe Houston missed a late field goal that could have extended USC's lead and the Trojans then let Jake Locker drive Washington down the field for the winning score.
''This is not your old SC,'' Kiffin said. ''You're going to have a lot of close games that we're going to need to win them in the fourth quarter. I think our players understand that and they see where we had so many opportunities to close that game out and next time we're in that situation we need to.''
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AP Sports Writer Greg Beacham in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
