The head coach runs from station to station during practice, his untucked white T-shirt flapping in the gentle breeze of another perfect day in Southern California.
Pete Carroll once stirred his troops by jumping over the pile in a short-yardage drill. He wasn’t wearing pads and didn’t care.
Another time he led a group of players by diving into a swimming pool off a nearby tower.
On this day he sprints to the end zone on a kickoff drill and then plays the role of referee after a fumble, blowing his whistle repeatedly and extending his arm to signal a change of possession.
“He’s a little kid, and he loves being around us,” said Southern California quarterback Matt Leinart, the reigning Heisman Trophy winner who passed up NFL riches to return for his senior season. “I love college just the same way. I’m a kid, too, and I wasn’t ready to take it to the business world yet.”
The 53-year-old Carroll isn’t exactly one of the guys. He commands authority, carries a whistle and doles out punishment. (When All-American Reggie Bush arrived two minutes late for morning practice Tuesday, he had to run and perform extra drills.) Carroll, however, also manages to keep it light.
“I don’t want this to be drudgery,” he said. “It doesn’t have to be an oppressive environment. I want it to be an environment where there’s high energy and empowerment. Our guys enjoy what they’re doing. They like being here.”
Here is Howard Jones Field, in the heart of USC’s campus. Look in one direction and you see downtown L.A.’s tall buildings. Look the other way and little kids are playing two-on-two.
Who wouldn’t love this environment? No wonder about 100 Trojans supporters, many clad in traditional cardinal and gold, have gathered on a sideline to watch the helmets and shoulder pads collide.
Carroll opens nearly every practice to both the media and the community, a rarity among the control freaks who double as college football coaches these days.
“We don’t close our doors to any of the Trojan family,” he said. “To me, it’s their place. And allowing people to come in gives us atmosphere. They’re cheering a little bit, and that makes it more exciting.
“I’m not paranoid. We’ve been playing the same style for four years now. When it comes to game-planning, if our opponents are out here skunking us, then they are.”
During the week of the UCLA game a few years back, Carroll told his players to watch out for spies while they were stretching.
“Hey, look!” Carroll said, pointing to the top of a building overlooking the field. “He’s fighting with some guy in a blue jersey!”
The players looked up to find a Trojans assistant in a skirmish. Then he tossed the body off the roof.
OK, it was a dummy.
You think the USC players might have enjoyed that moment?
Uncharted territory
When the nation last checked in on the Trojans, they were mopping the floor of the Orange Bowl with Oklahoma, scoring on roughly every other play.
The 55-19 final tally didn’t even do justice to a game that was over long before Ashlee Simpson was booed off the stage at halftime. Leinart threw five touchdown passes against a team that had allowed six points combined in its previous three games.
“We earned the right to play with that mental state,” Carroll said. “We prepared almost perfectly for that game. We played in the absence of fear. That’s the idea. That’s when the players can perform at their best.”
The atmosphere hasn’t changed since then. Neither has the offense.
And that’s why USC is favored to make college football history this season by winning a third consecutive national title.
Every publication this side of Architectural Digest has installed the Trojans as its preseason No. 1: Athlon, Sports Illustrated, The Sporting News, Street & Smith’s, Lindy’s, Playboy, the Gold Sheet … can we stop there?
Yes, offensive coordinator Norm Chow and three other assistants left for new jobs. But USC’s top five rushers, top four receivers and four starting linemen return. And don’t forget about Leinart, who will try to join Ohio State’s Archie Griffin as the only two-time Heisman winner.
The left-handed Leinart passed up the chance to go No. 1 in the draft in part because of a left elbow that required minor off-season surgery and in part because he realized life doesn’t come with a rewind button. Why think back to the happiest times in your life when you can extend them?
Leinart is taking one class this fall–ballroom dancing–and his future earnings are insured by Lloyd’s of London.
“He has no worries,” tailback LenDale White said. “He’s more comfortable down here than he would be up there. He knows all the defenses, and our defense is the toughest to face because of all the movements. They do crazy stuff. If he can get our defense, he should be able to pick any defense apart.”
Leinart, 25-1 as a starter, said he would dedicate his fall to football and film study: “There’s always something you can find, a little detail to pick up.”
But that won’t leave time much time for a social life that has included hanging with Jessica Simpson, Nick Lachey and Chris Rock.
“He’s invited to every big thing,” White said. “It’s a fun life for him.”
But one that Leinart downplays. Asked when he met Rock, Leinart shrugs and replies, “I don’t even remember.”
Another Heisman
If Leinart gets his wish, the 2006 Heisman Trophy will go to Bush, whom the quarterback has repeatedly called the best player in college football.
“It’s hard on a team like we have to get a lot of touches, but he’s the hardest to game-plan for and he makes the most plays,” Leinart said.
Bush, who used his blinding speed to rack up 2,330 all-purpose yards last season, wasn’t thrilled with finishing last among the five Heisman finalists last year.
“That’s the competitive side in me,” he said.
White, who ran for a team-high 1,103 yards last season, also has a competitive side. And it sometime stings him that Bush, who made the cover of SI’s college football preview issue, gets all the attention.
“A guy who’s flashy like that will get looked at,” White said. “If I complained, I wouldn’t be a team player. I know my teammates don’t ever forget about me, and that respect is all I need.”
Asked if he could recall a team that has this much offensive firepower, the engaging White replied quickly.
“The Rams,” he said. “When they won their Super Bowl.”
`X’ marks the spot
Back on the practice field, Carroll watches a loose football roll on the field for way too long. He quickly gathers his players and tells them: “That wasn’t the right decision. It’s always about possession.”
He later explains that while the defensive players were right to try to scoop up the ball and run it back, the offensive guys should have fallen on it.
“That was a teachable moment that we had to capture,” he said.
The value of practices cannot be overstated for Carroll, who has managed to forge a blue-collar team in the shadow of Hollywood.
“We don’t have bad practices,” he said. “The whole idea is if you don’t have bad practices, you shouldn’t have bad games either.
“If there’s anything that has been consistent with giving us a chance to be successful, it’s the phrase `Practice is everything.’ They hear it. They know it. This is where you establish everything. We have to squeeze every ounce, every drop of opportunity out here.”
The Trojans know there’s little margin for error. Nine teams, most recently Nebraska in 1994-95, have won two consecutive Associated Press national titles. None has won three straight.
USC has to replace six starters on a defense that was the best in the nation against the run.
“Everybody’s going to be gunning for us,” White said. “We’ve got an `X’ all over our body.”
It’s an X that represents greatness.
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The elusive 3-peat
Southern California is the 10th team to go back-to-back in Associated Press national championships, but no team has ever won three straight.
The teams that won two in a row, with their finish the next season:
MINNESOTA
1940, 1941
(19th,1942)
ARMY
1944, 1945
(2nd,1946)
NOTRE DAME
1946, 1947
(2nd,1948)
OKLAHOMA
1955, 1956
(4th,1957)
ALABAMA
1964, 1965
(3rd,1966)
NEBRASKA
1970, 1971
(4th,1972)
OKLAHOMA
1974, 1975
(5th,1976)
ALABAMA
1978, 1979
(6th,1980)
NEBRASKA
1994, 1995
(6th,1996)
USC
2003, 2004
(?,2005)
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tgreenstein@tribune.com
