A Cut Above

Jason Leach seldom errs in judgment when patrolling the secondary for USC, but the senior safety is reminded of a rare mental lapse every time he visits his parents’ home in Chino.

A neatly manicured topiary thrives just outside the living room window. The plant sculpture, meticulously tended to by his father, Len, spells out “USC.”

Len is particularly proud of the weed-free flowerbed from which the topiary grows because Jason labored an entire sweat-soaked day to create it as punishment for playing hooky from school in the eighth grade.

“Jason did a marvelous job,” Len said, unable to contain a laugh. “I can assure you, he didn’t make the same mistake again.”

The stoic Leach, a fifth-year senior, has rarely committed a miscue of consequence since becoming a full-time starter for the Trojans in 2003.

With sophomore Darnell Bing and junior college transfer Scott Ware sidelined at times this season because of injuries, Leach has played free and strong safety for one of the nation’s top-rated defenses.

“He’s my quarterback.... My Mr. Reliable, Mr. Dependable,” said Greg Burns, USC’s secondary coach.

Top-ranked USC will be counting on Leach one last time on Tuesday when the Trojans play No. 2 Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl. The Sooners present perhaps the most balanced offense that USC has faced this season. Quarterback Jason White, the 2003 Heisman Trophy winner, is at the controls of an attack that features running back Adrian Peterson, the 2004 Heisman runner-up, and receiver Mark Clayton, Oklahoma’s all-time leading receiver.

Rising to the occasion in the Orange Bowl, however, is nothing new for Leach, who started in place of All-American Troy Polamalu two years ago in the Trojans’ 38-17 victory over Iowa at Pro Player Stadium.

“He’s just been so consistent,” Coach Pete Carroll said. “Jason hasn’t missed anything. He would never look at you cross-eyed. He just does everything you want him to do.”

On a defense that features two All-American defensive lineman, two All-American linebackers and Bing, who is regarded as a top NFL prospect, the 5-foot-11, 200-pound Leach is often overlooked.

He is one of the few starters who plays on virtually every special-teams unit. “Everything except field goal,” Leach said Monday, before the Trojans departed for Miami.

Leach played multiple positions at La Puente Bishop Amat High and followed a long line of former Lancers such as Daylon McCutcheon to USC.

Leach redshirted his first season under former coach Paul Hackett and stood out for all the wrong reasons during Carroll’s first spring practice in 2001. Not a day passed, Leach said, without coaches finding fault.

“It made me learn a whole lot better,” Leach said. “I got so tired of hearing my name being called.”

As a redshirt freshman, Leach played on special teams, backed up Polamalu at strong safety and played when an extra defensive back was required.

He filled a similar role in 2002, but played extensively against Washington State when Polamalu sprained an ankle, then also started the next game against California.

Leach got the last-minute start in the Orange Bowl when a USC team doctor inadvertently struck a nerve while administering a painkilling injection into Polamalu’s hamstring shortly before kickoff.

Leach vividly recalls the scene in the locker room when Polamalu’s leg went numb.

“I’m sitting next to Troy, just chillin’, and he goes, ‘I can’t feel my leg,’ ” Leach said. “I was like, ‘What? Naw, go run that off.’

“He got up and went to the doctor’s office or wherever to warm up.... We come out of the locker room and go running down to the end zone and then come back and get in the huddle. Coach Carroll pulls me out and says, ‘You’re starting.’

“I’m like, ‘Oh. All right.’ I run back to Troy and ask ‘Are you OK?’ But he doesn’t want to talk to anybody.... I was like, ‘OK. I’m going to leave you alone today.’ ”

Leach made three tackles, recovered a fumble that set up a field goal and intercepted a pass as the Trojans closed out an 11-2 season with the victory over the Hawkeyes.

In 2003, Leach started every game at free safety, was the Trojans’ second-leading tackler and returned one of his two interceptions for a touchdown.

According to Burns, Leach played two positions during the first few games of the season while breaking in Bing.

“He pretty much took me under his wing,” Bing said.

“In my first game against Auburn, a receiver came across the middle on a post route and Jason just smacked him and knocked his helmet off. That play is fixed in my head.”

This season, Leach has nurtured newcomers Ware and freshman Josh Pinkard.

Leach, who will graduate in the spring, made perhaps his biggest play of the season against UCLA when he intercepted a pass with less than a minute left to help preserve the 29-24 victory and USC’s first perfect regular season since 1972.

His mature play also allowed Bing to blossom into a more aggressive player.

“Having a free safety back there that knows his stuff, you can gamble a little bit and do things you’re not really supposed to,” Bing said.

But breaking the rules sometimes has consequences, as Leach learned in 1995 when he and a group of friends skipped a day of school.

With his father watching over him, Leach spent the following morning and afternoon digging out a flowerbed 8 feet long, 4 feet wide and 2 feet deep.

Then, with day turning to night, he sifted all of the pebble-free dirt back into the hole.

“He was just steamin’ mad,” Len recalled. “He said, ‘Why don’t you just whup me? Just get it over with.’

“I said, ‘No J. This is more fun.’ ”

Not for Jason.

“That was a horrible day,” he said.

After Jason enrolled at USC in 2000, some former neighbors sent his family the wire frame for the topiary as a gift. At first, Len was not sure where to place it.

“But then I thought, ‘Oh, I know the perfect place,’ ” Len said.

Leach grudgingly admits that he likes the leafy USC.

And he does not hesitate to answer when asked whether he learned anything from his mistake.

“Yeah,” he said laughing. “Not to get caught.”