Correct Change

USC quarterback Matt Leinart jogged determinedly toward a huddle of anxious teammates.

The roar in Notre Dame Stadium on Oct. 15 was deafening, a crowd of more than 80,000 Fighting Irish fans sensing the end of a historic run.

USC’s 27-game winning streak and the Trojans’ quest for a third consecutive national title had come down to one play.

Fourth and nine.

Pressure-packed situations were nothing new to Leinart, a Heisman Trophy winner. He won big games against Michigan in the 2004 Rose Bowl and Oklahoma in the 2005 Orange Bowl. The only thing missing from his college resume was a last-minute, game-winning drive.

The last time the left-hander had a chance, two years before at Berkeley, he had moved the Trojans to within striking distance. Coaches went for a game-tying field goal, and USC ultimately lost to California in triple overtime. Leinart and the Trojans had won every game since.

Now, USC was down by three points with the ball on its own 26-yard line. Only 1 minute 32 seconds remained.

The Trojans broke and set themselves along the line of scrimmage, Leinart calmly surveying the defense.

He lifted his left hand to his facemask, and then pointed at a linebacker with his right hand, thinking, OK. Here we go. The noise, already a din, grew even louder.

Leinart stepped forward, bent his knees and crouched under center, turning his head left and, after a beat, turning it right.

And then, with the weight of history on his shoulders, he did something unexpected.

Matt Leinart stepped back.

*

As every college football fan knows by now, on that fourth-and-nine play Leinart threaded a hairline pass to Dwayne Jarrett on a daring fade route along the left sideline. The 61-yard pass play started a sequence that was instantly stamped as one of the most dramatic in college football history.

After fumbling out of bounds at the one, Leinart sneaked into the end zone with a push from Reggie Bush with three seconds left. USC’s epic 34-31 victory propelled the Trojans to an unbeaten season and a second consecutive berth in the bowl championship series title game.

But when top-ranked USC and second-ranked Texas play in the Rose Bowl tonight, more than a national championship will be on the line.

Leinart is 37-1 as a starter. He has won the Heisman and two national championships. Another win would cement his status as the most successful, if not the greatest, of all college quarterbacks.

“This is the game I came back to play in,” he said.

As he did when he stepped back from the line of scrimmage at Notre Dame, Leinart shocked many when he announced last January that he would pass up instant NFL riches and return for a final season of eligibility.

It was one of the defining moments in a five-year career that has seen Leinart go from sulking backup to national star.

Some of those moments occurred on the field, in packed stadiums and before millions of television viewers. Others, no less affecting, happened in quieter places such as coaches’ offices, locker rooms, even dining halls.

For example, Leinart was battling to become Carson Palmer’s successor in the spring of 2003 when offensive coordinator Norm Chow summoned him to his office. Carroll soon bounded in and told the still unsure redshirt freshman, “If we were going to have a game today, you’d be the starter.”

Leinart’s face lit up.

“I’m not going to give it up,” he told the coaches. “You’re making the right choice and I won’t let you down.”

Over the next two seasons, Leinart rarely disappointed.

After a three-interception performance in the defeat at Cal, Leinart came back from first-half knee and ankle injuries at Arizona State, guiding the Trojans to a victory that changed the course of the program.

“We really haven’t been the same since that game,” Carroll said.

Leinart was the most valuable player of the 2004 Rose Bowl, his touchdown catch off a pass from receiver Mike Williams the exclamation point on a 12-1 season that gave the Trojans the Associated Press national title.

He won the Heisman last season and capped a 13-0 national championship season by throwing for five touchdowns and winning the MVP award in the Orange Bowl.

So when he decided to come back for a final season, many thought it would be easy for the fifth-year senior.

It didn’t turn out that way.

*

It was Monday, five days before the Notre Dame game, and Steve Clarkson sent the text message at 5 a.m.

“I’d like to get on the field with you for five or 10 minutes.”

Leinart responded five minutes later: “When?”

Clarkson, Leinart’s personal quarterback coach since he was a gangly 14-year-old freshman at Mater Dei High, was stunned. If Leinart was answering that early in the morning, that meant he wasn’t sleeping.

Less than two weeks earlier, Leinart had suffered a concussion on a late hit delivered by an Arizona State linebacker. The helmet-to-chin collision had nearly knocked out the 6-foot-5, 225-pound quarterback and ripped a gash that required stitches.

“It affected my decision-making in that game,” Leinart recalled. “I know me, and I know I wasn’t in the right frame of mind.”

Leinart passed for 360 yards and two touchdowns a week later against Arizona, but it was clear to Clarkson that something was not right.

“I was frustrated because I knew he was frustrated,” Clarkson said.

The two met for a short workout, Clarkson suggesting some minor mechanical adjustments in Leinart’s throwing motion, and then sat down for lunch.

“How do you think I’m playing?” Leinart asked.

“Honestly?” Clarkson said. “Not too good.”

Clarkson played quarterback at San Jose State and in the Canadian Football League. He has worked with dozens of young players, including Steve Sarkisian, USC’s assistant head coach, who was a record-setting passer under Chow at Brigham Young.

As Leinart spoke of the expectations burdening him, Clarkson listened. The Trojans were 5-0 and had produced more than 700 yards twice.

He told Leinart that day to quit worrying.

With Notre Dame coming up, he also told him that sometimes, in big games, it was best to be angry.

“You need to play like you have a boulder on your shoulder,” Clarkson said.

*

Everyone remembers fourth and nine, the fumble and the Push.

But lost in the euphoria of USC’s win at Notre Dame was this: Leinart had played his worst overall game of the season, completing only 53% of his passes with two interceptions and no touchdowns.

The first six games were behind them, so the Trojans began gearing up for one of Carroll’s patented “second-half” runs.

On the Monday after the Notre Dame game, Sarkisian summoned Leinart to the same second-floor office where Carroll and Chow had anointed him in the spring of 2003.

“What’s up, man?” Sarkisian said.

At 31, Sarkisian is much younger than Chow and had known Leinart even before he was hired as a graduate assistant at USC in 2001. Sarkisian served as quarterback coach the next two seasons, then joined the Oakland Raiders’ staff in 2004. When Chow left in February for a job with the Tennessee Titans, Carroll hired Sarkisian and paired him with 30-year-old, newly promoted offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” Leinart told Sarkisian. “I don’t think I’m playing as good as I can. I don’t know if I’m having fun.”

Sarkisian pulled no punches.

He told Leinart to remember one of the main reasons why he came back: to enjoy the college experience.

That meant lifting the brim of his ever-present baseball cap and welcoming eye contact with others, despite the demands that came with his heightened profile. It meant forgetting about bearing the entire responsibility for the team’s success.

“I told him, ‘You gotta have fun. You gotta smile. You gotta embrace this moment,’ ” Sarkisian said.

Later that day, Leinart stood before his teammates, apologized for the way he had been acting and pledged to enjoy himself the rest of the season.

In the next game against Washington, he completed 77% of his attempts and passed for four touchdowns with no interceptions.

In the regular-season finale against UCLA, Leinart struggled to overcome the emotion of playing in his final game at the Coliseum. But when coaches called a timeout early in the fourth quarter to remove him, he walked to the sideline amid thunderous cheers and embraced his teammates, a 34th consecutive victory in hand.

“That was partly why he was so emotional,” Sarkisian said. “Because he knows what we had gone through to reach this point still undefeated. He just wanted to play great for these guys.”

*

Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn scrambled for a touchdown with just over two minutes left, putting the Fighting Irish ahead, 31-28.

USC got the ball back at its own 25, but a first-down pass fell incomplete and Leinart was then sacked, forcing the Trojans to call timeout.

After a short pass to Bush on third down, it now was up to Leinart.

When he approached the line of scrimmage on fourth and nine, USC’s coaching staff held its breath.

During the timeout, Kiffin, who was in the press box, and Sarkisian agreed that Leinart should call an audible if Notre Dame presented certain coverage. The assistants had been under the microscope ever since Carroll named them the offensive brain trust. Now they were entrusting Leinart to possibly change the biggest call of their young careers.

Kiffin conferred with Sarkisian, and then Sarkisian talked with Carroll and Leinart.

“I was a little concerned about the play we were going to call because of the defense that was called the play before,” Carroll recalled. “We might not make the first down if the route came up a little short.”

At the last moment, Kiffin told Sarkisian to remind Leinart that he could call an audible. In the huddle, Leinart told Jarrett he might be coming his way.

Leinart recalled: “I call the play and say, ‘Be alert for this audible,’ so they know in their mind that if I’m checking I’m going to that, especially in a place you can’t hear well.”

As Leinart crouched under center, he said he saw a Notre Dame player to his right, “Kind of bluffing, but coming. Whatever. And I’m like, ‘OK [shoot], here we go.’ ”

Kiffin could see that Leinart recognized the coverage.

“He’s got it. He’s got it!” Kiffin said into the headset.

Sarkisian started mouthing the audible to himself.

Carroll did the same, thinking, It’s there, it’s there, is he going to? Jarrett, wide to the left, had double vision from a fall earlier in the game, but clearly saw what everyone in the stadium and millions of television viewers saw too.

Leinart had stepped back and was changing his call.

“I was like ‘Wow, I’m going to have to make a play.’ ” Jarrett said. “I just tried to open my eyes as wide as possible.”

Leinart turned and pointed right with a closed hand. Then he turned and did the same to the left.

And then Matt Leinart stepped forward to start a play that will forever define him.