USC Football Practice : It’s the Irvine Trojans, for a While

Last summer, USC set up a football camp at UC Irvine out of necessity. The Trojans had been displaced from their own campus because of the Olympic Games.

But USC has returned to Irvine this summer of its own volition, having benefited from the experience of a distraction-free preseason camp that was a prelude to a Pacific 10 championship and a Rose Bowl victory over Ohio State.

Now some people might figure that USC Coach Ted Tollner has relocated his team here because the Orange County facility may have had some impact on improving the Trojans from 4-6-1 in 1983 to 9-3 in 1984.

“The fact we had a winning season and went to the Rose Bowl just added to our desire to come back,” Tollner said. “But the decision was not based on wins and losses.

“Still, if we had lost a bunch of games, who knows what we would have done?”

What Tollner has at this tree-shaded campus in the rolling hills of Irvine is a football-type atmosphere from sunup to sundown.

“The environment allows us total concentration on football without distractions,” he said. “It’s a relatively quiet campus, and everything is right here--apartment living, cafeteria, field space, and all centrally located.

“We get on with the football part of things, but in the players’ free time they’re always together and not heading for their own apartments like they would be doing at USC.

“To me, that’s critical in the early part of the season. Your team really gets to know each other on and off the field. I don’t think that happens if you turn your guys loose after practice and they go to their own apartments.”

Tollner also cited side benefits of the Irvine camp--a change of scenery during two-a-day workouts that is stimulating for the players and, more tangible, the preservation of the practice field on the USC campus.

“We have relatively limited field space at USC,” Tollner said, “and during two-a-days, we can’t rotate fields. We have three fields down here, so we can save our field during the pounding of early practices.”

He could have added that weather is another factor. It’s warm in Irvine, but not oppressive, and a cooling ocean breeze is soothing to players who are fatigued by late afternoon.

Some USC administrators say that Tollner really took control of the team here last year in the wake of the losing season--the first for the school in 22 years.

He reportedly had everyone jumping, from players to assistant coaches to trainers to sports information personnel.

Tollner minimizes any such get-tough policy on his part, saying: “I think what made the players think it was a lot tougher was this type of environment that allowed us to stay on top of them for everything they did from the time they got up at 6 a.m. until they went to bed at 11 p.m.

“We bed-checked them, too, and we also took their car keys away. We didn’t want them taking off after practice in their own little groups. We wanted them here.”

Tollner has a team this year that is regarded as one of the favorites, if not the favorite, to win the conference championship. One magazine, Street and Smith, has even predicted a national championship for the Trojans.

That is seemingly an unrealistic appraisal, but Tollner does have, for the most part, experienced and talented personnel. He has seven returning starters on offense, including a veteran offensive line, along with four starters on defense.

That doesn’t include Sean Salisbury, who has been a starting quarterback since 1982 only to lose part or most of two seasons because of knee surgery. Nor does it include tight end Joe Cormier, who is a regular in USC’s single-back formation, or defensive tackle Matt Koart, who started four games in 1984 before he went down with a knee injury.

Significantly, USC has nine players who are three-year starters: offensive linemen Tom Hallock, Jeff Bregel and James FitzPatrick; split end Hank Norman; tailback Fred Crutcher; fullback Kennedy Pola; nose guard Tony Colorito; free safety Jerome Tyler, and Salisbury.

Tollner is concerned about three phases: the kicking game, passing and the perimeter of the defense--cornerbacks and outside linebackers.

“We have to improve the consistency of our punting and hope that Don Shafer can be a consistent placekicker as a replacement for Steve Jordan,” Tollner said.

Troy Richardson and Chris Sperle are contending for the punting job, while Shafer moves in for Jordan, who supplied much of USC’s offense last year and is the school record-holder in every phase of placekicking.

“Offensively, a real key is to get production out of the quarterback position as it relates to the passing game,” Tollner said. “Sean Salisbury is the No. 1 quarterback based on his experience, but it’s not a closed case.”

Kevin McLean, a sophomore, and Rodney Peete, a redshirt freshman, will be pressuring Salisbury in the weeks preceding the opening game against Illinois Sept. 7 at Champaign, Ill.

A major concern is finding adequate replacements for outside linebackers Duane Bickett and Jack Del Rio.

“We’re talking about two guys who have a chance to start in the NFL as rookies,” Tollner said.

The contenders: Marcus Cotton and Ron Brown for Del Rio’s weak-side position, and Greg Coauette and Garrett Breeland for Bickett’s strong-side station.

Matt Johnson and Elbert Watts are competing for what Tollner calls the boundary corner spot, while Louis Brock, Junior Thurman and Martin French are the candidates at the other corner. Only Johnson has any appreciable game experience.

Tollner said it’s realistic for USC to be rated among teams (Washington, UCLA and Arizona would be the others) with the prospect of winning the Pac-10 championship.

“We don’t have a weakness in athletic ability, just in experience in some positions,” Tollner said. “The difference now compared to three years ago is that we were relatively inexperienced everywhere then. We don’t have to overhaul the entire offensive line now, for example. We are replacing just one tackle (Ken Ruettgers). Nor are we replacing the entire secondary or defensive line.

“I think we have made up a major gap from not being respected (in 1983) to being respectable, and going from there to being one of the top teams in the country gets tougher and tougher. But we are back in that respected group.”

Tollner wants to stay there--with UC Irvine as a starting base.

Trojan Notes

The freshmen have been practicing at UC Irvine the past week. Veterans checked into camp Friday night. The first full squad practice is set for Monday. . . . Ted Tollner identified seven freshmen linemen as the most impressive group in the rookie camp. He was referring to offensive linemen Chuck Ebertin, Chuck Kunsaitis, Brad Leggett and Brent Parkinson, and defensive linemen Dan Barnes, Dan Owens and J. P. Sullivan. . . . Aaron Emanuel, the highly touted tailback from Quartz Hill High School, is perhaps the most impressive physical specimen among the freshman. He stands 6-2 1/2, weighs 215 pounds and has a build that draws comparisons to Herschel Walker, the former Heisman Trophy winner from Georgia. “He looks like everything we hoped he would be,” Tollner said. “He obviously has great strength, good explosiveness, excellent change of direction and is very willing and eager to learn” . . . The Trojans are apparently loaded at tailback with veteran Fred Crutcher, Ryan Knight, Zeph Lee, Steve Webster and Emanuel.