FRIENDLY RIVALRY : Holt Likes Oklahoma’s Holieway, but He Would Like a USC Victory at Coliseum Saturday Even More

There are many reasons for USC fullback Leroy Holt wanting to beat Oklahoma in Saturday’s game at the Coliseum.

For one thing, if the Trojans win, then his close friend, Sooner quarterback Jamelle Holieway, can’t taunt Holt anymore about a game that was played when they were in junior high school.

Holieway played for a Pop Warner team in Inglewood, and Holt represented a team from Carson. Holieway’s team won, 42-6.

“I’ll never forget the score,” Holt said. “He never lets me forget it.”

From that game, though, a solid friendship was formed. Holt recalled that Holieway needled the losing team during a lunch break at Curtiss Junior High School.

“Jamelle likes to talk,” Holt said. “He didn’t put the nail in the coffin, but he said a few words. The guys on our team were upset and wanted to jump him. But I stood up for him.”

So Holieway avoided a thrashing, and the young athletes soon became inseparable.

“We lived only three minutes apart in Carson, and there wasn’t a day when we didn’t see or call each other,” Holt said. “If Jamelle went to a mall or a store and I wasn’t with him, someone would say, ‘Where’s Leroy?’ ”

They were united as teammates at Banning High School, Holieway the quarterback and Holt the fullback. They won the City championship in 1983 but lost to Carson in the title game in 1984.

Holt points out with considerable glee, though, that Holieway was still playing Pop Warner football as a sophomore in high school, while Holt was on the varsity at Banning.

Time and geography have separated the pair somewhat, but they still are together whenever possible. They worked out together at USC last summer, for instance.

They also have traveled--Holt to Norman, Okla., Holieway back to Los Angeles--to watch one another play in recent years.

Holt, in fact, had planned a trip to Norman last Saturday, a bye week for the Trojans, to watch on the sideline as Holieway played against Arizona.

USC Coach Larry Smith didn’t think that was such a good idea, though, and Holt stayed home.

“That game was so close to our game with Oklahoma that things might get out of hand with the media,” Holt said. “Anyway, I saved my money.”

Holieway hasn’t hesitated to make predictions about Saturday’s game, having been quoted as saying that there’s no doubt that Oklahoma will win.

Holt just laughed at that.

“That’s typical of Jamelle,” he said. “It’s good to know that he’s so confident. I’m not making any predictions.”

Holieway also said that Oklahoma would win by a score of 28-14, that he would score 2 touchdowns and that Holt would get 1 touchdown on a 1-yard plunge.

Holt laughed again, saying, “That’s very modest of him to give me that touchdown.”

Holieway and Holt, along with some other former members of the Banning football team, wear gold neck chains carrying the initials CLH.

Holt said the CL stands for “Computer Love,” a song by a rap group called Zapp. The H is for home, or home boys, he said, meaning friendship.

“The 12 of us heard the song all the time, before a game, or at a party, or whatever,” Holt said, adding that the chain binds the friends together.

Last summer was traumatic for both Holieway and Holt. Holieway was rehabilitating his left knee after major surgery to repair a ligament injury he suffered last year against Oklahoma State. His injury was similar to the one USC tailback Steven Webster incurred last year against UCLA.

Webster has yet to play, although he is expected to make his season debut against Oklahoma.

Holieway seemed a bit gimpy in Oklahoma’s opening 28-0 victory over North Carolina Sept. 10. Even so, he managed 108 yards in total offense and scored a touchdown on a short run, while alternating with Charles Thompson.

He was sharper last Saturday in a 28-10 win over Arizona, gaining 75 yards in 17 carries, scoring on a 5-yard run and throwing a 43-yard pass for another touchdown.

Elated that his knee held up, Holieway declared that the Sooners were ready for the Trojans.

Holt’s summer was difficult, too. He had become academically ineligible during the spring semester and had to drop out of school. He attended Southwest Los Angeles College and Santa Monica College to make up a grade.

“I was very concerned,” Holt said. “My heart was shattered. I thought everything was over. It was the biggest downfall of my life.”

Holieway attended a class with Holt at Southwest L.A., and each lent the other moral support.

“He was coming off a knee injury and I had to come up to a B average,” Holt said. “We both needed each other.”

For Holt, it all came down to 1 class in art history at Santa Monica. He needed an A-minus on the final examination to regain his eligibility.

“My heart was throbbing,” Holt said of the test. “It was more pressure than I ever had in a football game.”

Holt got the grade he needed and was reinstated by a university review board after missing a week of fall practice.

Holt, a 6-foot, 220-pound junior fullback, said he was in reasonable but not peak physical shape. That hasn’t been evident in USC’s wins over Boston College and Stanford.

Holt has gained 141 yards for a 4.7-yard average, and has scored once. He would also like to get that touchdown against Oklahoma that Holieway has so generously conceded him.

Holt marvels at Holieway’s skills as a wishbone quarterback, saying, “He runs that offense like he invented it.”

He also said that Oklahoma is loaded with fast, explosive backs, providing a formidable challenge for USC’s defense.

Wishbone quarterbacks generally are not regarded as passing threats.

“Our defensive backs have been joking about it, saying, ‘As long as Jamelle throws, we’ll be all right,’ ” Holt said. “The thing they don’t know, and what I’ve told them, is that Jamelle is a good passer. I should know. I was a tight end in my junior year at Banning, and he threw a lot of passes to me.

“Jamelle told me a few weeks ago that his knee would be sound by the third game of the season. Then he said, ‘You know what game that is.’ ”

Holt is fully aware. That 42-6 setback as a youngster still rankles him.

Trojan Notes

As of Friday USC had sold 81,000 tickets for Saturday’s game. It will be televised by ABC (Channel 7) to part of the country.

Leroy Holt said that Jamelle Holieway had wanted to go to USC but was told by Ted Tollner, the former coach, that he would be used only as a defensive back or wide receiver. “Jamelle wanted to be a Trojan and wanted to play tailback or quarterback,” Holt said. “It didn’t matter to him that USC had already recruited Rodney Peete and Aaron Emanuel. But things have worked out well for him.”

USC has a 3-2-1 edge over Oklahoma in the series. Sooner Coach Barry Switzer has yet to beat the Trojans. The teams tied, 7-7, in 1973, and USC won, 28-24, in 1981 and 12-0 in 1982. Before the shutout in ‘82, Oklahoma had scored in 181 consecutive games, then a record in the National Collegiate Athletic Assn.