He Didn’t Run Ball, but Was Trojan Horse

In the minds of most people, USC comes into public focus as Tailback U., the citadel of the great all-purpose running back, the dot in the I-formation, running to daylight, following behind Student Body Right into the end zone, the Heisman, the All-American, Hall of Fame and, latterly, a multimillion-dollar contract with the pros.

The list is long. Morley Drury, Gaius Shaver, Grenny Lansdell, Cotton Warburton, Mike Garrett, O.J. Simpson, Marcus Allen, Charlie White. You can see their busts and their records any day in the university’s Heritage Hall.

But what about the guys who had to get them the ball? Somebody had to. You don’t win a Heisman, a Rose bowl, a national championship unless you get to attack. You don’t win a war without infantry.

Cast your eyes over the glory rolls of USC and you won’t see too many guys from the trenches. But the purists tell us it is here that most games are won or lost.

“Watch the guards,” the dedicated football follower will tell you.

Most people don’t. They watch the ball.

The knowledgeable observer is not fooled, though.

Not too many Rose Bowls ago, this reporter saw columnist Sid Hartman of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, standing moodily in the press box at halftime.

“What’s the matter, Sid?” someone wanted to know.

“This game’s over,” Hartman replied sourly.

“But it’s practically a tie game!” protested the other.

“I know,” Hartman attested grimly. “But just wait. In our conference, when this Ohio State quarterback rolls out, he helps himself to 10, 15 yards a crack. Here, when he rolls out, the SC tackles are out there waiting for him. They’re as fast as he is.”

Hartman was right. Also prophetic. The guys with the ball continued to make the biggest headlines at SC. But the guys on the other side of the ball began to get the most attention from the professionals.

One of these defenders was Duane Bickett. Bickett is not one of SC’s illustrious Heisman honorees but he was one of the guys out there waiting when some other team had a Heisman hopeful and the ball. He was one of a long list of SC greats on the other side of the ball--Jimmy Gunn, Al Cowlings, Harry Smith, Aaron Rosenberg, John Ferraro, Charlie Weaver, Gary Jeter . . .

SC was not the 1-dimensional team the awards dinners might have had you believing. But it was part of its mystique that its offensive linemen, like its offensive backs, reaped the tallest headlines even then--Ron Yary, Anthony Munoz, Marvin Powell, Dave Cadigan, Don Mosebar, Brad Budde, Jeff Bregel . . . That was Student Body Right.

Duane Bickett may be as good a football player as any of the Heisman winners that ever came out of USC. The Indianapolis Colts certainly thought so when they made him their first draft choice in 1985, apparently subscribing to the old Buck Shaw theory: “Running backs win trophies. Linebackers win games.”

Bickett, who became one of the best at it, did not come to SC to back up the line. He came to storm one. He was a tight end and a good one at Glendale High, where he was the most famous athlete since Marion Morrison and Frankie Albert. Morrison went on to become John Wayne, Albert the best left-handed quarterback in the history of the game.

At 6 feet 5 inches and 200-plus pounds, Bickett, who could run the 40 in 4.8 seconds, might have become a satisfactory pass-catcher and blocker at SC. But his duties as a freshman called for him to be on what is euphemistically known as the scout team, the football equivalent of the heavy bag or sparring partner in boxing. The first team gets ready by beating up on you.

Duane Bickett remembers how, after he had spent a bloody-nose afternoon simulating a Penn State running back, his coach, John Robinson, came to him with an interesting proposition.

“We’d like to move you to outside linebacker,” he told Bickett. “I’ve been watching you and I think you’re a born linebacker. I think you could be a great pro linebacker and you could end up getting drafted on the first round.

“It is a read-and-react game and I think you can do that as well as anyone I have. If you move to linebacker, you can start next year. If you stay at tight end, I’ll have to red-shirt you (delay his eligibility for a year by not playing him).”

Bickett: “That choice was not hard. I had enough of being the Penn State backfield.”

Bickett and Jack Del Rio formed probably the most devastating 1-2 linebacker punch in the conference. Except that they were both outside linebackers, they could have been the defensive version of Mr. Inside and Mr. Outside.

In his senior year, Bickett made 139 tackles, 15 of them behind the line of scrimmage. He deflected 13 passes and intercepted 1. He had 17 tackles in the LSU game, 16 twice and 15 twice, and more than 10 in all but 2 games.

In the pros, Bickett has been as dominant--141 tackles his rookie year, 144 his next, and 113 last year, when he missed 3 games. If the Indianapolis Colts go to the Super Bowl--not as long a shot as it looked 3 weeks ago--Duane Bickett could be as important a reason as Eric Dickerson.

But Bickett is used to tailbacks getting the credit, the rave notices, the statues for the study.

“At SC, we always had outstanding defense,” he explains. “Look at the linebackers--Chip Banks got drafted ahead of Marcus Allen. Look at Rod Martin, Clay Matthews, Marcus Cotton. Look at the defensive backs--Ronnie Lott, Dennis Thurman, Jeff Fisher, Dennis Smith.”

It may be a good thing for all those Heisman winners that they played with the Trojan defense and not against it.