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Marinovich Gets the Call--From Reagan

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Times Staff Writer

After engineering Saturday’s game-winning drive against Washington State, USC quarterback Todd Marinovich figured he could handle anything.

But, weaving his way across campus Monday on his bike, he wasn’t prepared for what he found when he pulled up to Heritage Hall.

There was Nancy Mazmanian, an assistant sports information director, nervously awaiting him, like a mother watching for a child late for dinner.

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“Let’s go,” she said. “You’ve got to get to Coach (Larry) Smith’s office. President (Ronald) Reagan is going to call you.”

Marinovich’s reaction?

Yeah, r-i-i-i-ght!

But sure enough, when Marinovich got on the phone, there was the former President telling the red-shirt freshman how thrilled he had been to watch Saturday’s game, how it was one of the most exciting finishes he had ever seen.

“He even gave me his number,” Marinovich said. “Told me if I was ever in Bel-Air, to stop by.”

Even the former President, however, may have to get in line. Suddenly, everybody wants a piece of Marinovich. He’s been drawing media crowds quicker than Zsa Zsa.

For example, Marinovich can usually count on half an hour of relaxation, from 1 to 1:30, Tuesday afternoons, taking a break between classes and practice. On this Tuesday, he spent 10 minutes with a television station, five with a radio station and the remaining 15 with reporters.

Amazing what a simple, 91-yard, 18-play, final-minutes, game-winning drive, featuring daring calls, clutch catches and a quarterback running around with one shoe, will do for a guy’s reputation.

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Hard to believe this is the same kid who hardly figured in USC’s plans a little more than five weeks ago. Pat O’Hara was penciled in as the starting quarterback. Marinovich was penciled in as the clipboard holder.

Harder still to believe this is the same kid who was criticized a month ago for his failure to ignite an offense that sputtered and died in the season-opening loss to Illinois. Thrown into the spotlight after O’Hara had suffered a season-ending knee injury, Marinovich failed to get his team into the end zone all night. He didn’t throw a long pass until the final two plays, when he launched a pair of futile bombs.

But Marinovich seems to thrive on coming back from such dark moments.

Against Ohio State in his third game, his team behind, his left wrist injured by a falling lineman, his ability to fill his new role questioned, Marinovich came back and threw four touchdown passes, including an 87-yarder to John Jackson, the longest in Trojan history.

And Saturday against Washington State, his team down 17-10 with 3:31 to play, and frustrated all day by penalties, mistakes, bad breaks and a good Cougar team, Marinovich put together the Drive, a march that is being ranked in name and deed with John Elway’s memorable drive for the Denver Broncos against the Cleveland Browns in the National Football League playoffs a few years ago.

USC receiver Gary Wellman says he could see Marinovich mature as a quarterback as the drive unfolded.

“Once he got some confidence, he started playing like a veteran, yelling and screaming when it was needed, telling us to get up on the line and things like that,” Wellman said. “He was a little shaky at first (in the Illinois game). He looked real nervous compared to how I saw him Saturday.”

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But even Saturday, Marinovich didn’t appear quite as relaxed as his coach, who was smiling on the sideline as his team moved resolutely forward.

“When I looked over, I had to do a double-take,” Marinovich said of Smith’s reaction. “I thought, ‘What is he laughing about? Does he know something we don’t?’ I was confident, but I wasn’t laughing out there. But it was fun.”

It wasn’t any fun on the sideline, though, when Marinovich lost a shoe while escaping a near sack. While he and his coaches discussed the next play, a team manager struggled to get the shoe back on. For an instant, it appeared that the Trojans would have to put Shane Foley in for one play or be slapped with yet another penalty, for delay of game. That one could have been killed the Drive.

For want of a shoe, a game was nearly lost.

It was a game that could have still been lost after Marinovich culminated the Drive with a two-yard touchdown pass to Ricky Ervins when Smith elected to go right back into the air for a two-point conversion. With just seconds to play, the one-point conversion kick to tie might have seemed a better option.

Not to Marinovich.

“I didn’t even think twice about it,” he said. “Going for the tie, for the Rose Bowl race, it might have been smart. But getting out of there with a tie . . . “

Marinovich shook his head as his voice trailed off.

Instead of a tie, Marinovich and his teammates emerged with an 18-17 victory when the quarterback hit Wellman in the back corner of the end zone.

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Marinovich has dreamed of being a star athlete almost since he could walk.

But even Todd never envisioned a finish such as Saturday’s.

“My imagination didn’t get that wild,” he said.

Trojan Notes

After facing Washington Saturday at the Coliseum, the Trojans were scheduled to play Cal the following Saturday in an afternoon game at Berkeley. The USC-Cal game has been tentatively switched to 7:30 p.m., however, so that it can be shown nationally on ESPN. But, if ABC decides this weekend to pick that game up, instead of UCLA at Arizona, it will be moved back to 12:30 p.m.

Because of the sacks suffered by Todd Marinovich on the Trojans’ memorable drive last Saturday, he was officially credited with 106 yards gained on that march, during which he completed 10 of 16 passes. . . . Marinovich’s wrist on his throwing arm, injured against Ohio State, continues to bother him. Although no serious damage has been found, he will wear a cast when not playing, probably for the next three weeks. He says the wrist hurts, but doesn’t impede his throwing. Apparently not.

THE RIVALRY CONTINUES BRET JOHNSON With the Bruin running game continuing to sputter, the El Toro High product went to the air against California for all three of his team’s touchdowns in a winning effort. In all, the redshirt freshman completed 14 of 18 passes for 166 yards. The fact that he used seven different receivers and scrambled for 18 yards in five carries constantly kept the Bears off balance. SEASON STATISTICS Four-game totals PASSING: 68 of 107, 7 TDs, 4 INT YARDS PASSING: 821 RUSHING: 22 for 10 yards, 1 TD TODD MARINOVICH For the second straight Saturday, he set a USC record--this of 27 pass completions in a game--but it was his 27th completion and conversion pass that will long be cherished by Trojan fans. The 27th (in 41 attempts)--a two-yard touchdown pass to Ricky Ervins with four seconds to play--ended as a frenetic 91-yard drive to draw USC to within a point of Washington State. His two-point conversion pass to Gary Wellman won it. SEASON STATISTICS Four-game totals PASSING: 65 of 108, 7 TDs, 3 INT YARDS PASSING: 726 RUSHING: 20 for -22 yards, 1TD

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