Trojans’ Block of Gibraltar : Rose Bowl: Steady, hard-hitting fullback Leroy Holt is USC’s spiritual leader on and off the field.

When Ricky Ervins needed a block, Leroy was there.

When Larry Smith needed a speech, Leroy was there.

When Aaron Emanuel needed a friend, Leroy was there.

That’s what made the fumble so tough. For once, Leroy couldn’t be there.

Fullback Leroy Holt has been the spiritual leader of the Trojans almost since he arrived on the USC campus. He has been the keynote speaker in the locker room before games. He has been the spark plug in the huddle and the fireplug in the backfield.

Got a problem? Go see Leroy.

People weren’t used to seeing him in need of help.

So no one knew quite how to act when he fumbled in the closing minutes of last month’s USC-UCLA game, probably costing the Trojans a victory in a game that wound up a 10-10 tie.

Holt had never fumbled before. Not in high school, not in college. But with USC driving toward what could have been the go-ahead touchdown, Holt lost the ball on a handoff at the UCLA 15 with a little more than two minutes to play.

His friends tried to help lift his spirits after the game.

Emanuel, his roommate and best friend, told him: “Don’t let it get you down. You have done so much for this team and have never, ever fumbled before. It was a freak, freak thing.”

Holt would nod and force a smile when people tried to cheer him up. But the spiritual leader had lost his spirit.

It is a month later now, and Holt’s focus, along with that of his teammates, is on Monday’s Rose Bowl game against Michigan.

But he hasn’t forgotten the fumble. He can still see and feel it.

“I’ve tried to put it behind me,” he said. “But it’s still in the back of my mind and will always be. I can picture it today, right now, exactly how it went. (Quarterback) Todd (Marinovich) handed off perfectly, but I just never had control of it. The ball just slipped out of my hand, and I was history from there. I kind of feel like I lost the game for us. We could have gotten a field goal and won the game easily. To go in and do something like that is hard to take. But I’m a man and I can admit to it being my fault. I don’t think I’ve lost too many games since I’ve been here.

“(The fumble) is going to give me a little more incentive to go out and run wild in the Rose Bowl. I’m going to put it behind me when it comes to playing in this Rose Bowl game, but I’ll never forget it.”

Holt never dreamed he’d even be in a USC-UCLA game. Not even when he was running for Banning High School in Wilmington, where he was an All-City first-team fullback in his senior season.

He certainly had the numbers to attract recruiters. As a senior, he gained 1,200 yards and averaged 6.5 yards a carry. In one playoff game, running on a badly sprained ankle, he scored five touchdowns.

But run with the big boys? Forget it.

“I never thought I was good enough to play,” Holt said of his chances for landing at one of the nation’s top schools. “I was always thinking of UNLV or New Mexico State or someplace like that. I never thought of a big school like SC. It surprised me that I came here. I thought I was a pretty good back but I thought these guys were gods.

“Come to find out, though, that I was just as good an athlete as the rest of them.”

He got his first clue when 50 schools came recruiting.

“Maybe,” he told himself, “I can play. Maybe they see something I don’t see. And they did.” So did Holt, once he began practicing with the Trojans.

“I started to realize,” he said, “that, hey, these are the top-notch guys here. I’m at SC. Big-time program. Got out there and practiced with some of these guys and, man, I was doing great. I couldn’t understand for the life of me why I didn’t play that year (in his freshman season), but that’s how it works. You’ve got to wait your turn.”

It was worth the wait. Now a senior, Holt has rushed for 1,778 yards in his collegiate career, more than any other fullback in Trojan history, and is 15th on the team’s all-time list. He has rushed for 584 yards this season, the highest season total for a USC fullback in a decade, since the 649-yard season of a Trojan named Marcus Allen. Holt has not lost a yard in his last 117 carries, a streak that stretches back to the last Rose Bowl game.

But Holt’s value to USC can’t be defined by numbers. Some of his most valuable contributions have come when others, particularly Ervins, have the ball. Holt is first and foremost a blocker.

“I enjoy it,” he said. “I think you have to be crazy to block. To play a position like fullback where you’re constantly hitting somebody all the time, only a crazy man would do something like that.”

Especially considering that fullbacks rarely get the cheers for opening holes that help other guys make the big runs.

“That doesn’t really bother me,” Holt said, “because I expect it, being a fullback. You know you’re not going to get the headlines. Sometimes, it kind of gets to you when guys are doing great and they go for 1,000 yards, or they go for a long run and you know you made that key block. You know you’re not going to get any credit for the things that you do, but I love the game so much, it doesn’t even matter to me.”

That love shows through in Holt’s pregame talks, which have become a tradition at USC for the last three seasons. After the coaches have had their say, the staff turns the team over to Holt.

“A lot of guys plan those kinds of speeches,” Emanuel said, “but (Holt) never does. You can see it in his eyes. He gets teary-eyed and choked up when he speaks.

“He can also keep you laughing. He can be the team comedian. He gets us going even when we’re down. Everyone looks up to him. He’s a big brother to us.”

Especially to Emanuel, whose career at USC has been filled with frustration. Holt helped Emanuel through the dark days when he was on trial for striking a female student and when injuries caused him to spend more time in the trainer’s room than on the field.

“He also leads by example,” Emanuel said of Holt. “He can be tough, but he can also be soft. He can give you a hug and then go out there and knock the . . . out of somebody.”

Such a player can be a huge asset to a coach, as Smith, the Trojan coach, is the first to admit.

“There are days when you’re dragging,” he said, “and Leroy jumps up front and starts to get people picked up. For three years, he’s been voted the most inspirational player on our team, by the team. So that ought to tell you something.”

Sometimes, though, too much inspiration can be a dangerous thing in the hands of a man such as Holt.

As in the 1988 game at Arizona State.

“We had about 15 minutes before we were to go out on the field,” Smith said. “And Leroy started in on one of his tirades, walking around, ranting and raving, talking about how we had to win the championship (of the Pacific 10).

“He kicked this chair, and it jumped up in the air. I don’t think he expected that.”

Neither did linebacker Delmar Chesley, seated in the front row. The chair flew into his face, opening a cut above one eye that required five stitches to close.

“Everybody starting laughing,” Smith said. Everybody, that is, but Chesley. “It loosened everybody up, and we went out and played a heck of a game.”

The Trojans won, 50-0. But a lesson had been learned.

“When Leroy starts pacing and talking now,” Smith said, “guys stand back and put their helmets on.”