Marinovich Goes From a Colt to a Trojan Horse : Quarterback: There were a lot of doubters when the season started, but nearly everybody believes in his talent now.

For just a moment, between the waves of reporters coming at him to ask questions, the tall red-haired player with the cocksure smile looked around and studied all that had become his domain.

It was only a messy locker room, strewn with everything from shoes and socks to supporters, both the elastic and human kind.

But to the young man named Marinovich, age 20 going on 45, it was everything that boyhood dreams are made of. All around him, fellow USC football players, most of them older and most of them doubters when he first came on the scene, sang his praises. Reporters not only asked him about him; they asked them about him.

The phrase “born leader” came from one of his receivers, junior Frank Griffin.

Another receiver, senior John Jackson, called him “my right-hand man, even if he is left-handed.”

Yet another, the team’s leader in spirit and machismo, senior All-American Tim Ryan, a defensive tackle, called him “precocious” and added that he “has become a great player and a great friend of mine.”

So it was at the Rose Bowl Monday for Todd Marinovich, the freshman quarterback from Capistrano Valley. In one of the toughest situations in sport, the pressure of the closing minutes of a tied Rose Bowl game, Marinovich had delivered.

He had taken his Trojans on a late drive, had set up the winning touchdown with a key third-down pass to his buddy, Jackson, and had called the winning touchdown play, an off-tackle blast by Ricky Ervins, like he was Bobby Layne with a full-week’s growth of beard.

“Todd said we’d run 86 off right tackle,” Ervins said. “He said it would work, that it would go all the way. I said, ‘Oh, really.’ He said it would go. Next thing, I just walked into the end zone.” Marinovich’s version was similar, yet more understated.

“I just told the linemen to stay on their blocks a bit longer on this one, that it’d go,” he said.

And said like a true veteran, a guy with 20 games or so under his belt. He didn’t spit on the floor when he said it, but he could have.

So much has happened to Marinovich since Pat O’Hara went down with a knee injury scant days before USC was to open against Illinois; since he fairly well stunk out the joint against the Fighting Illini and had his older, grizzled teammates beseeching the heavens for an alternative to this local kid with mouth to match press clippings.

Just six months after his 20th birthday, he had completed 197 passes for 2,400 yards and 16 touchdowns, had led the Trojans to an 8-2-1 record, a Pac-10 title and had led his team into the Rose Bowl. The doubters were now believers.

And after passing for 178 yards, rushing for 35 more and engineering the late 75-yard scoring drive that ended Bo Schembechler’s career with a boo, Marinovich had truly come of age. The colt had become a real Trojan horse.

“I couldn’t ask for anything more from him,” said Jackson, who caught five passes for 56 yards, ended the season with 62 and established a Pac-10 record with a reception in his 37th consecutive game Monday. “As a receiver, your MVP has to be the quarterback. When he took over at the beginning of the year, we were all worried. But he worked with me, we kept at it, and I can say now that Todd has had more to do than anybody with my career blossoming like it has.”

Perhaps the game’s key connection was Marinovich to Jackson with just over two minutes left. It was third down and five at Michigan’s 44, and this drive was going to be it for the Trojans. Do or be tied. Marinovich went back, found Jackson in the middle of the field, and USC was suddenly looking very rosy at the Wolverine 24. Four plays later, it was 17-10.

“I’m supposed to be reading on that play, looking over everybody,” Marinovich said. “But the truth is, I just looked at John, watched him all the way. And there he was.”

To Jackson, it was equally simple.

“Surprisingly, that was the only time all day that we called that play,” he said. “I noticed their linebackers weren’t getting back far enough, and they didn’t on that play, so I just curled into a spot and the ball was there, just like it always is.”

Jackson wasn’t surprised. A story about the first Marinovich-to-Jackson connection explained why.

“He doesn’t like me to tell this, but he said it’s OK today, and we still kid about it a lot,” Jackson said, recalling a scenario with Marinovich that goes back to 1985.

“I was a senior at Bishop Amat High School,” Jackson said. “He was at Mater Dei, before he transferred to Capistrano Valley. Even back then, when he was really just a kid, he was the whole show. Our whole defense was geared for him. They sent four guys out for passes on every play.

“Well, this night, I catch three touchdown passes and we win, 28-8. But the thing I remembered more than anything else is that I played defense, too, back then and I made a pick (interception) against him. I think that was an omen. That was 60-some receptions ago, the start of a real good hookup.”

Near the end of Jackson’s story, Marinovich walked past, smiled and said, “He was just lucky that night.”

Then he swaggered off into the night, looking part Ken Stabler and part Clint Eastwood.

Jackson watched him leave, sighed, and said, “I wish I had a couple of years of eligibility left.”