USC Banking on Lavin’s Help : Former Chaminade Star Pays to Play While Hoping to Win Full Ride

For more than two years now, Tim Lavin has been regularly slammed to the ground, stepped on, kicked, punched and elbowed. He has run full-speed into monsters like linebacker Junior Seau and come up with birds chirping in his head.

He has come to know pain like a skunk knows what stinks.

And what’s more, Lavin doesn’t mind the pain a bit.

But Lavin, a backup fullback on the USC football team, is starting to get a bit angry these days. He is angry because, unlike most others on the USC team, he is being required to pay for the privilege of being beaten senseless on the practice field.

Lavin, a former standout tailback at Chaminade High, is a walk-on player for the Trojans. And although he has impressed USC Coach Larry Smith and others on the coaching staff enough to be ranked in the top four on the depth chart at fullback, he has been tendered only a half-scholarship, which means that his share of the bill for a year at the private school comes to more than $10,000.

Lavin, a 6-foot-1, 210-pound sophomore, is angry because, after a brutal spring practice, he was told by Smith that he had made the big time. He was told that because of his efforts, a full scholarship would be requested. And it was, apparently.

But it also was rejected by USC Athletic Director Mike McGee.

“I remember the day in April that Coach Smith came to me and gave me the news that he was requesting a full scholarship for me,” Lavin said. “After a lot of bad days, that was a very nice day. I was thrilled. He said it would be done by May.

“It wasn’t until June that I heard another word. And the word was that I was only getting a half-scholarship. Coach Smith told me that Mike McGee said the school was making budget cuts. They apparently made the cuts with my scholarship.”

That, according to Smith, is not exactly what happened. The bottom line, the coach said, is that the school was not willing to hand out a full ride to a player who has not yet proven his value under game conditions.

“What it comes down to is this: When you put a kid on half-scholarship, it’s because you think he can help your ballclub,” Smith said. “But Tim really has not proven himself in any real playing time. He has worked himself into position in spring practice where we think he’s going to prove himself worthy, but he hasn’t yet.

“I’ve been through this before. You put a guy on full scholarship and he tends to level off. This (half-scholarship) provides some incentive and some motivation for him to continue to improve.

“But the partial scholarship is a reward for his efforts so far.”

The move, Smith said, was not in any way related to the school’s athletic budget.

“It is more of a motivational-type thing,” Smith said. “And let me say this: Tim is a hard-working guy, and he has a real chance to be a big contributor to this team.”

If you’re getting the idea that all of this has Lavin a bit steamed, well, he’s really just getting warmed up. He had no idea that football could become so frustrating.

Things weren’t like this in 1987 when he ran wild at Chaminade, piling up 1,781 yards and 25 touchdowns en route to being named Player of the Year in the Desert-Mountain Conference.

“That year, I never enjoyed football so much,” he said. “Now, I still love it, but it’s just not very enjoyable to work your tail off and see no return. I don’t always feel that the coaches are even watching. It’s really frustrating.”

Despite his high school performances, college recruiters did not beat a path to his door. He was wooed by several NCAA Division II schools, including Cal State Northridge and UC Davis. But he had his sights set on a Division I program and was forced to go shopping.

There were no takers. Several schools, including USC, told him to show up at practice and he would be given a legitimate chance.

He believed them.

He redshirted in 1988, meaning he had earned the right to get his gray matter scrambled five days a week at practice with no hope of playing in a game. Last year he came back bigger and stronger and was rewarded with brief action at fullback in an early-season game against Utah State. In that game, he carried the ball twice. On the first, he gained six yards. On the second, he picked up 14.

And then he was told to take a seat.

He also saw limited action on the special teams but never again lined up in the USC backfield. Then, after a strong showing in spring practice this year, he was ready to move up. And he apparently has.

But . . .

“Tim is a determined and hard-working player,” Smith said. “He adds fine depth to our fullback corps. We’re confident he can produce if called upon.”

This kind of talk is not designed to boost a player’s ego. It is the equivalent of responding to a question about the physical appearance of a friend’s new wife by saying she has a good personality and can dance well.

“The bottom line is that the kids who came in with the scholarships will always get the break over those of us who didn’t,” Lavin said.

“USC has money invested in those guys. They have nothing invested in us. This has been the most frustrating and agonizing thing I’ve ever gone through.

“You prove yourself, and you get knocked down again. Then you prove yourself again and you get knocked down again. It’s so difficult for me to keep getting beaten out by the scholarship guys.

“If they screw up on the field, they’re right back in there for the next play. If I screw up, it’s ‘Get the hell off the field!’ ”

Lavin, however, has no intention of getting off anyone’s field.

“When I decided to walk on at USC, everyone thought I was stupid,” Lavin said. “Friends and parents of friends from high school all thought the same thing. No one ever said anything to my face, but I heard a lot of talk through the grapevine that ‘So-and-so said you’d get killed at USC,’ or ‘He must have rocks in his head.’

“They don’t know it, but those people are helping me get through this ordeal. When I hear the negative things, I get fired up to prove them wrong. And I will. Because I am determined to accomplish some things here.

“I think a lot of players in high school have the athletic ability to play at Division I schools, but they don’t have the determination to do it. I do have it. And I want the people at USC to know one thing: I intend to play football here and I won’t take no for an answer. I will play football here. It will happen. Count on it.”

Before that happens, however, Lavin knows he has to dislodge at least three other fullbacks. Raoul Spears is listed as the starter, with Lavin fighting it out with Rory Brown and Mike Mooney for the backup position. Spears, Brown and Mooney, however, seem to have an edge.

“They all came in with full scholarships,” Lavin said. “And believe me, that means a lot. There is a definite split between the scholarship players and the walk-ons. It’s just like segregation. Everyone knows who the scholarship guys are, and everyone definitely knows who the few of us are who are not full-scholarship guys.

“Even the lists the coaches post on the bulletin boards tell the story. They put the scholarship guys in alphabetical order, and below the last guy on that list come the names of the walk-ons. We have our own list. Almost like our own team.

“We are the guys with the asterisks next to our names.”