He Worked His Way Into USC’s Line : College football: Derrick Deese wasn’t recruited out of Culver City High, but he made himself a great player at El Camino College.

As a starting offensive guard at USC, where All-American linemen are as prevalent as winning football teams, you would guess Derrick Deese was recruited by almost every major college in the country.

Guess again.

Besides failing to earn a minimum score on the Scholastic Aptitude Test as required by NCAA Bylaw 14.3, more commonly known as Proposition 48, Deese was disparaged by his coach at Culver City High.

“He apparently told people that I couldn’t play,” Deese said.

Unhappy and seemingly unwanted, Deese was ready to give up football after high school.

“I was pretty hurt,” he said. “I thought my career was over.”

Enter Gene Engle, offensive line coach at El Camino College, who convinced Deese that, despite what he might have heard elsewhere, he had the potential to play major college football.

Deese developed into an honorable-mention junior college All-American at El Camino and, just as impressively, earned an associate of arts degree, completing more than 60 units of classwork in about 1 1/2 years, including two sessions of summer school.

That made him eligible to transfer last spring, and this time around, Deese was in demand.

“We wanted to bring in the best junior college offensive lineman in the country, and we felt that he was that guy,” John Matsko, USC’s offensive line coach, said of the 6-foot-3, 260-pound Deese.

Deese made trips to Colorado, Pittsburgh, Fresno State and Oregon, ultimately choosing USC, in part because his strength, he believed, was pass blocking.

With Todd Marinovich, USC would pass a lot, he assumed.

“And as an offensive lineman, I wanted to go to the best school for offensive linemen,” Deese said. “Right now, that’s SC.”

He enrolled in January and moved into the starting lineup by the end of spring practice--a rare feat for a rookie at USC, especially a rookie offensive lineman.

Because of the variety of responsibilities faced by offensive linemen from play to play, quarterback is considered the only position more difficult to grasp.

“He’s an exceptionally talented player, and we had a need at that position,” Matsko said. “He came in and filled that need.”

Deese’s rise has been dramatic.

At Culver City, he played for a team that was 0-10 when he was a senior. Fred Fuller, who coached the team, doesn’t deny that he bad-mouthed Deese.

“If you don’t tell the recruiters the truth, they’re not going to listen to you anymore,” said Fuller, who was fired after the season. “The other thing is, I don’t ever want to talk a kid into a situation where he can’t compete.

“So, if a recruiter comes in, I tell him exactly what happened.”

According to Fuller, what happened with Deese, who missed half his junior season with a broken thumb, was that he didn’t properly train for his senior season.

“I’m not saying he didn’t work out in the weight room,” Fuller said. “I’m saying he didn’t come into the weight room. He didn’t prepare in any way. And he was a big, overweight kid. As soon as stress was put on his body, he collapsed.”

Slowed by ankle injuries, Deese had a mediocre season.

But El Camino’s Engle saw his potential.

“He had a lot of raw ability, great feet; he was a good athlete,” said Engle, whose most difficult task in recruiting Deese was persuading him to give football another try. “I knew that with more size and discipline, he could be a great player.”

More than anything, Engle said, Deese needed to mature.

At El Camino, he fought with teammates and, despite his ability, was only a part-time starter as a freshman, sharing time at tackle with a sophomore as the Warriors posted a 9-1-1 record.

“Having him sit was good for him,” Engle said. “He wasn’t so big for his britches. He emerged much more mature as a sophomore.”

El Camino was 10-1 and won the Mission Conference last season. And after Deese was named to the all-conference first team, two opposing coaches told Engle that if the El Camino coaches had nominated Deese as the conference’s most valuable player, they would have voted for him.

“That’s how much they thought of him and how good he was,” Engle said. “He was such a good athlete that we did things with him you wouldn’t usually do with a tackle--pulling him out on screens and doing some trapping things with him.”

A tackle in high school and at El Camino, Deese was reluctant to make the move to guard at USC, but quickly changed his mind after seeing that he was dwarfed by the Trojan tackles, including starters Pat Harlow (6 feet 7, 270 pounds) and Michael Moody (6-7, 285).

“With his athletic ability, guard is a good position for him,” Engle said of Deese, who weighed about 275 pounds last season but is down to about 260.

In USC’s 19-14 victory over Penn State two weeks ago, Deese was one of the Trojans’ best players and their most improved from the previous game against Syracuse, Coach Larry Smith said.

“I worked hard to get here, so once I got here, I wasn’t about to let down,” Deese said.

And besides, if Engle says that he is better at guard, Deese isn’t about to argue. He has developed a close relationship with his former coach. If Engle hadn’t kept after him three years ago, “I wouldn’t be playing ball,” Deese said.

And USC might still be trying to fill a big hole in its line.