Will McGee’s Departure Affect Smith? : USC: School President Sample says he will give the new athletic director a chance to evaluate the situation.

USC President Steven Sample declined to speculate this week on how the departure of Mike McGee might affect the status of football Coach Larry Smith.

McGee, who announced last Monday that he is quitting his job as athletic director at USC to accept the same position at South Carolina, has been one of Smith’s most ardent supporters since hiring the former Arizona coach to replace Ted Tollner before the 1987 season.

“Whenever you search for new people, you always have the potential that it will have an effect,” Sample said. “The new athletic director would be Larry Smith’s immediate supervisor. And, of course, he or she would be the supervisor of every one of our coaches. So yes, it could have an effect in that sense.

“But I would not single out Larry Smith. I would simply say that, whenever you have a group of professionals, as we do in the case of our varsity coaches, and you go out and search for a new immediate supervisor of that group of professionals, it could have an effect on any one of (them).”

Details of a contract extension signed by Smith before the 1991 season are not known, but it is believed that he is signed through at least two more seasons.

Sample said he will not make decisions regarding the status of any of USC’s coaches before McGee’s replacement has a chance to evaluate them.

“One of the things that is very important to me--and I think it’s important to most presidents--I don’t want to be the athletic director at USC,” Sample said. “I don’t have the time for that, and I don’t think I have the right background.

“I want to have an excellent athletic director, a person in whom I have a lot of confidence, and then I want to look to that person for leadership when it comes to selecting and guiding the coaches.”

Sample said that, among other qualifications, he would like McGee’s successor to have previous ties to the university.

“All other things being equal, I would prefer to appoint someone who has had USC experience, (someone) who’s had experience in the Trojan family,” he said.

Sample has appointed USC trustee Pat Haden, a former Trojan and Ram quarterback, to head the search committee.

The rest of the committee has not been named, Sample said, but he added that he would like to have an athletic director by the end of February.

“I would think we could identify some very good candidates and open discussions with those candidates very promptly,” he said. “And I would hope we could move to a successful agreement (with the person selected) within the next two months or so.

“That may be optimistic, but I’m a professional optimist.”