USC Game Plan Returns With Student Body Right : College football: Robinson promises Sample he will obey the rules, tells alumni he will win at highest level.

John Robinson was welcomed back to USC as football coach on Sunday with open arms.

Several dozen well-wishers were on hand at a news conference in Heritage Hall to introduce him as the successor to Larry Smith, who resigned under fire Friday after six seasons.

They applauded when university President Steven Sample presented Robinson, who was 67-14-2 as the Trojans’ coach from 1976-82.

And Sample told them exactly what they had come to hear when he said: “I think John Robinson brings to this post a reassertion of the Trojan tradition.”

Robinson, too, seemed to say all the right things, although split end Johnnie Morton expressed concern when told that Robinson planned to install an offense that emphasized the running game.

Robinson seemed to delight everyone else when he mentioned the horse, the band, “student body right” and an emphasis on beating Notre Dame.

“I can’t tell you how much of an honor and a privilege it is to have a chance to come back to USC,” said Robinson, 57, who coached nine seasons with the Rams before resigning under fire after the 1991 season.

“And I don’t know that I quite understood it until my wife (Linda) and I walked onto the campus a couple of hours ago. . . .

“I got a lot of feelings that had been dormant in me for a long time. And those are great feelings.”

Robinson said he signed a multi-year contract, but declined to disclose details.

He said that a year off from coaching--Robinson worked last season as a commentator for CBS Sports and Prime Ticket--helped to rejuvenate him.

“I never understood what sabbaticals were for,” he said, laughing. “I do now.”

As for his plans, he said: “The thing is to win at the highest level, and we intend to do that.”

And in the same way USC won under him previously, he added.

“I can assure you that student body right will be run about the same amount of times as student body left,” said Robinson, promising a return to the power game that Smith abandoned last season. “We will go back to that kind of an approach to the game.”

That will probably appease the alumni, but Robinson might have a hard time persuading at least one of his new players about the need to try a different approach.

“That’s kind of outdated,” said Morton, a senior who has caught 113 passes during three seasons at USC. “We don’t have the personnel for the power game.

“I don’t think you can say you’ll run an offense without looking at who you’ve got.

“We’ll get killed if we do that.”

Robinson worked three USC games as a commentator for Prime Ticket last season, and also attended several practices to prepare for those assignments.

“Times have changed,” he said, speaking of college athletics in general. “Football has not changed. It does not change. It evolves some, certainly, but the premises of football--it’s a physical game . . . if you entertain any chance to win, you must play the game physically--that has not changed. It will never change.

“Certainly, there are many skilled athletes (here) now that throw and catch the ball, but we threw and caught the ball well (during Robinson’s tenure), too.”

During Robinson’s previous tenure, USC was twice sanctioned for rules violations, once by the Pacific 10 Conference and once by the NCAA, but Robinson said he had made a promise to Sample to follow the letter of the law.

“We had a problem here in the past,” he said, “and (Sample) said he wouldn’t fire me, he said he would shoot me personally if anything happened.”

Robinson also talked about the progress that USC has made in improving the academic standing of its football players since McGee’s arrival in 1984.

He said the academic-support system at USC is “light years ahead of where we were when I was here before.”

Sample said he was comfortable with his choice of Robinson.

“John Robinson was never named (as) being guilty of any violations,” he said, “but my guess is that if he had been coach under (Sample or former president James Zumberge), he would have had the same absolutely clean record that we’ve enjoyed the last several years.”

Sample, who met with Robinson last Wednesday in Phoenix, gave the new coach three directives: graduate players, comply with NCAA rules and win.

USC won its last national championship under Robinson, sharing the title with Alabama in 1978. The Trojans won Rose Bowl games after the 1976, 1978 and 1979 seasons.

Under Robinson, who was USC’s offensive coordinator under John McKay from 1972-74, tailback Charles White won the Heisman Trophy in 1979 and tailback Marcus Allen won it two years later.

Robinson was 6-1 against Notre Dame, 5-2 against UCLA.

He won 81.9% of his games, best of any coach at USC since Elmer C. (Gloomy Gus) Henderson, who was 45-7 from 1919-24.

He was 79-74 with the Rams.

Robinson phoned McGee last October, asking McGee to alert him to any available college coaching positions.

When Smith entertained overtures from Auburn last month, McGee considered Robinson and two others as candidates to fill the vacancy if Smith decided to leave USC. McGee declined to identify the other two candidates.

Robinson was chosen because of his ties to USC, McGee said, calling it “an easy choice.”

McGee will leave USC to accept the same position at South Carolina, and a successor--Robinson’s immediate supervisor--is not expected to be hired for several weeks. But Robinson said he accepted the job under those terms without trepidation.

“I’m confident that (the new athletic director) will be aligned with the vision that Dr. Sample has of this university,” Robinson said. “I don’t think the athletic director nor the football coach nor anybody else would be hired that didn’t pursue that vision and those objectives. So, I think we’re going to come in here with the same agenda.”

USC was 9-13-1 during its last two seasons under Smith, who was 0-6 against Notre Dame, 1-2-1 in his last four games against UCLA and 1-4 in bowl games, but Robinson said that he is not a savior.

“I’m not being brought in to save the program,” he said. “It’s my opportunity to contribute what I can.”

Said McGee: “We need to get back to the Rose Bowl next year.”