Smith Gets Hired at Missouri : College football: Former USC coach will try to resurrect Tiger program.

Larry Smith, forced into coaching exile after USC’s embarrassing Freedom Bowl loss last year, was hired Wednesday to resurrect a Missouri program that hasn’t had a winning season in 10 years.

The former USC coach flew to the Columbia, Mo., campus Wednesday evening and will be introduced this afternoon at a formal news conference. He becomes Missouri’s third coach since 1983.

Smith, 54, replaces the likeable, but unsuccessful Bob Stull, whose five-year record of 15-38-2 was punctuated by a 3-7-1 finish this season and a 16-game road losing streak. Stull’s failure to show progress--the Tigers suffered, among other things, a 73-0 defeat to Texas A&M; in September--ultimately convinced Missouri Chancellor Charles Kiesler and then-athletic director Dan Devine to make a coaching change at season’s end.

According to sources familiar with the selection process, Smith wasn’t considered the early favorite. Vince Tobin, who played and later was an assistant coach at Missouri, was supposedly the front-runner when the selection process began. But as Kiesler, Devine and consultant Al Onofrio, a former Tiger coach hired to assist in identifying and evaluating candidates, made their inquiries, Smith’s name continued to be mentioned. Among Smith’s supporters were Florida State Coach Bobby Bowden, Penn State Coach Joe Paterno and former Michigan coach Bo Schembechler.

Smith arrives with a solid reputation and a 17-year record of 110-80-6. His 44-25-3 mark at USC included three Rose Bowl appearances, but only a 1-4 postseason record. When the Trojans were upset, 24-7, by little-regarded Fresno State in last year’s Freedom Bowl, Smith’s fate was sealed. He resigned three days later, his six-year career at USC remembered more for the Freedom Bowl loss than anything else.

Missouri didn’t seem to mind. Kiesler, who also announced Wednesday that associate athletic director Joe Castiglione would replace Devine beginning in February, gave Smith a five-year contract and said he will honor it regardless of record. Only an ethical or NCAA rules violation would cause Missouri to consider an early termination.

“Every consideration regarding a successful future for Tiger football points to Larry Smith as exactly the right person in this country for MU today,” Kiesler said.

Kiesler wasn’t the only one hailing the hire. Fresno State Coach Jim Sweeney, who has since had a falling out with Smith, said Missouri made the perfect choice.

“I think Missouri got a guy who’s one of the best in the business,” Sweeney said.

Smith inherits a program that last played in a bowl game 10 years ago. Attendance has decreased from more than 60,000 fans in the early-to-mid-1980s, to about a 40,000 average this past season. The program also has been plagued by a difficult non-conference schedules, mediocre athletic facilities, tough academic entrance requirements and an inability to recruit the top players from talent-rich Kansas City and St. Louis.

But according to Kiesler, the new staff will benefit from somewhat relaxed academic admissions standards. On occasion, the university will make special exceptions for recruits who meet NCAA academic requirements, but fall short of Missouri’s higher standards. However, Smith has been told that if a special admission athlete fails academically, the scholarship will remain unfilled for the remainder of the five years.