Michels Steps Into the Boselli Void : College football: Senior takes up challenge on USC offensive line with the NFL looming in the distance.

Some folks are going to be feeling pressure in the Coliseum on Saturday.

Coach John Robinson will be among them. He came back to USC promising to return Trojan football to national prominence and expectations are sky high for this team, which opens against San Jose State.

And what about the starting quarterback? For Brad Otton or Kyle Wachholtz, whichever it turns out to be, if this offense sputters early, the boos won’t be far behind.

Magazine cover boy Keyshawn Johnson, of course, will be in the spotlight. What happens if he muffs the first ball thrown to him?

Then there is John Michels, a fifth-year senior who starts at left offensive tackle.

“I know people are going to be comparing me to Tony Boselli,” he said.

“I know somewhere in the stands someone will be watching me and will say, ‘Well, he’s sure no Tony Boselli.’

“Well, I know that. I am not Tony Boselli. And that doesn’t bother me. Coach Robinson told me to play left tackle, not try to be Tony.

“If some people are unhappy I’m not Tony, that’s their problem. All that matters is that my teammates and coaches know that I can handle this assignment, that I will play hard, that I will do my best.”

Boselli was a four-year starter at the position, then became the NFL’s second draft pick last spring. For four years, Michels--he’s 6 feet 7 and 285 pounds--watched, learned and nearly despaired.

“I waited a long time for this,” he said, referring to his first start. “This will be a sweet day. I earned this.

“There were a lot of times when I wondered if coming to USC was a mistake. Colorado was my second choice, and I’d look at their roster, wondering how I’d have fit in.

“But you know what? I wouldn’t have been half the player I am today had I gone to Colorado. I learned a lot, playing behind Tony. He was a guy who could have been outstanding just on his size [6-8 and 320] and strength, but he didn’t want to settle for that.

“He developed great technique too. I learned a lot from him about working hard, how you go to the next level. He took his game to the point where if he didn’t drive his man 10 or 15 yards downfield, he felt like he really hadn’t made the block.”

Michels has a thin dossier. He played in Boselli’s spot in the second halves of last season’s routs of California (61-0) and Texas Tech (55-14), and in the fourth quarters of the Baylor, Washington State and Arizona games.

Otherwise he was on the kicking teams. And before that, he was a defensive player, stuck behind another All-American, Willie McGinest. In two seasons, he made one tackle.

Michels was a backup defensive lineman in his sophomore season when then-defensive coordinator Don Lindsey suggested he switch to offense.

Offensive line coach Mike Barry, who last year called Boselli the best offensive lineman he’d coached, said this week no one expects Michels to be Boselli.

“The only pressure I want Michels to feel is the feeling that ‘I’m the starter, I’m in here for 60, 70 plays and I have to play to the best of my ability,’ ” Barry said.

Michels, who got his degree in religious studies last spring, evaluates himself highest as a run blocker.

“My run blocking is solid,” he said. “I can get on a block and stay on it. It’s a great feeling, to execute a block properly, then sensing that a running back has just gone through.

“Pass blocking is harder for me, but I work hard on it.”

And despite his late start, Michels hopes to follow Boselli into the NFL.

“Coach Barry told me if I have 12 solid games this year, I’ll be on an NFL roster next year.”

That would put three USC offensive tackles in the NFL in two seasons. Senior right tackle Norberto Garrido, at 6-7 and 325, is a probable high NFL draft pick, USC coaches say.

Michels and Garrido play next to guards Kyle Ramsay, 285 pounds, and Phalen Pounds, 310, and center Jeremy Hogue, 285.

Michels, who sometimes plays the guitar and sings at a club near USC and at Christian youth meetings, said he had a near miss with the drug culture when growing up in La Jolla.

“La Jolla is known as an affluent area, but it had a major youth drug problem when I was in high school there,” he said.

“I was drinking beer when I was in the seventh grade. Young people have an enormous need to fit in somewhere, and if that means drugs, that’s where they’ll go.

“I became a Christian my sophomore year in high school, and that saved me from all that. Meetings, Bible-study groups, youth ministries--all that kept me away from drugs.”

His faith and hard work, he said, are about to pay dividends.

“This has been a maturing experience for me,” he said. “Not being able to start until now, I learned that not everything in life is handed to you on a silver platter. Some things just require hard work. Well, I put in my time. I’m ready now.”