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Second Knight : Sammy Followed Ryan to USC, but It Wasn’t as Easy as Robinson Thought

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

In January of 1993, John Robinson stood at the front door of the Riverside home of Sam and Blanche Knight, ringing the doorbell.

Only days earlier, Robinson had been hired as USC’s football coach for the second time, and he was in a hurry. He probably wondered, as he waited for someone to answer the door, where Terry Donahue was that night.

Or Lou Holtz.

The Knights are the parents of Sammy Dee Knight, then a standout defensive back at nearby Rubidoux High. Robinson wanted him for USC.

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Robinson figured he had tradition working for him. Ryan Knight, Sammy’s older brother, had been a prominent tailback at USC in the 1980s.

What the coach didn’t know, however, was that Ryan Knight had wound up as a backup fullback at USC, after having led the team in rushing for two seasons, and that his mother was still sore about it.

And so, after anticipating one of those cozy, folksy recruiting visits, Robinson instead got a finger-wagging lecture from Blanche Knight.

“She made it quite plain that she’d sent one son to USC and that it hadn’t turned out like they’d hoped,” Robinson recalled. “I told her I was new, that I hoped she’d judge me on what would happen in the future, not what happened before I got there.”

So far, no letters have found their way to Robinson’s desk, complaining about Sammy Knight’s playing time. In 1993, Knight became the first freshman USC starter at safety since the World War II era.

He started every game last year as a sophomore and evokes comparisons to a player he says is his idol, Ronnie Lott.

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Dennis Thurman, a teammate of Lott at USC and now Knight’s position coach, says it’s a valid comparison.

“Sammy is driven to compete,” he said. “It’s his passion--just as it was for Ronnie here. “If he gets beat in practice, you see it then. He’s saying, ‘That’s not supposed to happen. That can’t happen.’

“Sammy doesn’t play football because it’s fun. He plays because it’s a way of life to him. Take football away from him and he’d go through a long period where he wouldn’t be able to function, like Ronnie wouldn’t.”

Even though both are from the Riverside area, Knight has never met Lott. He has, however, spent hours watching him on film.

“I have an old reel of movie film at home with Lott and Thurman on it, and I’ve watched it for years,” he said.

Knight, 6 feet 1 and 195 pounds, is the leader in a talented and deep secondary. There were seven returning defensive backs, and then newcomers Daylon McCutcheon and Ken Haslip asserted themselves early in summer camp.

Knight and Micah Phillips started at safety in the 45-7 victory over San Jose State last Saturday. The cornerbacks were Brian Kelly and Quincy Harrison. The backups are veterans, Mario Bradley, Grant Pearsall and Jesse Davis.

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To a man, Knight says, they view themselves as “supreme athletes.”

“We’re all better than we were and we’re all being pressed by the new guys,” he said.

“Look at Quincy Harrison. He was a good corner last year. Now he has confidence and he’s making great plays all over the field. Look at Pearsall. He’s so much bigger and stronger than last year and that’s made him play with more confidence.”

Knight, considered one of USC’s hardest hitters, gave his unit some good marks for the opening victory, but says he wants a more watchful secondary.

“I want to be more aware of formations, what a team is trying to do against us,” he said. “I think we all need to get better at that. And we need to do everything quicker, faster.”

And, Knight said, despite his mother’s misgivings, he really didn’t need a sales pitch from Robinson to pick USC. He got that from his older brother Ryan.

“Ryan urged me to come to SC,” Sammy said.

“Not once have I ever heard him complain about his SC years. He comes to all the games and gets pretty excited watching me play.”

Blanche and Sam Knight Sr., a prison correctional officer, met at Riverside City College and married in 1965. Knight played for Jerry Tarkanian’s 1964 state championship RCC team.

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Sammy is the youngest of their five children, all of whom have university degrees except for Ryan and Sammy.

“Ryan left USC a few units shy of his degree and he’s promised me he’s going back to get it,” his mother said. “I still jump on his case about that.”

When Thurman and defensive coordinator Keith Burns speak of Knight as “tending to be where the ball is,” it’s not news to his high school coach, Wayne Cochran.

“That was his trademark,” said Cochran, coach at Rubidoux.

“One game, he had four interceptions and had a fifth in his hands and dropped it.”

“All the West Coast schools and Colorado recruited him, but when Robinson got the SC job, that’s where he wanted to go.”

Robinson remembers Knight’s mother doing most of the talking.

“Sammy said three words that night and I think he’s said about three words to me since he’s been at SC,” he said.

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