This Barnum Excels With Greatest of Ease : College football: USC fullback is a triple threat as runner, receiver and exceptional blocker.

Early last month, at a USC football picnic, Coach John Robinson had his seniors on the stage, interviewing them before about 1,500 Trojan backers.

He was asking each what they wanted to be doing 30 years hence. Then he thrust the microphone toward Terry Barnum.

“I want to be president of USC,” said Barnum. “Unless President Sample is still living . . . I mean . . . “

Robinson quickly pulled the mike away, before his fullback could get himself into more trouble.

“That didn’t quite come out the way I wanted it to,” a chagrined Barnum said later.

Maybe not. But USC president Steven B. Sample got the message.

“I understand this Barnum guy is after my job,” he said the other day.

“I’m delighted. And at the rate college presidents are wearing out, he’ll encounter a fast turnover when he’s ready.”

Recently, someone tried out Barnum’s hoped-for 2025 title, just to see how it rolled off the tongue: “Dr. Terrence J. Barnum, 14th president of the University of Southern California . . . “

“Hey, I like the sound of that,” Barnum said. “That sounds pretty good.

“But I need some short-term goals too. Already, my dad is asking me stuff like, ‘When are you gonna get a job?’

“But right now I don’t want to think about anything but this football season, and going to the Rose Bowl.”

And if USC’s 4-0 football team continues its roll into Pasadena on Jan. 1, its triple-threat fullback will be a college graduate. Barnum, who has a 3.20 GPA, will get his communications degree in December, a semester early and before season’s end.

Robinson, like any coach, is loath to speak of favorites on an 80-man team, but it’s plain Barnum’s game is something special to him.

“Terry Barnum is having a fabulous season,” he said recently. “He’s blocking very well and he’s in the heat of battle on every play.”

Barnum blocks as well as anyone on the team, catches passes almost as well as Keyshawn Johnson and runs with the best of them. Robinson’s assistant coaches often use the term complete package when asked about the 5-foot-10, 200-pounder.

You probably won’t see him on the 11 o’clock news scoring a touchdown, but if you look closely you’ll see him helping on one.

Saturday at the Coliseum, for example, USC, leading 3-0 late in the second quarter, had first and goal at Arizona State’s five. A play up the middle was called for backup tailback LaVale Woods. Barnum’s blocking assignment was ASU linebacker Pat Tillman.

First through the hole, Barnum hit Tillman high and just hard enough to cause him to lose a step. When he saw Woods following Barnum, Tillman, the only defender with a chance to reach Woods, dived and missed by an arm’s length.

It was a block executed with a touch of subterfuge.

“To hit a guy hard, you need to be accelerating right into him,” Barnum said, indicating he had thrown a changeup at Tillman.

“Generally, you can do that easier early in a game. But that guy had seen me run at that point, he had a sense of my speed. So just to be sure, I took something off as I approached him and I think that threw him off a little. And I hit him high, not low, so I’d be sure and maintain contact.”

So where does a guy learn to block like that?

Believe it or not, from his Pop Warner League coaches, Bill Myers and John Brown of the 13-0 Chatsworth Chiefs of a dozen or so years ago.

“They stressed blocking big time for little kids, and so did my dad,” Barnum said.

“To be a complete back, like Emmitt Smith, Marcus Allen or Thurman Thomas, you’ve got to block, run and catch. And the foundation for my blocking goes to those Pop Warner guys. Everything I’ve learned about blocking since then was just added to that foundation.”

Barnum, who hopes to join the NFL next year as a third-down back, is known as a big-play pass receiver at USC. And this is a guy who was adrift in USC’s defensive backfield for two years.

In early 1994, when Barnum was at the midpoint of what was beginning to look like a career as a USC sub, Robinson granted his request for a chance to play offense.

Barnum started 10 games last year, impressed everyone with his blocking, catching and running and was the team’s second-leading pass catcher, behind Johnson.

This season, he has caught six passes for 55 yards. As he did last year, he seems to lull opponents into inattention by serving primarily as a blocking back, then burning them with big-play receptions.

Against Houston, while Johnson was distracting the Cougars by lining up all over the field, Barnum sneaked into the end zone quietly and caught a 23-yard touchdown pass from Brad Otton.

But it is Barnum’s stinging blocks that coaches view with enthusiasm in game film reviews.

“He’s courageous,” offensive coordinator Mike Riley said. “That stands out to me more than anything about him. He’s overmatched all the time physically, but he’s a compact, powerful guy and he has the ability to get low and get leverage on bigger guys.

“On any average blocking assignment for Terry, he’s outweighed at least 30 pounds. What he does, it’s courageous.”