Was Toledo Game Plan Also a Job Interview?

In the wreckage that was the USC football team’s locker room late in the day last Nov. 18, Trojan linebacker Scott Fields seemed to sum up the day’s theme.

UCLA had just upset USC, 24-20, with an imaginative, innovative offensive game plan, and Fields saluted the victors.

“They were prepared to play us . . . I mean, they were really prepared to play us,” he said.

Enough said.

It was a game in which most observers expected USC to end UCLA’s winning streak in the series. Instead, thanks in large measure to offensive coordinator Bob Toledo’s game plan, UCLA’s and his own streak in the series went to 5-0.

Toledo, a USC defensive backfield coach for John Robinson from 1976-78, was 3-0 with USC in the UCLA series and 2-0 as a UCLA assistant.

Thursday, Robinson saluted his old assistant, who today will be introduced as UCLA’s 14th head football coach.

“Bob and I worked together at SC . . . he’s been a friend of mine for years,” Robinson said. “I think he’s a great guy and an outstanding coach.”

The last UCLA-USC game was supposed to have been an uneven matchup of a talented USC team against a crippled UCLA offense, forced to go without its injured star tailback, Karim Abdul-Jabbar.

Instead, the 91,363 spectators watched a patched-together UCLA offense cripple the USC defense.

UCLA’s misdirection plays, reverses, flea-flickers and multiple formations had USC’s defense off balance at the critical point in the game--when the Bruins won it with a school-yard play, the flea-flicker.

In the second quarter, on second and eight at USC’s 35, Toledo called the flea-flicker, which put the Bruins up, 21-0.

Freshman quarterback Cade McNown gave the ball to Derek Ayers, who handed off to Jim McElroy, who pulled up suddenly and lofted a touchdown pass to Kevin Jordan. USC cornerback Brian Kelly had bought the run, and was badly burned.

That play, and a fourth-quarter field goal, were the difference in creating the longest winning streak in the series’ 65-year history, five.

UCLA’s supposedly weakened offense that day outgained USC, 382 yards to 362, despite having the ball 5 1/2 minutes less than the Trojans.

One USC player Thursday acknowledged Toledo’s game plan of Nov. 18, but grudgingly.

“My feeling on trick plays is that they’re something you have to resort to,” said safety Micah Phillips. “I like to play one-on-one football. They knew they couldn’t beat us deep, so they had to resort to trick stuff.”

Athletic Director Peter Dalis of UCLA, when asked Thursday if the USC game plan ended up getting Toledo his job, admitted that it had played a part in his decision, but also pointed to Toledo’s offense in last year’s 59-23 win over Arizona State. The Bruins gained a school-record 679 yards in that game.

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Bob Toledo’s Coaching Record

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Year Team W L T PCT 1974 UC Riverside 8 3 0 .727 1975 UC Riverside 7 3 0 .700 1979 Pacific 3 7 0 .300 1980 Pacific 4 8 0 .333 1981 Pacific 5 6 0 .455 1982 Pacific 2 9 0 .181 Totals 29 36 0 .446

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