The Trojan War Continues : College football: Sample says he thought Robinson had stepped down, while Garrett and his ex-coach disagree about any agreement.

On the day after John Robinson’s firing, USC President Steven B. Sample admitted he walked into Wednesday’s news conference believing Robinson had agreed to step aside, and Athletic Director Mike Garrett countered by saying that Robinson went back on a plan and “conveniently made himself a victim.”

“I went into that press conference sincerely believing that in the event we were going to choose someone else as our football coach, John Robinson wished to step aside and take a new position at USC,” Sample said Thursday. “And that he did not wish, he did not want us to characterize our actions as firing him. And I was wrong on that point. Even though I said it in good faith, I was wrong on that point.”

Garrett, who fired Robinson without speaking to him, said he and Robinson had several times discussed a scenario under which Robinson would resign and take another job at USC.

“When John and I talked about the options, whether he was going to stay or he was going to leave, John said the most important thing was to do the right thing for USC,” Garrett said.

“He said, ‘If I stay, it’s self-explanatory. If you bring someone in and don’t think I should be here any longer, I want to do it in a positive vein.’ To use his phrase, do it with dignity.”

But by the time Robinson, after waiting weeks to learn his fate, heard widespread news reports that he was out and Paul Hackett was in as USC’s coach, any such plan was out the window.

Garrett didn’t try to reach Robinson by phone until around 9 p.m. Tuesday after the deal with Hackett was sealed, leaving a message on his answering machine asking him to call.

Robinson didn’t call, and the whole messy thing exploded the next day, when USC held a news conference without producing Hackett--even by telephone--and Robinson held his own fallen hero’s emotional farewell at a downtown hotel, inspiring a groundswell of indignation among USC players and alumni.

As for Sample being unaware Robinson hadn’t signed off on stepping aside, Garrett said: “John Robinson didn’t follow the understanding we thought we had--that I thought we had, because I’m conveying this to the president.”

Garrett added that he considered Robinson’s move a calculated manipulation of the media.

“I think John was always hoping he would be retained, and only after he realized he was not coming back, he lost his grace and reverted to a tack of making himself a victim,” Garrett said.

“He conveniently made himself a victim. It was convenient for the press, and convenient for all the stories that happened.”

A source close to Robinson called Garrett’s claims that a deal had been struck for Robinson to resign “preposterous.” The chances of Robinson taking another position at the university now seem nil.

Robinson, told of Garrett’s comments, said: “I don’t have anything to say to that at all. . . . We had no agreement. We had conversations about a variety of things.”

One thing is clear: They never had a conversation about the hiring of Hackett, Robinson’s former assistant.

“I called him to let him know I was sorry he had heard that [media reports of Hackett’s hiring] and that I would like to talk to him because we always talked about taking the high road,” said Garrett, who left a message on Robinson’s machine the second time he called and said he would have driven to Robinson’s home to talk to him if Robinson had called back.

“[But] he called [director of football operations] Joe Hubbard and told Joe Hubbard, ‘Go clean my office out. Garrett and I talked and I’m fired,’ ” Garrett said.

As of Thursday evening, neither Garrett nor Sample had spoken to Robinson yet, saying he wasn’t taking their calls. But Robinson was answering his phone when reporters called Thursday without screening the caller’s identity--just as he had Tuesday as late as 8 p.m.

“I called him three times,” Garrett said, including the time he spoke to Robinson’s wife, Linda, on Wednesday morning and was told he was unavailable. “Why would I call him again?”

USC’s trouble with telephones continued Thursday, when Hackett was finally made available by conference call after not commenting Wednesday--partly because he was busy with the Kansas City Chiefs’ game plan.

But in an embarrassing mistake, USC arranged the call with a company that used an open conference line--not one that mutes every line except the one open for a question and the one open for Hackett.

With tremendous media interest in Hackett’s first comments as USC coach, the result was a call filled with background chatter and radio station technical discussions. It even included a worker wishing a colleague, “Merry Christmas!”

Hackett, until then a bystander in the fumbled firing, was suddenly in the midst of it.

Persisting at first, an exasperated Hackett finally apologized to the media, saying, “Holy Toledo. This is a circus. . . . This is a flat circus.”

He didn’t mean Bob, but he wouldn’t have been the only one to invoke UCLA.

So did Bud Furillo, a radio talk-show host who was on the call.

“I wish that Bruin fan would quit trying to screw up this press conference,” Furillo said.

Hackett gamely tried to muddle through.

“This is a shame. I’m going to pause,” he said. “I apologize for this.”

Strung together, his quips on the Trojans’ latest telecommunications snafu were a great advertisement for his wit.

“This phone thing is ridiculous now. There’s got to be a taxicab involved,” he said. “The taxicab guy is driving me nuts and I apologize to you all. . . . Is this the horse races? I didn’t think the horses were running now. Oh my God.”

If Garrett and Sample expected Robinson to step aside, what did they tell Hackett, a former assistant to Robinson who admittedly felt awkward about talking to USC while Robinson was still coach?

“Uncomfortable, yes, that’s an excellent term,” Hackett said. “I have been uncomfortable about it. But I have been removed. I have not been a part of what’s going on. . . . An offer was made to me. I know about changes in this profession. I have been in, I have been out, I have moved. I understand that’s part of the profession.

“There’s been some agonizing moments that relate to John Robinson. . . . Largely, what Paul Hackett remembers about USC and sees of USC, I learned alongside John Robinson. If it wasn’t for John Robinson, I never would have had the chance to be part of USC. I never would have understood USC. He gave me a chance to know the greatness of USC.”

Given the state of USC telecommunications, it should not be surprising that Hackett had not spoken to Robinson either.

“That will be the first thing I do when I get into town. I’m not interested in a conversation by telephone. I think it’s important I sit down with him,” Hackett said.

All that said, Garrett acknowledged Thursday that until the Hackett deal was sealed Tuesday and with his own self-imposed deadline of Wednesday approaching, Robinson was never out of the running.

“It was the deadline, yes. John was always a possibility,” Garrett said.

So had Hackett turned the job down, would Robinson still be the coach today?

“[There was] a possibility he would have stayed,” Garrett said.