Hackett’s Chief Concern Soon Will Be the Trojans’ Recruits

Like Santa Claus, the USC football coach finally came to town. He makes a very favorable first impression, when you finally get to meet Paul Hackett in person. (Or in third person; he calls himself “Paul Hackett” a lot.) So far, I like what I see and hear. And, I think SC’s recruits will.

Too bad he couldn’t stick around. Hackett had to be in and out of Los Angeles so quickly, he probably ate dinner at In-N-Out Burger. But I sympathize completely. Hackett has to hold the Kansas City Chiefs’ hands, on the yellow brick road to Super Bowl XXXII. Super now, Rose later.

Hackett’s request to SC’s players--present and future--is this:

“I want you to be a Chief fan. Wait till San Diego. Then we’ll talk.”

He has been leaving messages such as these with as many players as possible. Actual conversations will have to wait for most.

“This is the ‘90s,” Hackett explains. “You get a lot of answering machines.”

USC’s current players are eager to get to know the coach, if they can ever get him to slow down and pull up a chair.

Defensive lineman Ennis Davis was there Tuesday, to get a glimpse. Davis said, “He seems like a cool coach.”

A teammate, fullback Ted Iacenda, said, “I like him. I like what he had to say. I can’t speak for the other players.”

The catch is, the coach is so busy masterminding Kansas City’s offense, he can’t sit by a multi-line telephone in Heritage Hall on campus and wait for callbacks.

And OK, so Hackett won’t be coming down any chimneys Christmas week. Valentine’s Day, maybe, but give the guy a few weeks.

“I can’t imagine that any kid would say that because Coach Hackett’s over there in Kansas City trying to win the Super Bowl, I’m never going to have him in my home,” says Coach Hackett, the man with two teams.

Hackett seems as though he can hack it. He radiates enthusiasm. He has plenty of Trojan spirit this holiday season, even if he can’t be here to show it.

Laughing at his own two-job plight, Hackett says, “I’ll be shriveled up to 120 pounds when you look at me at the end of spring. But I have a lot of energy. I’ve always had a lot of energy.”

Asked if he is having fun, Hackett bends at the waist, theatrically, in the manner of a man who has just heard a very funny question. He takes a sip of water before answering. If the cup had been raised when the question was asked, Hackett might have spritzed the water from his mouth, like a slapstick comic.

Fun? Hackett has no time for fun. He could use two or three clones of himself, like Michael Keaton in that movie “Multiplicity.” The coach is catching up, as quickly as he knows how. He is taking a Berlitz course in Trojan football.

Talk about a hurry-up offense.

“I know how to tell quarterbacks to put blinders on, so they can’t see the rush,” Hackett says. “Well, Paul Hackett can’t see the rush for the next month. There’s a lot to do, but it’ll all get done.”

Among the first appointments on his in-and-out itinerary was a drive-by meeting with John Robinson, his predecessor.

“What I know and love about SC football,” Hackett makes clear one more time, for anyone who hasn’t been paying attention, “happened at the side of John Robinson for Paul Hackett.”

Hackett worked under Robinson.

He adjusted his own personal football philosophy to accommodate Robinson’s.

“When I first got here, I was labeled as Paul ‘Pass on Every Down’ Hackett. When I left here, it was, ‘Hey, you sure give that ball to that tailback an awful lot, Hackett.’ ‘

Who will work under Hackett?

Somebody, eventually. He has to organize a staff. Hackett says he might call all the plays his first season, might be his own offensive coordinator--that being his area of expertise--or he might hire one who will adapt to his philosophy the way he once did to Robinson’s.

“Because, as you know, that’s my baby,” the Chief offensive coordinator says, not harshly, but good-naturedly. “I have to be sure that person [USC’s offensive aide] knows what he’s getting into.”

Hackett also needs some answers.

“Do we have a runner?” he asks rhetorically. “I mean, this is USC.”

He needs to learn names, faces. Who’s on the team? Who’s out there to recruit? Who’s available to help him coach? Hackett needs to find out, when he has time, whether he is inheriting a program on the rise or on the skids.

Something he does know: “We beat Notre Dame. And two years ago, we were in the Rose Bowl.

“But obviously, some other things have happened. I think it’s different than when I was first here, goodness knows. I mean, Washington State’s in the Rose Bowl!”