Hackett Sticks to Game Plan by Meeting With Robinson

The first thing new USC football Coach Paul Hackett did after arriving in Los Angeles was keep a promise.

He sat down with John Robinson.

“The mood was two dear friends talking,” Hackett said during his first Heritage Hall news conference Tuesday. “Some things came up. This is a friend.”

Hackett, an assistant to Robinson at USC from 1976-80, was hired to replace him last week in what became a messy firing.

Pressed last week about whether they had talked, Hackett insisted he was going to wait to speak to Robinson in person, saying it would be the first thing he did when he finally arrived. And it was.

“We met as soon as I got off the plane [Monday],” Hackett said. “We met and sat and had lunch and it was great. None of this has been comfortable for me.

“John and I have a lot of history. As I said, what I know of USC, I learned at the side of John Robinson. I have spoken with him. We talked a lot about our lives and what’s gone on. I will continue to talk to him. I feel good about it.”

Robinson politely refused to discuss their meeting.

“You’ll have to talk to Paul about that,” Robinson said. “He’s in public life. I’m in private life. I’m taking calls about gardening.”

Whether Robinson will have any further involvement in USC’s program is still in doubt.

“I don’t know that this is the right time to discuss that right now,” Hackett said. “The future will handle that.

“John and I, we’ve been in this business a long time. We’re friends. . . . He wished me luck. We’re over that and moving on.”

Moving on for Hackett means hiring his own staff--especially since he won’t be at USC full time until his work as the Kansas City Chiefs’ offensive coordinator in the NFL playoffs is done.

Hackett admitted he is concerned about recruiting leading up to the Feb. 4 signing date and said he has called about 20 recruits, following up on the work USC’s staff has done. The threat of current players transferring seems to be diminishing--offensive lineman Travis Claridge, for one, said Tuesday he will stay.

Although Hackett interviewed Robinson’s assistants Tuesday, few are expected to be retained when he begins announcing decisions shortly after Christmas.

“It’s important to keep at least one guy, maybe two,” Hackett said, emphasizing he wants some continuity.

Hackett’s key hire figures to be his defensive coordinator, and he said he would like USC to play a blitzing defense along the lines of UCLA under Rocky Long, who left to become New Mexico’s coach.

Hackett also promised emphasis on special teams.

As for the offense, Hackett--who made his reputation in the NFL with a variation of the West Coast offense he has taken to calling the Midwest Offense in Kansas City--probably will call USC’s plays himself.

“I think I might do that,” he said, adding that he probably will hire someone with the title of offensive coordinator, even though he will carry the responsibility for the offense himself.

“That’s a big wrestle for me,” he said. “I’d like to do that, run the offense and be the coordinator. I don’t know if I can.”

Current offensive coordinator Hue Jackson has a reputation as a good recruiter, and some at USC would like to see him stay on in some role. However, it seems clear that Hackett wants someone he is close to or has worked with as offensive coordinator if he names one.

He said he probably will talk to Kansas State offensive coordinator Ron Hudson, and another possibility is former Dallas Cowboy tight end Doug Cosbie, the offensive coordinator at California.

Hackett has said emphatically that he won’t try to handle the quarterback coaching himself--something he tried to do at Pittsburgh in his previous head coaching stint and considered too much.

However, in contrast to Robinson, Hackett doesn’t seem inclined to hire former players who aren’t already working as coaches, making former USC quarterback Paul McDonald, a close friend, a longshot.

“And Joe Montana will not be on our staff,” said Hackett, who coached Montana with the San Francisco 49ers and Chiefs.

As for former USC star Marcus Allen, a Chief running back, Hackett said he thinks Allen still will be playing in the NFL next year, joking that “his salary might be a problem.”