Smith Is Back With a Roar

Rarely has a coach become so openly emotional as Larry Smith did when he was hired at Missouri in December 1993.

When Missouri Athletic Director Joe Castiglione presented the former USC coach to alumni and boosters, Smith’s eyes welled up. Later that day, when he was introduced to his players for the first time, he wept.

“I was happy to be getting another chance,” Smith, 58, said Wednesday. “I was feeling love for the game again, happy to be back in it. It’s something that you never want to let go of.”

Three bumpy seasons after taking over at Missouri and five years to the day that he was forced out at USC, Smith is back in Southern California a winner. On Monday, he will lead the Tigers (7-4) into San Diego’s Qualcomm Stadium to play Colorado State in the Holiday Bowl.

Smith has repaid Missouri’s patience and faith in him by guiding the Tigers to their first winning season and bowl game since 1983.

Had Nebraska not escaped by a foot, receiver Shevin Wiggins’ foot, Missouri would have knocked off the then-No. 1 Cornhuskers on Nov. 8 for the first time in school history.

“That game, though we lost [45-38 in overtime], earned us more admiration and respect than any of our wins,” said Smith, who was voted the Big 12 Conference’s coach of the year in his 20th year as a head coach.

After being ushered out of USC and taking the job at Missouri, a Kansas City Star reporter wrote that “no coach in his right mind leaves prosperity for the graveyard of coaches.”

But Smith is almost finished with his exhumation of Missouri.

To turn the program around, Smith received a commitment from the administration to upgrade their athletic facilities, landed some of the state’s best recruits, including quarterback Corby Jones and running back Brock Olivo, and hired assistant coaches he knew would stay in Columbia.

That seems to be Smith’s specialty, taking dilapidated programs, fixer-uppers, and turning them into winners.

In 1976, Smith was hired at Tulane, a perennial loser, in his first job as a head coach. He led the school to the Liberty Bowl four seasons later. Moving to Arizona in 1980, the Wildcats were in the Sun Bowl in Smith’s fifth season and he finished with a 48-23-3 record there.

This season, the Tigers waded into the toughest part of their schedule after starting 3-3 and ended up defeating Oklahoma State, Colorado, Baylor and Texas. It was the first Tiger victory over the Longhorns in 81 years.

“We were all disappointed with the way we started,” Smith said. “But against Texas, the kids grew up.”

In the heartbreaking but program-making loss to Nebraska, when the Tigers were on the verge of defeating Nebraska, receiver Matt Davison caught a ricochet off Wiggins’ left leg just as regulation ended to force the game into overtime, where the Cornhuskers pulled it out.

“In the past, when we would play poorly, the player would rarely rally back,” Castiglione said. “Now, if the kids play poorly one week, we see them the next playing brilliantly. Larry has them believing they can win.”

Smith returns a winner, five years after trying to warn USC and its fans that college football had changed, that the Trojans couldn’t win simply because John Wayne played there and USC had dominated in years past.

Smith was 44-25-2 in his six years at USC. He led the Trojans to the Rose Bowl in his first three years but had to settle for appearances in the 1990 John Hancock Bowl and the ’92 Freedom Bowl. He was also 0-6 against Notre Dame.

USC was accustomed to better, or at least the Trojans were in the 1970s.

But Smith was let go after remarking--in effect--that the ‘70s were over.

“Names and logos don’t mean anything,” Smith said to reporters after losing to Fresno State, 24-7, in the 1992 Freedom Bowl. “You don’t beat someone just because of your name and logo.”

In October, Smith said: “I have not changed my thinking. . . . Far too many people, alumni and administrators, think everything can continue to be like it was 20 years ago. It can’t.”

Smith looked like a prophet two weeks ago when USC canned John Robinson and turned its back on one of the most recognizable symbols of USC’s dominance in college football.

Whether Smith feels vindicated is anybody’s guess. He’s not saying.

“I only want to talk about Missouri,” Smith said.

Fair enough. Who could blame him for wanting to bury that part of his past, especially when one considers what Smith’s last days as a Trojan were like.

There were the faces in the Anaheim Stadium crowd chasing him off the field with jeers and obscenities after the Freedom Bowl ended.

With his wife half holding him up and his voice cracking, he stood at the lectern to clarify that he had been fired, and did not resign as USC said he had. Smith left emotionally battered and drained.

His son, Corby Smith, is more willing to discuss what happened to his dad at USC. The younger Smith, an assistant coach at Missouri, was a reserve quarterback for USC during his father’s final season there.

He tagged someone with a mud ball as he and Larry walked off the field after the Freedom Bowl. The man, whose face, according to Corby, was filled with hatred, was screaming obscenities at his father.

“It hurt me unbelievably,” he said. “The whole situation opened my eyes to the reality that for some of these so-called fans, they have no life other than the teams they worship. It’s an obsession with them.”

But Smith says all of that is behind him. He understands the people and they him.

When Missouri was searching for a new coach, it came down to Smith and Arizona Cardinal Coach Vince Tobin.

“Larry’s interview went so well because he talked with such empathy about what we’d been through,” Castiglione said. “He understood what we needed. Larry is about substance, no frills, and the fans and alumni have really taken to him and his wife, Cheryl.”

Smith says there is a “purity” in the Midwest that he enjoys, a work ethic that he understands.

“Some of these kids are used to working with a plow,” Smith said. “They’re used to working hard. I like that. These people make up the ‘Show Me State,’ and they want results.

“Once you’ve done that, they will stick with you through thick and thin.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Larry Smith at a Glance

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Year School Record 1976 Tulane 2-9-0 1977 Tulane 3-8-0 1978 Tulane 4-7-0 1979 Tulane 9-3-0 1980 Arizona 5-6 1981 Arizona 6-5 1982 Arizona 6-4-1 1983 Arizona 7-3-1 1984 Arizona 7-4 1985 Arizona 8-3-1 1986 Arizona 9-3 1987 USC 8-4 1988 USC 10-2 1989 USC 9-2-1 1990 USC 8-4-1 1991 USC 3-8 1992 USC 6-5-1 1994 Missouri 3-8-1 1995 Missouri 3-8 1996 Missouri 5-6 1997 Missouri 7-4

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Total: 128-106-7