Coach, Things Aren’t Better

The coach said he would resign if things didn’t get better.

The USC regular season ended Saturday afternoon with Trojan guard Chris Brymer standing under a shower of jeers and catcalls in the Coliseum end zone, humiliated in his own house, again.

“It’s hard,” he said quietly.

The USC regular season ended with Trojan supporters standing near a TV outside the locker room, trying one last time to hurt UCLA, in the only way they could.

“Go, Washington State!” shouted one.

The coach said he would resign if things didn’t get better.

It is time for John Robinson to be a man of his word.

It is time for him to quit while he still can.

Quit, and help USC avoid the sort of messy firing that will make his alumni supporters wince.

Quit, while young players like Daylon McCutcheon and Chad Morton and R. Jay Soward still have a chance to achieve their potential under energized new leadership.

Quit, for the sake of those recruits--including top prep running back Justin Fargas--who looked bewildered while standing in a somber locker room Saturday.

Quit, if Robinson is really the Trojan he says he is.

Six weeks ago, he said this: “If we don’t do better, then I won’t be here. I will have had a great career here, and I will step aside and say it’s time to move on.”

At the time, the team was 2-3 after an embarrassing 35-7 loss at Arizona State.

Since then, USC has gone 4-2, but it has been a cardboard 4-2.

One of those victories was by three points against a Notre Dame team that missed three field goals. Another was by two points against an Oregon team whose 36-yard field goal attempt in the final seconds was partially deflected.

The other two wins came against sorry Stanford and Oregon State, while the losses were a shutout against Washington and a fifth consecutive loss to UCLA in the five years since Robinson returned.

Six weeks ago, Robinson also said this: “I am not going to be a part of a situation where I let the team slide into the gutter. That won’t happen. Trojans won’t let it happen.”

They are not in the gutter. But by USC standards, they are certainly within shouting distance.

The Trojans played hard during Saturday’s 31-24 loss, but it ended with the coach saying, “I’m proud of the way the kids played, but we didn’t have the firepower to score when we needed to.”

At least two of those kids didn’t seem to buy that statement.

It was as if they thought Robinson, the ultimate player’s coach, was suddenly saying his players weren’t good enough.

“I don’t agree with that one,” senior cornerback Brian Kelly said. “Our offense played hard. I think we had the firepower to stay with them.”

Said cornerback McCutcheon: “He’s the coach, I’m the player, he’s the one that knows those things. But I thought we had the players to do it.”

Maybe they didn’t. It certainly didn’t seem like it on that final drive.

What should have been a triumphant encore to a recovered on-side kick turned into a four-play embarrassment. It ended with quarterback John Fox ignoring an open Soward and, instead, underthrowing Billy Miller, leading to a game-ending interception.

Soward was so upset, he ran off the field laughing and shouting, “They can’t stay with me, they can’t stay with me.”

If the coach is right, if they can’t get it done because USC no longer has the players, then whose fault is that?

John Robinson was asked Saturday if this team would accept any bowl invitation.

“Hell yes,” he said angrily “What the hell kind of question is that? If you’re invited to a bowl game, you go to a bowl game.”

It is the kind of question that should be asked of a proud program that, like Notre Dame, might not want to tax the students by sending them to a minor bowl in suburban Detroit or the Louisiana swamps.

It was a question that Mike Garrett, USC athletic director, answered a bit differently.

“It depends,” Garrett said. “It depends on the circumstances.”

This is about more than revolving quarterbacks and tailbacks. Pro scouts who come to practice and say the kids aren’t progressing. Uninspired play except during inspired situations.

This is about more than two mediocre seasons filled with confusion and embarrassment, or five seasons of not winning the game that could make them a national power.

This is about an attitude. This is about a feeling that seemed to cloak USC Saturday, a feeling that they were lucky to stay close to mighty UCLA,

This is about, how, suddenly, these were “the gritty little Trojans.”

While the UCLA players were the ones dancing around the SC midfield logo and making plans for New Year’s Day.

It never used to be this way. But there are no indications that it will be anything else, any time soon.

The coach said he would resign if things didn’t get better.

It is time for John Robinson to be a man of his word.