‘If We Don’t Do Better, Then I Won’t Be Here’

With a mixture of pragmatism, determination and grace, USC Coach John Robinson faced his team’s crisis Tuesday by saying he will resign at the end of the season if the Trojans don’t turn their season around.

“If we don’t do better, then I won’t be here,” Robinson said. “I will have had a great career here, and I will step aside and say it’s time to move on. But right now, what I’m doing is trying my absolute best to get this football team to play to its maximum potential.”

A 35-7 loss to Arizona State on Saturday that Robinson called “mind-boggling” left the Trojans with a 2-3 record and started a maelstrom of speculation about Robinson’s future. He narrowly survived a 6-6 season and a conflict with Athletic Director Mike Garrett last year but was buoyed by a victory in the final game of the season over Notre Dame--which, by coincidence, is USC’s opponent Saturday.

Garrett has taken a careful stance that he is committed to Robinson through the end of this season, but after numerous conversations among Robinson, Garrett and university President Steven Sample the last several days, they agreed to defuse the tension early, present a united front and see what part of the season can be salvaged.

“It’s so early in the year to make any decisions,” Garrett said. “I really think sometimes things work themselves out. Sometimes patience allows you that. . . . Sometimes the answer comes without a lot of struggle.”

Robinson, 62, has four years remaining on a contract extension through 2001 that includes a buyout clause, but Garrett said he has not looked into how the contract would be settled if Robinson resigns.

As for whether there will be any gray area at the end of the year about what the decision should be, Robinson said, “I’ll probably be the first one with an opinion one way or another. I want what’s best for USC. I’ve always wanted the best for USC.

“I feel I’ve had an important place in the recent sports history of this school and I really feel bad that we’re not doing better.

“But 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.”

Speculation about Robinson’s future hung over the team for nearly a month last season, and Robinson didn’t want that scenario to repeat itself.

“We’re not going to be distracted by other things,” he said. “Right now, we are in a difficult time. If we can get out of it, we’ll move forward. If we don’t, then I think it would be appropriate for us to make a change. From now until the end of the season, Mike Garrett, President Sample and myself will work together on this. There will be no divisiveness among us.”

USC started this season ranked in the top 25, but after losses to Florida State, Washington State and the Sun Devils and a close call against Nevada Las Vegas, the Trojans will finish with a losing record unless they win four of their final six games--three of them against ranked opponents.

Together with last season’s record, it would mark the first time since 1960-61 that USC has had back-to-back seasons without a winning record.

Adding to the indignity, the school that has produced four Heisman Trophy winners and came to be known as Tailback U. was briefly rated last in the nation in rushing.

Robinson and his staff are facing fire because of the performance of a team that clearly has NFL-caliber talent in players such as receiver R. Jay Soward, cornerbacks Brian Kelly and Daylon McCutcheon and linebacker Chris Claiborne.

But Robinson defended his staff Tuesday.

“I came home on Saturday night and was by myself, and I sat around and you go through periods saying, ‘I confess, it’s my fault,’ or this or that,” he said. “But this coaching staff has coached very hard this year. Obviously, you make mistakes. We have coached hard. I’m not going to stand and say that it’s their fault, that we have coaches who aren’t coaching well. That’s not true.

“The one thing that is happening is there is a choking or inability to perform when it comes down to it. That’s my responsibility, to get this football team to perform to its maximum ability. And that’s not happening. We’re not going to stand for that.

“The thing that’s most disturbing is that when it was time to step up and win the game, we stepped back. We were without energy and without confidence. . . . The symptoms that showed, sleepwalking is the best thing I can come up with. It’s like you get ready to make a speech, and the words don’t come out. That’s what’s going on with our football team right now.”

Robinson’s move Tuesday was reminiscent of his final days with the Rams, when he seemed to accept his fate with four games left and then resigned with one game to play in a 3-13 season in 1991 after having survived a clash with the front office the year before.

But he has more deeply entrenched feelings for USC, where he shared the national championship with Alabama in 1978, has guided the Trojans to four Rose Bowls and celebrated his 100th college victory only two weeks ago after USC sweated out the UNLV game.

Oddly, the circumstances now seem to bring out some of the best in Robinson, and he jovially exhorted USC supporters to back the team the rest of the season.

“We’re starting a million-man march--only we’ve only got about 12 guys right now,” he said. “I’ve got a 13th. I grabbed a guy outside in the hall and said, ‘I want you.’ That’s how we’re going to face this issue. Don’t write me nasty letters, don’t tell me this or that. I’m a really good football coach who’s just not doing well right now.”

If it seemed as if he was taking a page out of the Notre Dame playbook this week with a variation on the theme of “Win one for the Gipper,” Robinson quickly said he was not.

“I don’t think they were playing for me and my job [last year],” he said. “There’s not a person in this room who’s going to have the job they have right now forever. We’re all going to move on and do other things.

“That’s not a crisis. Not living up to your potential is a crisis. None of us do that all the time, every day. There are a few times in your life when you say, damn it, stand up. Now is one of those times. You might be defeated, but you must stand up. I think it has to be clear to our players, that that’s what we’re playing for, individually and collectively.”

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* PAGE TWO/RANDY HARVEY

Media-savvy Robinson is absolutely correct in his analysis of the situation. C2

* PLAYER REACTION

With Notre Dame next, Trojans feel as if they’ve been through this before. C4