Following The Leader

The play begins to unfold, a handoff to the tailback, and Chris Claiborne’s next move is swift, decisive, and so well-practiced it’s almost second nature.

He pulls his notebook and a nub of a pencil out of his backpack--without ever taking his eyes off the television screen.

Claiborne is USC’s highly talented middle linebacker, quite possibly the nation’s most impressive one in the eyes of no less an expert on speed and hard hits than Florida State Coach Bobby Bowden.

But what is setting Claiborne apart this season is his studious devotion to analyzing videotape after videotape, soaking up everything linebacker coach Shawn Slocum can tell him about the position he plays.

“I think he’s wise beyond his years,” Coach Paul Hackett said. “He’s just searching and thirsting, saying ‘What else? What else?’ ”

That was the way Claiborne felt only 20 minutes or so after the Trojans’ devastating collapse against Cal on Saturday.

Berating himself for not making some big play to turn the game, and almost irrationally claiming blame for a loss that plenty of others should shoulder, Claiborne saw only one solution.

“I’m definitely going to go look at film to see what I could have done for us to win,” he said.

Receiver R. Jay Soward may be the Trojans’ most spectacular player, but Claiborne is the best.

He wears the No. 55 Junior Seau wore at USC, and he will be the Trojans’ next All-American linebacker. There is a chance--particularly if Claiborne somehow passes on becoming a probable top 10 NFL pick and returns for his senior year--that he could become the first Butkus Award winner in USC history.

Already, there are plays that are going down in Claiborne lore.

There was his fourth-and-one stop of Florida State’s Travis Minor, deep in USC territory, as Minor tried to sweep wide for the first down.

There was the 40-yard interception return against Oregon State that reminded you that this punishing, 6-foot-3, 240-pound linebacker used to be a tailback who once had a 239-yard game and rushed for 2,199 yards his senior season at Riverside J.W. North High.

Then there was what might be described as the game-winning hit on Arizona State quarterback Ryan Kealy.

Claiborne knocked Kealy out of the game with a concussion on the first series of what proved to be a Trojan victory.

“He left himself open. I just hit him,” Claiborne said. “You’re happy you made the play. Then you want to see that the guy’s going to be OK. But to have him out of the game, that’s an edge for us.”

In the stands, even Claiborne’s mother flinched.

“I know he did his job,” Millie Perkins said. “But I was up there, just praying the other young man wasn’t seriously hurt. Being a mother, I felt for Ryan’s mother.”

Perkins, who separated from Chris’ father, a Marine gunnery sergeant in Japan, when her boy was 1, gets much of the credit for the person Claiborne has become--a stud linebacker who doesn’t swagger, strut and yammer with self-importance.

Disciplined, modest, a soft-spoken leader, he carries himself much the same way as, say, U.S. Naval Academy players do.

“It’s obvious he’s a guy with a lot of confidence,” Slocum said. “Chris doesn’t do a lot of talking, and he never brags, because he has a lot of confidence in himself.”

“My mom, I think, is a big influence,” Claiborne said. “People don’t see that as much because my dad’s a Marine, and it just kind of sounds right. But she’s done a lot. She instills values in me, and people at church, they look out for each other’s kids.”

Claiborne’s father left his mark, too. He put his son through a personalized boot camp, running the beaches of Okinawa, before Claiborne’s freshman year. He’s another who taught Chris to speak softly but pack a big hit.

“I’m not a yell guy before games. I don’t really talk in the locker room,” Claiborne said. “I think the worst weapon is silence. My dad tells me, ‘People that talk a lot? They’re scared of you.’ ”

That list of people is growing this season, and other teams focus on trying to hold off Claiborne as they make their game plans for USC. For Arizona State, the tactic was to have standout center Grey Ruegamer try to block, hold and generally antagonize Claiborne all afternoon.

“They had a guy on his ankles and a guy up high,” said strongside linebacker Mark Cusano, who with weakside linebacker David Gibson gives USC a potent trio. “Chris fought through the blockers and still made the plays. He’s definitely something special.”

If other teams are studying Claiborne, he is also studying them, taking the tapes Slocum prepares and returning full of questions.

“His work ethic off the field, his fascination with football, bending Coach Slocum’s ear, it all trickles down to the rest of the defensive players,” Hackett said.

To sit in on a film session with Slocum and Claiborne is to be immersed in their shorthand, a quick back-and-forth exchange as Claiborne practices picking up cues from the offensive formations.

“Split,” Claiborne says as the backs take their positions, also noticing one set back slightly more than the other.

“But that’s the fullback,” Slocum says. “What does that tell you? They’re not going to block with their tailback and run with their fullback. . . . “

“Tight end,” Claiborne says, and sure enough, the quarterback connects with the tight end for maybe an eight-yard gain.

“That’s among the things he brings to the field, his knowledge,” said Cusano, who has started alongside Claiborne for three seasons. “He’ll pick up a play, and he’ll shout it out. A lot of the time, he’s right.”

That’s thanks in no small part to Slocum. Not to cast aspersions on the sons of coaches--because Slocum is one, too--but David Robinson, John Robinson’s son, didn’t really have the background to coach linebackers the last two seasons.

“The coaching is better,” Claiborne said. “We went to fundamentals, something I needed.

“‘I wasn’t mentally prepared. That’s what I try to do, No. 1, is be mentally prepared. The coaches are determined that when the game comes, we’re never really surprised.”

The challenge for Claiborne is finding the right mix between playing on instinct and ability, and playing smart football that fits the Trojans’ scheme.

“Sometimes speed hurts you,” he said. “I’ve been hurt a lot by my speed. That definitely has been my tendency, to be over-aggressive. . . . I need to be part of the defense, and we’ll be successful.”

Slocum nodded.

“Players with a lot of talent, if they’re looking at it wrong, they can get so far out of position it’s hard to recover,” he said. “Sometimes the thing to do is stop, wait and see what the true situation is, and react.

“The thing Chris is developing is, he’s got a role to play, a defensive assignment, and that comes first. A lot of times guys with a lot of talent run around and try to make as many hits as they possibly can.”

Claiborne agreed.

“Before, I played hard to get as many tackles as I could. It doesn’t work that way,” he said. “Sometimes, I set up other things for the rest of the defense.

“The game definitely has slowed down a lot. I think because I’m older now. I see things a lot faster. But sometimes I still get caught going the wrong way, and I try to recover.”

There are other subtle changes this season. The Trojans’ new 4-3 defense allows Claiborne to roam sideline-to-sideline. And he is faster than ever, it seems.

“I came into camp about 252, 253,” he said. “I was up there, 255, maybe. I’m 240 now.

“That first game probably did it. That heat, then the humidity in Florida. And I’m eating better. Now I broil chicken instead of frying it.”

For fun, Claiborne likes to line up at defensive end and practice pass-rushing with the defensive linemen.

“It’s pretty exciting to see him pass rush,” said tackle Ennis Davis, one of Claiborne’s closest friends. “He’s never really played defensive line, so I get to tell him some things, give him some tips. He’s just got that knack, you tell him what to do, and he does it.”

In that case, can’t USC just tell him to stick around for his senior season?

The way Claiborne has performed, it’s harder and harder to imagine he will. If he does, and Andy Katzenmoyer, the Butkus winner as an Ohio State sophomore last season, jumps to the NFL, Claiborne would figure to be the favorite to win next year.

“It’s a possibility, but it’s an East Coast award to me,” Claiborne said. “Not too many West Coast players have won it. Junior Seau was awesome, Willie McGinest, awesome. My thing is to play up to the tradition of the number.”

As for the decision that looms, early on Claiborne made it sound as if he would leave if he is likely to go in the top 10. He has backed off on that a bit, even though it became more probable he’ll be rated that high.

“My family, we’re OK, money-wise,” said Claiborne, whose mother is a mathematician for the Navy in Corona. “My mom loves college football, coming to the games. ‘To speak on it too early would be kind of setting yourself up.”

His mother understands.

“I told him I’d prefer that he go ahead and finish school, but he’s the one out there, playing and getting hit,” she said.

“He’s going to have to do what he wants, not what everyone else does. I think he’s level-headed enough to withstand the pressure.”