Hackett Name Is Getting Around

Barely a year after he took over at USC, Paul Hackett has been contacted by at least one NFL team looking for a head coach and is being mentioned in connection with other openings around the league.

The rumors intensified Monday when Marty Schottenheimer resigned as head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs, where Hackett spent five years as an offensive coordinator.

This comes just weeks after Hackett says he rejected a preliminary offer from the Chicago Bears, who came calling as the Trojans prepared to play Texas Christian in the Sun Bowl.

“It’s all very flattering but I’ve got a job to do at USC,” Hackett said. “I’ve just gotten here and everything is going wonderfully. This is not the right time.”

Reports from Kansas City said Hackett is not likely to be on the Chiefs’ list of coaching candidates. But his name was not on a list recently released by the Bears, even though an unnamed source within the team said Hackett might come back into the picture if Chicago cannot find a suitable coach in the next few weeks.

Hackett was originally contacted by Mark Hatley, the Bears’ vice president of player personnel. The two men have been friends since both worked for Kansas City.

Hatley offered to take Hackett’s name directly to Bears owner Michael McCaskey as a preferred candidate, the Chicago source said. Hackett downplayed his discussions with the Bears.

“We never talked directly about the job other than for me to say it’s not the right time,” Hackett said.

No one at USC knew Hackett had been contacted until he spoke with his team on the eve of the Sun Bowl game, telling them not to believe any rumors they might hear about his leaving. From there, word spread to USC Athletic Director Mike Garrett, who quickly sought out the coach.

“Normally, a team is supposed to come to the athletic director first, then go to the coach,” Garrett said. “If I was recruiting a coach, I would go to the athletic director first.”

Hackett assured his boss there was no chance of him taking the Chicago job. Garrett recalls him saying: “It wasn’t that serious a thing and that’s why I spoke to the team first. It was done very informally and very casually.”

However, his name also came up in connection with the Cleveland Browns job. Hackett, the Browns’ quarterback coach from 1981-82, denies having any direct contact with the team.

“One little thing gets said and it gets expanded on,” he said.

Not that he and Garrett didn’t expect rumors to arise. They talked about the possibility when Hackett was interviewing for the USC job in December 1997.

During more than a decade as an NFL assistant, Hackett became known around the league as a quarterback guru. He worked with Joe Montana in San Francisco in the mid-1980s. As an assistant at Dallas in 1988, he was thought to be Tom Landry’s possible successor.

“That’s the reason I offered him the job because I knew he had the credentials and the background,” Garrett said. “It’s not surprising that other people know of him. Certainly he’s been in the business a long time.”

Most recently, he guided the Chief offense. So it is to be expected that his name would pop up after Schottenheimer’s departure. The team struggled through a 7-9 season in which its offense was woeful. Hackett has spoken fondly of his years with the team and is thought to be a favorite of owner Lamar Hunt.

“I have a lot of friends in the NFL,” Hackett said. “So this will probably pop up every year.”

Hackett came to USC last January, returning to the campus where he had been a quarterback coach from 1976-80. He took a team that finished 6-5 the previous season and led it to an 8-5 record. USC subsequently lost the Sun Bowl, 28-19, to 16-point underdog Texas Christian, but Hackett has talked enthusiastically about returning players such as quarterback Carson Palmer and receiver R. Jay Soward.

“This is a homecoming of sorts for me,” he said. “I bought a house in Manhattan Beach. I’ve got a great young quarterback.”

He also has what he thinks is a top-notch recruiting class, one that may address the team’s weakness along the offensive line, and he doesn’t want talk of his leaving to scare away any young players who are thinking about committing to USC. Hackett said he has been busy in recent weeks assuring recruits that he will remain at the university.

Meanwhile, Garrett hoped that all the talk of NFL teams courting his coach might actually help in the recruiting wars.

“Paul’s a person in demand, a good coach, and the pros want him,” the athletic director said. “I think it’s an absolute positive.”

At the same time, Garrett made it clear that Hackett’s five-year contract has no provision by which the coach could leave early for a job elsewhere.

“We would have to waive [the contract],” Garrett said. “At this point, we are both in concert that this is not the time to even consider something like that.”

Hackett agreed.

“I signed a five-year contract and I will fulfill that contract,” he said. “This is my time right now at USC.

“The focus right now is on my job and that big number eight, the number of times we’ve lost to UCLA. I’m right where I want to be.”

Times staff writer Randy Harvey contributed to this story.

NFL

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