Turning to New Coach, Can USC Turn Back Time?

I can’t believe I am actually agreeing with Bill Plaschke [Nov. 28]. It’s about time that someone in this town spoke the truth about USC football. They are just another program right now, just like Oregon or Auburn, nothing more, nothing less.

Trojan fans are slow to realize that all of those national titles and Heismans and victories over Notre Dame are not the result of a century-long progression of greatness, it is the product of two eras of glory: the pre-TV Howard Jones era (1925-40) and the scholarship-hoarding McKay-Robinson era (1960-82).

Any Trojan fan who thinks the program is still top-flight, based on those bygone days, is delusional. They remind me of the old UCLA basketball fans sitting in Pauley who can’t believe that the Bruins don’t win every Pac-10 game by 25.

CRAIG DUNKIN

Tujunga

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As a USC alum, I look back fondly to the days when USC was a regular Rose Bowl contender. But that was then and this is now. College football has changed and some of my USC peers need to change with the times.

Let me make one point clear--firing Paul Hackett after only three years sends a negative message to other prospective coaching candidates. It takes time to build a program--just ask the fans at West Virginia or Notre Dame. Who will want the USC job if they believe that they will be run out of town on a rail before being given a fair chance to build a winning program?

RICHARD BROWN

Carson

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Reading Bill Plaschke’s article on USC, I immediately became aware that he does not understand what it is like to be a Trojan. He basically said we should accept mediocrity for 10-15 years.

First of all, Mr. Plaschke, we are not West Virginia. We are SC. Anyone who bleeds Cardinal and Gold does not accept mediocrity. Where do you think Al Davis got the term “Just Win, Baby”? We are not asking for a championship every year, but there is no reason why we can’t be at or near the top every year.

We don’t want to hear that the landscape is changing: That’s a loser’s excuse. If Nebraska, Florida and Florida State can produce top-10 teams yearly, so can we. If Plaschke can’t deal with people with winning attitudes, then he should cover teams in Westwood.

WILLIS BARTON

Los Angeles

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If Oklahoma can find a coach to turn it around in two years; if Purdue can get to the Rose Bowl in four years; if TCU can turn it around in one year, so can USC. It just takes finding the right coach. Paul Hackett could have had 50 years and he would not have been that coach.

RUSSELL GECK

Glendale

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While watching USC lose once again this season, I was surprised to hear that the Trojans have not beaten UCLA and Notre Dame in the same season since 1981. Where’s the dominance I keep reading about in the letters week after week? When was the last time the Trojans beat a top-10 opponent? Schools like Oregon, Oregon State and UCLA do it almost every year. Yet, I don’t hear their supporters claiming that their teams own football in their town.

The grand history of USC football is just that--history. Will it rise again? For the sake of the young men who play for the university, I hope so. Until then, SC, put up or shut up.

GORDON HEIN

Chatsworth

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Hey Mike Garrett, if you are so dead set on reviving the football style of yesterday, why don’t you hire one of those old-time coaches you had back in the glory days? I’m sure if you offered $7.2 million to John McKay he would take it . . . and then fail.

When is USC going to finally realize that the mistake hasn’t been picking the wrong coach, but picking the wrong athletic director?

RICHARD ESPINOSA

West Covina

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Bill Plaschke is a very talented writer, but, as he did on his bye-bye-Hackett column, he often misses the point. Hackett did not get fired because he did not deliver a national title, he was fired because of what he did deliver: a team that committed too many penalties, turned the ball over way too often [this would include fumbles, interceptions and lousy performance on third-down plays] and because his game management stunk.

Football players expect to get yelled at when they screw up, Hackett kissed them instead. Wrong move. Fans of USC football don’t necessarily need national titles, we need a team that does not beat itself every Saturday.

DAN JENSEN

San Clemente

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Mike Garrett always places the blame on the coach. Garrett says, “Good people win.” If that were true, would not a good athletic director pick coaches that always win? USC has fired its last four football coaches before the end of their contracts.

Why not spend more time picking and hiring the right coach in the first place? Each time a coach, such as Hackett is asked to depart early, the cost to the university to buy out contracts is easily $1 million plus. The cost of the last four leaving early is conservatively $4-5 million.

That amount of money could be used to provide four-year academic scholarships to 40-50 hard-working, well-deserving scholars from the Los Angeles area who otherwise could not afford to attend USC.

By picking the next football coach wisely, USC could improve its stature both athletically and academically. Would not that be a wiser and wider perspective?

MICHAEL A. GLUECK

Newport Beach

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Top 10 reasons why the next USC coach won’t hack it:

1. Tradition. Tollner, Smith, Robinson and Hackett.

2. Pac-10 is no longer the doormat for USC.

3. UCLA.

4. Notre Dame.

5. Parity in college football with 85-scholarship limit.

6. Alumni still can’t get a grip on the reality of No. 5.

7. “National Championship” banners surrounding the field at the Coliseum, a sobering reminder of the school’s expectations.

8. That band would get on anybody’s nerves after three seasons.

9. Rose Bowl or no bowl.

10. Angry mob in a Coliseum that is incited when a gladiator brandishing a sword atop a white horse comes charging up your backside while you’re coaching.

BOB ARRANAGA

Los Angeles

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As an avid college football fan and also having grown up in Nebraska, I have marveled at the futility of the USC program over the last few years. The question that is asked by their loyal fans is, “Why can’t USC come up with a national-championship program?” The answer is easy, from one who has followed the Nebraska program from the early 1950s, when they went 1-9 under Bill Jennings.

It’s coaching. None of the coaches who come to USC are allowed to build a winning program. Unless USC goes 11-0, toss the bum. Good coaches need time to build good programs. At USC if success isn’t instant, forget it. In 1967, Bob Devaney went 6-4 and although under a lot of pressure to dismiss him, Nebraska stuck with him and the rest is history.

I have often wondered what the Nebraska program I love would look like if it would have taken the USC route and fired Devaney.

KEITH MAGEE

Santa Monica

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Mike Garrett, when you narrow your list of potential candidates for the football-coaching job to the top five, put them in numerical order from one through five--one being your first choice, and five being your last choice.

Then pick No. 5 and you will have the best candidate for the position.

JEFF BROWN

Laguna Beach

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USC fans, have I got the coach for you. He has a winning record over the 13 seasons in his current position. He has coached in the Pac-10 before, so he knows his way around the West. And most years, his teams have played in a New Year’s Day bowl game.

True, he has a woeful record against his current team’s archrival, but I’m told that that’s not all that important. And, true, his record in bowl games is less than stellar, but at least his teams usually play on New Year’s Day. So what if they are usually outplayed, outscored, and out-coached? It’s important just to be there, right? And yes, it’s also true that although his teams start the season off well, they fade in November. But, hey, I’m told he’s a great recruiter and an all-around swell guy. No one’s perfect, right?

So what do you think? Any interest in taking John Cooper and earning the eternal gratitude of Buckeye fans everywhere?

SHARON JOHNSON

Valley Village