Carroll’s Staff Gets a Passing Grade

There is a good chance the USC football team will look less like Tailback U.--and more like pass-happy BYU--next season.

That’s because new Coach Pete Carroll announced Tuesday he has hired Norm Chow, an offensive coordinator with a history of spread offenses and rapid-fire quarterbacks.

“Looking at our talent, looking at our league, we need to throw the ball with emphasis,” Carroll said after meeting with his players to announce the hiring.

Carroll added five other assistants to his growing staff, including running backs coach Wayne Moses, offensive line coach Keith Uperesa and inside linebackers coach Nick Holt. Moses represents something of a coup, making the jump from Rose Bowl-winning Washington.

But among USC players, most of the buzz was about the new offensive coordinator.

Chow built a reputation as a quarterback guru by nurturing Steve Young, Jim McMahon and Ty Detmer during two decades as a Brigham Young assistant. Last season, he directed the offense at North Carolina State, where the Wolfpack averaged 31 points a game with freshman Philip Rivers at quarterback.

“It’s going to be a complete turnaround,” USC receiver Kareem Kelly said. “You can just feel the reaction and the energy of the coaches.”

Quarterback Carson Palmer couldn’t help grinning at the thought of working from a spread formation and throwing 50 passes a game. But before anyone could get too worked up, Carroll offered some perspective.

The Trojans will continue to employ a two-back set--at least some of the time--and they will run the ball.

“Championship football always goes back to balance,” he said. “It starts with two backs and spreads from there.”

Carroll talked about the need to boost the USC passing attack when he arrived last month and Chow’s hiring had been rumored for days, if not weeks. Negotiations stretched into Monday night and, though no contract figures were released, sources said USC gave Chow a raise from the $165,000 a year he was earning at North Carolina State.

Also important, Carroll promised the veteran assistant a good deal of autonomy in running the offense. That leaves Carroll, known as a defensive specialist, free to serve as his own defensive coordinator.

Among the other coaches hired:

* Moses spent the past four seasons at Washington. “This was a very tough decision to make,” the San Dimas native said in a release. “I bleed purple and gold, but this is an opportunity to move back home and be closer to my immediate family.”

* Uperesa comes from Idaho State, where he spent the last two seasons as assistant head coach. He formerly worked with Chow as a graduate assistant at BYU.

* Holt was the defensive line coach at Louisville. Carroll coached him when he played linebacker at Pacific.

* Mike Sullivan comes from the U.S. Military Academy to be the director of football administration.

* Mark Jackson, who will serve as program manager, comes from the New England Patriots, where he was an assistant under Carroll.

As expected, defensive line coach Ed Orgeron joined outside linebackers coach Kennedy Pola as the two assistants retained from former coach Paul Hackett’s tenure.

A few spots remain open on the staff, which Carroll hopes to fill soon. Most of the new assistants are expected on campus by Friday, in time for weekend visits by recruits.

There had been some concern about how Carroll, with his long NFL history, would adapt to this aspect of the college game. But the Trojans got good news this week when Long Beach Poly linebacker Marvin Simmons, one of the top prospects in the state, changed his mind about committing to UCLA and announced he would attend USC.

Simmons could fill a gaping hole for a defense that loses senior linebackers Zeke Moreno and Markus Steele.

“He seemed pretty excited,” said Kelly, who spoke with Simmons. “He has a chance to get some playing time.”

His decision only boosted the mood on Tuesday, the first time that Carroll had gathered his players. The agenda was otherwise mundane--they talked about off-season workouts and recruiting--but the new coach got high marks.

“I can’t see why anybody wouldn’t like him,” Palmer said. “He’s fun and you can tell he has a lot of purpose in what he says.”

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NEW FACES

Personnel Pete Carroll has hired:

NORM CHOW

Offensive

Coordinator

*

WAYNE MOSES

Running Backs

Coach

*

KEITH UPERESA

Offensive Line

Coach

*

NICK HOLT

Inside Linebackers

Coach

*

MIKE SULLIVAN

Football

Administration

*

MARK JACKSON

Football

Administration

*

DeWAYNE WALKER

Secondary

Coach

Ed Orgeron and Kennedy Pola were retained.

Grand Tradition Is in the Past

Thousand-yard rushers have become the exception rather than the rule at USC:

Seasons: 1,000-yard backs

1960-69 FOUR

Mike Garrett, 1965: 1,440

O.J. Simpson, 1967: 1,543

O.J. Simpson, 1968: 1,880

Clarence Davis, 1969: 1,351

1970-79: EIGHT

Anthony Davis, 1972: 1,191

Anthony Davis, 1973: 1,112

Anthony Davis, 1974: 1,421

Ricky Bell, 1975: 1,957

Ricky Bell, 1976: 1,433

Charles White, 1977: 1,478

Charles White, 1978: 1,859

Charles White, 1979: 2,050

1980-89: FIVE

Marcus Allen, 1980: 1,563

Marcus Allen, 1981: 2,427

Fred Crutcher, 1984: 1,155

Steven Webster, 1987: 1,109

Ricky Ervins, 1989: 1,395

1990-2000: FOUR

Mazio Royster, 1990: 1,168

Delon Washington, 1995: 1,109

Chad Morton, 1999: 1,141

Sultan McCullough, 2000: 1,163