USC Has a Special Task

The art of returning punts, as described by Aaron Lockett, is simple.

“First,” Lockett says, “you definitely have to catch the ball.”

Then make the first tackler miss. Then look for your blockers and, as he says, “the adrenaline starts pumping.”

The Kansas State senior did all of that rather spectacularly last season. Pressed into action when the starter twisted an ankle, he returned punts for touchdowns in his first two games and wound up leading the nation with an average of 22.8 yards.

With No. 12 Kansas State visiting the Coliseum on Saturday, his unexpected success becomes USC’s headache.

“If we take a play off, he’s going to take the ball to the house,” said fullback Charlie Landrigan, a leader on the Trojan punt coverage squad. “It’s so huge. Special teams are a momentum builder and we learned that last season.”

The lesson was painful. Last season, the Trojans surrendered touchdown returns to California and Arizona State, and gave up a safety on a blocked punt against Penn State. They finished fifth worst in net punting in the nation.

Things weren’t much better on kickoffs and field goals, which also happen to be specialties at Kansas State.

Over the last six years, the Wildcats featured successive All-American kickers in Martin Gramatica, now with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Jamie Rheem, who made 17 of 20 field goals and 49 of 50 extra points last season.

USC, by comparison, botched eight field-goal attempts and 10 extra-point attempts in 2000. So Coach Pete Carroll has made a priority of bolstering special teams. His first move was to assign Kennedy Pola, who had been in charge of running backs, to the kicking game.

Pola was a bruising fullback for the Trojans in the early 1980s and is known for his fiery demeanor on the sideline. He is the kind of coach who bellows at the sight of a mistake and yells just as loudly when one of his players does well.

Carroll gave him freedom to stock his squad with starters, so Pola became a salesman.

“In the locker room, in the dining room, I’m talking to guys,” he says. “I know they’re thinking about other plays, about offense or defense, but when I get them, I’m talking special teams.”

The players learned what to expect when they saw him coming. They didn’t mind.

“It’s nice to have that reminder,” Landrigan says. “Everyone respects Coach Pola so when he comes around, we know it’s time to get going.”

With the manpower gathered, Pola set his sights on individual technique, drilling players on footwork. He assessed the bigger picture, determined to bring coordination to coverage and return teams that appeared chaotic last season.

“If I pull a string,” he told his players, “all of you guys are going to come with it.”

The key was simplicity, punter Mike MacGillivray says. So blocking schemes were pared.

The Trojans also gave a scholarship to kicker David Davis, a second-team All American at El Camino Junior College last season. Davis won the starting job in training camp and made three extra points in a 21-10 victory over San Jose State on Saturday.

“I noticed the fans gave a couple extra cheers on those extra points,” Carroll said. “I was cheering right with them.”

Special teams made no big plays in the opener but did not surrender any. Carroll was pleased to see his coverage squads flying downfield, clearly influenced by their new position coach. They will need that intensity against the Wildcats and Lockett.

It was during Kansas State’s first game last season that starting returner David Allen was injured. Allen led the nation in 1999 so--though Lockett was a talented receiver--there figured to be a drop-off.

“Aaron was a little uncertain of himself,” Coach Bill Snyder recalls. “He was thrown into the fire.”

At 5 feet 7 and 165 pounds, the Tulsa, Okla., native proved to be suited for the job, small enough to hide behind the wedge, quick enough to flash into a seam.

In his debut, against Louisiana Tech, he returned a punt 69 yards for a touchdown. The following week, he ran one back 83 yards against Ball State, joining Allen among only three players to score on punt returns in successive games.

Lockett added a 58-yard scoring return in the Big 12 championship against Oklahoma.

This season, while he remains a top receiver, his role as returner figures to be even more critical because the Wildcats start with a new quarterback and a new kicker.

“Any time you can give the offense some added yards, it’s like an extra first down,” he says.

And that’s what USC hopes to prevent. Carroll figures his team passed its first test against San Jose State but moves directly to the final exam. It remains to be seen if the Trojans will try to angle their punts, cutting off half the field.

That could be a risk, given MacGillivray’s inconsistent history, but Carroll figures that against Lockett they have to try something.

“We’re certainly not going to kick it straight down the middle,” he said. “We’ll try to make it a little harder on him.”

SATURDAY’S GAME

No. 12 Kansas State (0-0) vs. USC (1-0)

3:30 p.m. at Coliseum

TV: Fox Sports Net