Bitterness Toward USC Not This Rebel’s Cause

If John Robinson’s Nevada Las Vegas football team defeats Oregon State on Saturday, it will be the 200th victory in his professional/college career.

It’s not going to happen, of course, so I stopped by his office Wednesday to tell him so. I see no reason to treat him any differently than Pete Carroll and Bob Toledo.

The Rebels are 16-point underdogs to Oregon State in Corvallis so Robinson’s 200th victory probably will come a week from Saturday at Toledo, and I’ll be out of town by then, so I wanted to give him his due for his 130th career loss this week, and his 200th victory next week.

“The Oregon State game will be on TV. When we win, look for me on the field--I’ll have a personal signal just for you,” Robinson said, and apparently once a Trojan always a Trojan, because I get that signal a lot from folks at USC.

I found that comforting, of course, that there is still a link between Robinson and USC, and while I always thought Trojan fans were supposed to hold two fingers high in the air as a salute, I guess one finger is some kind of secret code between Tommy Trojan groupies when the media is around.

“I love USC,” Robinson said. “Mike Garrett? He and I aren’t friends, but that happens. When they fire your butt at The Times, you won’t be friends with the guy who fires you either.”

For all I know, Sports Editor Bill Dwyre has already tried to fire me, but I haven’t gotten the message, because I know better than to check my answering machine.

“Yeah, it was Garrett’s voice on the answering machine,” when the USC athletic director left word Robinson had been fired, “but that was a long time ago, somewhere between Gettysburg and the first World War,” Robinson said. You know, around Dwyre’s birthday.

When was the last time Robinson talked to Garrett? “Before I was fired,” he said, and he wasn’t complaining.

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A YEAR AGO USC snubbed Robinson and did not invite him to join his 1976 Trojan football team for the school’s annual Salute to Troy picnic. A number of his former players were upset and let the school’s administration know about it. Someone apparently got Garrett a book on good etiquette over the last year or mailed an invitation to Robinson this year without his knowledge.

The word at USC was that Robinson never responded, and since President Steven Sample and Garrett don’t return calls, he was only following their example.

“I don’t know what happened,” Robinson said. “Next year they will honor our championship team, so I will try to go.”

I would imagine Garrett would probably want to plan that Las Vegas vacation for that weekend.

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THE REBELS ARE 1-1 this year, and 16-21 in Robinson’s fourth year trying to resurrect a downtrodden program. As upbeat as always, he said he’s all about moving forward, and at 67, he’s all about moving forward.

“In the whole course of things I wasn’t right on everything and [Garrett] wasn’t wrong on everything,” Robinson said, and when I asked if this was the politician in him speaking, he said, “Yeah, it is. But the jerk in me doesn’t last real long. All that negative crud just messes you up, and if you’re negative about an incident like the one that happened to me, it clouds your judgment for the whole school.”

Robinson said he looks for the USC scores every week. “And I find myself rooting for them,” he said, “which is different from the first couple of years after I left, when I found myself rooting against them. I wanted them to lose to prove they were wrong for getting rid of me. Now how silly was that?”

There isn’t a hint of bitterness about Robinson, his office here decorated with many Trojan memories, including a cardinal-and-gold shot of Ronnie Lott. He said he has the friendships from those wonderful USC days, and beyond that, “once you’re gone--parade or kicked out the door--you’re gone.”

“But once a Trojan, always a Trojan,” he said. “I went to the Marv Goux tribute on campus recently and heard the band, and oh my God, it sounded great. I’ve always liked ‘Conquest,’ and when I was coaching and you heard it, you knew the game was over and you had a win, the horse would run by and we probably had just beaten Notre Dame’s sorry behinds.”

Now that little wiseacre crack about Notre Dame was for my benefit because I believe his 8-3-1 mark against the Irish is enough to condemn to the depths of you know where, and told him so. But he said he has worked for Georgia Frontiere, Garrett and Al Davis, and so he already knows: “I’m going to heaven.”

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HE IS NOW the only Division I-A football coach in the country who is also the school’s athletic director, and his contract calls for him to coach at least three more years. “I’m still scared to death every week,” he said. The thrill of competition still has a grip on him.

Spend 90 minutes with him, and it’s the best entertainment in a town that is dedicated to providing nothing else. He can take the teasing, dish it out and is loaded with perspective, although someone else might describe it differently. They love him here and he’ll never beat Notre Dame again. Or Oregon State, for that matter.

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TODAY’S LAST WORD comes in an e-mail from Vince Aleman:

“Why has The Times sent you to cover a fight you can’t relate to in the slightest? These men are literally putting their lives on the line for our entertainment.”

I can relate to that; I’ve gone to Sparks’ games for your entertainment.

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T.J. Simers can be reached at t.j.simers@latimes.com.