Chill Factor

The kid who has just splashed down into college football’s biggest footprints recently phoned the guy who made them.

Matt Leinart is still waiting for Carson Palmer to call him back.

“I left messages,” he said. “I’m sure I’ll hear from him.”

Um, Carson? Soon?

The unlikeliest of Heisman Trophy successors haltingly steps toward a date with a different sort of bronzed stiff-arm, and even advice from a Cincinnati Bengal benchwarmer would be appreciated.

“I’m sure I’m going to be nervous, scared, excited,” said Leinart, who assuredly will not be the only one.

In less than two weeks, national championship-dreaming USC will heed the season’s first snap count from a kid who hasn’t thrown a competitive pass in nearly three years.

A kid who considered himself third string at the start of the spring.

A kid who will take his first steps across the hot coals at highly regarded Auburn.

We can already hear that phone conversation.

“Hey, Matt, this is Carson ... you’re doing what?”

The situation is completely nutty, but the story is totally Hollywood, so who knows?

Leinart, a left-handed redshirt sophomore from Santa Ana and Mater Dei High, has shaggy dark hair and a huge smile and distant eyes that say, “Dude. Chill.”

He used to valet-park cars at South Coast Plaza. He does yoga. He works out with a baseball trainer.

He is dating professional surfer Veronica Kay, who also happens to be the face of Roxy sportswear, so he’s usually not even the most famous person in his car.

They met at the premiere of “Bulletproof Monk.” They spotted each other across the lobby of -- where else? -- the Mondrian Hotel.

“So, you wanna talk about Matty?” she says sweetly while standing on the sidelines during a recent practice.

He needs to be Bulletproof Matty.

While Leinart exudes the cool smarts of a left-handed Ken Dorsey, it is necessary that he also have the brash insides of a Willis McGahee, because this isn’t going to be easy.

By anointing him the starter at the end of spring practice -- then formalizing it last week -- the Trojan coaches bypassed two-year backup Matt Cassel, Big Ten veteran Brandon Hance and national schoolboy star John David Booty.

How wide open was the race? Booty left high school a year early just to join the fray.

Some will say that Leinart is just keeping the huddle warm until strong-armed Booty is ready. Others will say that Leinart will be only the first pretty horse in a season-long quarterback carousel.

Norm Chow, the offensive coordinator who anointed Leinart, says both ideas are missing the point. He said it’s not about arm strength, and it’s not about beauty.

Given that the Trojans have virtually everything else in place for a national title run -- defense, running backs, the amazing Mike Williams -- he said they are not looking for a quarterback who can win the game.

He said they are looking for a quarterback who will not lose it.

He said Leinart was picked not for ability as a gamebreaker, but as a game manager.

“We need efficient, effective leadership, and he gives that to us,” Chow said. “He can let the other guys win the game for us. He just has to manage it properly.”

At a recent scrimmage, the Trojans had 80 snaps without a turnover, so somebody is doing something right.

“We trust him,” Coach Pete Carroll said. “He doesn’t have to carry the program on his shoulders. He just has to take care of the football, distribute it well, and let our other guys do their thing.”

He has managed pressure before, although in nothing like the heat from swaggering, tailgating-since-dawn Auburn fans.

There was that Mustang World Series game when he was 9. Surrounded by 2,000 folks chanting, “Puer-to Ri-co,” he struck out the side in the bottom of the final inning to give his team a victory.

“I had just had heart surgery, so I’m standing there thinking, ‘Get me out of here!’ ” his father Bob recalled. “But Matt didn’t seem to be bothered.”

Then there was that legendary game between Mater Dei and Concord De La Salle. Although Mater Dei lost, 31-28, Leinart threw for more than 401 yards and four touchdowns, including two during a furious fourth-quarter comeback.

But the play that most typifies his style occurred much earlier, when he leaped, tipped a high snap back into his arms and completed a pass to save a drive.

“I don’t think this is about stats,” Leinart said. “I think this is about being a leader.”

Perhaps coincidentally, his leadership showed up this spring about the same time he met Kay, who passed along her surfing philosophy.

“Sometimes when I’m out there on a wave, I can’t see much, but I can’t doubt myself,” she said. “I just turn my thoughts off and go with what I feel. Those end up being some of my best rides.”

Said Leinart: “I listened to her. She’s been there.”

Judging from a recent practice, the rest of the team seems to be getting the message, hooting and hollering and surrounding him with energy during a late-afternoon drive.

He connected with Keary Colbert on a perfect, over-the-shoulder downfield pattern, and everyone cheered.

He overthrew a running back across the middle, and Chow did several frustrated hops.

He threw a perfect strike to Williams, but the defender hugged Williams, and the ball hit the ground.

Get used to it, all of it, the good and the bad and the pass interferences against Williams.

“I don’t believe in short ropes, I don’t believe in quick hooks, I believe you just play football and see what happens,” Carroll said. “This is a very difficult game. But we are going to give Matt an opportunity to make a big hit.”

Thirteen days from now, to be exact.

“Matt is like, ‘Man, there’s a game in two weeks?’ ” Kay said.

Come to think of it, maybe it’s better if ol’ what’s-his-name doesn’t call.

Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com.