Coaching Key to USC’s Success

Bill Walsh coached Stanford to three bowl games in five seasons, the San Francisco 49ers to three Super Bowl championships in 10 years and is considered one of the best evaluators of talent in football. He mentored several of the game’s best quarterbacks -- among them Joe Montana, Steve Young, Dan Fouts and Ken Anderson -- and his 49er system spawned head coaches such as Mike Holmgren, Dennis Green, Jon Gruden, George Seifert, Brian Billick, Tony Dungy ... and USC’s Pete Carroll.

Walsh, now an assistant to the athletic director at Stanford, watched the Orange Bowl on television from his Bay Area home Tuesday and made these observations in a telephone interview with Times reporter Sam Farmer.

*

So much for all the rhetoric that Oklahoma and that part of the country has the best football. I think it was very evident in the Orange Bowl that the best college football is played in the Pac-10.

The Sooners looked good on their opening drive. But after that, it became obvious that USC was clearly a better football team in every facet of the game -- from the coaching to the play-calling to the talent on the field and the confidence that they had.

The Southern Cal players just played smarter, more mature football. Oklahoma came unraveled after about 20 minutes, to the point where it wasn’t really the Oklahoma team we were looking at. The Sooners were a shadow of the team we saw this season.

I give a lot of credit to USC’s coaching staff for that. Pete Carroll is the most dynamic coach in all of football right now. He’s able to motivate men and bring them together, assemble a top coaching staff, and he has so much enthusiasm and energy. He also has incredible knowledge of the game. He’s been one of the top defensive coordinators in the NFL, and he’s got a great football mind.

When you combine Pete with what Norm Chow does as USC’s offensive coordinator, it forms the heart of the best coaching staff in college football -- and probably the best in all of football.

The best coaches take care of the smallest details. For instance, the slipping and sliding of some of the Oklahoma players was probably due to the wrong cleats on that surface. That’s how the details can kill you. Oklahoma gave away points because their receivers slipped.

Pete Carroll takes care of details. I remember first hearing about him when he was an assistant coach at University of the Pacific. I looked forward at some point to working with him, and I got a chance to do so with the 49ers. He’s one of those unique people with great energy. He reminds me very much of a young Dick Vermeil. He combines the youthful energy and a brilliant football mind.

Pete is the ultimate in a new wave of American football coaches who are actively involved with their players and heavily contribute to the strategies and tactics of the game.

You can see that in his defense. The tackling of the USC defensive players collectively was a clinic for everyone in football, including the NFL. They did an incredible job. You don’t see that in the NFL. It’s just because they’re so intense, they believe and they’re willing to sacrifice.

It just shows you how in the right environment a coach can thrive, and how in the wrong environment he doesn’t have a chance. Pete was in the wrong environment a couple times. No matter how well he did, everything was stacked against him. But now he’s broken out and proved that he’s a great coach.

It helps a coach to have a talented quarterback, and Matt Leinart is clearly one of those. He has beautiful touch. He just throws a nice, soft, catchable ball. That’s why these guys are making such excellent catches. Joe Montana used to do that. He threw such a catchable ball that it allowed great receivers to make a play on it. Just like that one-handed catch in the end zone that Dominique Byrd made early in the first half.

It would be great for college football if Leinart remained at USC. Of course if he left, all of the rest of us in the Pac-10 would be willing to give him a sendoff party. I can see him making the transition to the NFL. Make no mistake, it will be a transition. NFL defensive players are so much faster and they cover so much better. So I don’t know how tough the transition will be, but if he goes to a program with a solid, established system he’ll do fine.

He’s benefited greatly from working with Norm Chow. I was particularly impressed with the call Norm made on an early touchdown pass to Steve Smith. On the play before, the Oklahoma corner was beat and then clearly injured his shoulder. Norm saw that, and immediately called the next play right over his head for a touchdown.

We’re witnessing the evolution of offensive football. Anyone who says you have to establish the run before you can do anything is fooling themselves. They’re living in the deep dark past. It’s just not the way the game’s played now. Just look at the way the Trojans tore apart Oklahoma, with Leinart hitting receivers all over the field.

We’re never going to see that Woody Hayes-, Bo Schembechler-style of football again, that run-first mentality. The game has totally changed in a matter of eight to 10 years, and especially in the last three or four. People are playing out of the shotgun, they have mobile quarterbacks, multiple receivers, and they’re throwing the ball like crazy.

There will be at least 10 quarterbacks out of college this year who will make an NFL team. For the NFL ever to say again that they aren’t producing quarterbacks in college is just ridiculous.

I heard an announcer ridicule the Pac-10 during the Holiday Bowl. Cal was shaken up and beaten by Texas Tech, so this announcer concluded that the Pac-10 is weak. That’s obviously wrong. Year in and year out, the Pac-10 has a record that’s as good or better than any other conference in the country.