Suddenly, USC Has a Pup in a Dog-Eat-Dog World

Uncle Pete was talking the other day about the mental exhaustion that USC quarterback Matt Leinart is experiencing these days, which took me somewhat by surprise.

He talked about Leinart trying “to finish up school and do it in the right fashion,” and I’ve got to be honest, I never thought about the grueling college demands of a ballroom dancing schedule along with football practice.

Uncle Pete went one step further and said he’d appreciate “all the help you guys could give him, for those of you that can,” as if NCAA rules would allow the media to help, or there’s anyone among us who could keep up with the kid on the dance floor.

Knowing Leinart, he’d probably always want to lead anyway.

Uncle Pete seemed pretty concerned, though, and talked about the pressure Leinart is feeling, saying, “ ... there is a tremendous burden for him and he is just a young pup trying to make it.”

I can appreciate the “tremendous burden” of hanging around so many USC fans who have lost perspective, because as you know, I’m a die-hard Trojan fan until they lose, and right now we rule the entire planet.

But Uncle Pete loses me when he starts talking about the “young pup trying to make it,” because I had a couple of young pups trying to make it through college and beyond, and they never had the benefit of knowing they were going to sign a professional football contract that probably will call for more than a $20-million signing bonus -- on top of a handsome base salary.

So I like Leinart’s chances of making it with that kind of head start.

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I ALSO like Uncle Pete, but he’s giving us the old double-talk jabber, designed to protect Leinart and keep his quarterback focused on winning football games, which is the most important thing a young man can do when he’s attending college.

I’m sure Uncle Pete wasn’t happy when he heard 1540’s Petros Papadakis had Nick Lachey moving in with Leinart, and how can you not hear Papadakis screaming? If you think the media is going to distract Leinart, what would it be like waiting for Jessica Simpson to come barging through the door asking for a divorce?

OK, so Papadakis had no idea what he was talking about -- stunned me too -- but whatever the reason for the bad report, it’s something Leinart had to contend with in these pressure-packed times.

I got to thinking, though, about all this pressure Leinart is supposedly under, and asked Uncle Pete if that’s the case, then why did he put the kid in the position of making a $14-million decision whether to spike the ball or go for it against Notre Dame -- and maybe blow the prize money awarded to the bowl championship series winner?

More than that, on fourth and nine earlier on the winning drive, the coaching staff told Leinart he’d have the option to check out of the play that had been called. How would you like the pressure of that? -- OK, kid, you decide at the line of scrimmage on the biggest play of the season what to do.

A bad decision by the kid or a teammate missing the audible in Notre Dame’s noise factory would have ended USC’s undefeated season.

“We saw him read it, and then we were talking [on the headsets],” Uncle Pete said. “And we’re saying: ‘Now is he going to do it?’ Then he stepped back, and we said, ‘Uh-oh, here we go.’ ”

A few minutes later the Trojans were at the goal line and Uncle Pete was making a gesture to spike the ball, “careful not to let Matt see it,” Uncle Pete said, while trying to explain he was only faking out Notre Dame. Nice of him to help.

At the same time he was allowing the kid to determine USC’s BCS fortunes -- Leinart probably asking himself before turning to Reggie Bush: “What would Nick Lachey do in a situation like this?”

No, I’m not buying the “Leinart is under pressure” stuff because Uncle Pete would never let that happen. Uncle Pete is intense, competitive, ruthless and so what do you think he said when I asked him if losing has crossed his mind?

“Sure it has,” he said, and he fooled me. I thought I’d get one of those “it never crosses our mind around here” responses.

“My whole job is about contingencies,” he said. “Somebody is going to get us some day; I just hope it’s not this weekend.

“It’s going to happen,” he added with a shrug, “but I’ve been living with everybody’s expectations for a long time. My mom brought me up thinking everything will work out, so why dread anything that might happen?”

So if Uncle Pete is not the kind of guy to get all twisted up, the pressure of expectations taking their toll, why should anyone think he’d allow it to happen to his quarterback? Uncle Pete might be getting only five hours of sleep these nights, but that’s probably because he’s worried Leinart is going to ask him to go ballroom dancing some night.

“You watch the NFL games and watch the coaches fight through the torment of it all, and here I always thought it was just a football game,” Uncle Pete said with a hint of sarcasm. “I’ve gone through the hard times and I’m driven, but for me it’s never crossed over to the other side. I wasn’t going to be dead [from coaching this game].”

That’s why I don’t ever see the pressure getting to be too much for Leinart because I don’t see Uncle Pete letting it happen. Let’s face it, the only ones who are going to die around here when USC loses are the Trojan fans who have already gone over the edge. And I’ve got no problem with that.

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T.J. Simers can be reached at

t.j.simers@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Simers, go to latimes.com/simers.