Their Play Draws Special Attention

The game could not have started much worse.

As the opening kickoff sailed through the air, USC’s coverage team fell apart, allowing Washington returner Marlon Wood to break free down the sideline for 92 yards.

That quickly, the Trojan defense was backed up inside its 10-yard line and special teams assistant Sam Anno was furious.

“We cannot keep doing this,” he hollered at his players.

Coming into last Saturday’s game -- even with USC undefeated and ranked No. 1 -- the special teams had been anything but special.

The coverage squads had given up one big play after another, including touchdowns off punts at Arizona State and Notre Dame. The Trojan return teams had looked positively tame, even with Reggie Bush handling the ball.

Coach Pete Carroll called it an embarrassment. Assistant coaches who oversee special teams were feeling the heat.

“A nightmare,” said Rocky Seto, a linebacker coach who works with punt coverage. “It’s been personally humbling.”

For the better part of a month, the Trojans had vowed to devote extra attention to the problem. Every time the horn blew to begin special teams work, coaches came running from all parts of the field, yelling, impatient to start. Preparing for the Huskies, they badgered players about technique and tinkered with lineups.

“We’re trying to find some guys who will give us some oomph,” Anno said.

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At USC -- like everywhere else -- special teams are a balancing act.

The NCAA limits team activities to 20 hours a week, so, for the most part, special teams are wedged -- a few minutes here, a few there -- between offensive and defensive drills.

The Trojans also face tough personnel choices. Should they stock their special teams with starters, risking fatigue or, worse, injury? Or would less-experienced reserves suffice?

When it comes to using backups, Todd McNair, the running back coach who doubles as special teams coordinator, faces a challenge.

“They don’t come to USC to be a special teams player,” McNair said. “They come here to be a star linebacker or a star running back.”

A big part of McNair’s job is motivating players for what amounts to grunt work, and he speaks from experience. As a Kansas City Chief running back in the early 1990s, playing behind Christian Okoye and Barry Word, he turned himself into a special teams standout.

Anno, a former USC linebacker, had a similar experience with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and was chosen NFL special teams player of the year in 1989.

This season, the assistants have needed to do more selling than usual. Injuries and other player losses have riddled the special teams, requiring continual adjustment. Anno wants more than just physical talent -- he needs hunger.

“Maybe you have flat-out speed,” he said. “But when you get double-teamed, it becomes a root-hog position.”

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The Trojans were surrendering 18.6 yards per punt return as of last week, compared with 9.2 yards last season. Special teams, which had ranked in the national top 20 in several categories in 2004, had fallen off the radar.

An injury to tailback Desmond Reed at Notre Dame meant more adjustments. Will Harris, a freshman, took his place on kick coverage, and star safety Darnell Bing was told to return kicks.

Also, injuries and poor play forced USC to hold tryouts for the all-important “gunner” spots, the players who line up wide on punt coverage.

Bing and defensive back Josh Pinkard were asked to audition. So were two freshmen, receiver Patrick Turner and linebacker Rey Maualuga.

In practice, Pinkard learned a hard lesson when he tried to sneak between blockers and got stuffed. The same thing had happened to a USC gunner during Notre Dame’s punt return for touchdown.

“You try to split the middle ... that’s the mousetrap, that’s where the cheese is,” Pinkard said. “You’re supposed to move laterally and take on only one of the guys.”

Linebacker Collin Ashton, a special teams veteran, said he learned -- the hard way -- to remain poised while charging downfield, maintaining his lane by watching for landmarks such as the sideline or yard numbers painted on the turf. If a teammate went down on either side, he adjusted to fill the gap. He also learned to anticipate the return setting up right or left.

“You become more savvy,” he said.

While coverage teams worked on technique, punter Tom Malone was taking some of the blame for USC’s troubles. On that Notre Dame touchdown return, he tried to drive the ball into a headwind and ended up with too low a trajectory.

“You’ve got to hang the ball up a little more,” he said. “Give those guys more time to get down there.”

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A little more than 10 seconds into Saturday’s game -- the time it took for that long kickoff return -- Anno looked as if he were convulsing on the sideline, arms waving, jittering in anger.

But the defense held Washington to a field goal and, after that, things improved.

Freshman kicker Troy Van Blarcom showed more consistency with kicks into the end zone. The USC return teams finally clicked.

Late in the first quarter, Bing fielded the first kickoff of his career and raced 68 yards to set up a touchdown. In the second quarter, Bush took a punt at the 16, emerged from a pile of tacklers, and bounced outside for an 84-yard touchdown return.

Then, just before halftime, linebacker Brian Cushing blocked a Washington punt, leading to a field goal that gave USC a 37-17 lead.

As for punt coverage, which received so much attention during the week, coaches settled on Turner and Justin Wyatt, a starting cornerback who said he had asked coaches to play on the squad because watching opponents rip long returns had “irked my nerves.”

With USC cruising to a 51-24 victory, the squad got only one chance to prove what it could do. In the second quarter, Malone hit a 42-yarder and Wyatt helped steer the returner into Ashton after only a six-yard gain.

Carroll, while bemoaning the opening kick return and a missed extra-point try, felt optimistic about his special teams for the first time in a while.

His assistants felt relieved.

“That last few weeks have been really frustrating,” Anno said. “It was nice to have a game where we didn’t have to hold our breath on every kick.”