Just call him the prophet at poolside

Perhaps Mark Schubert should be called “the Oracle.”

The legendary former USC swim coach, now national team coach for USA Swimming, stood just off the pool deck on a balmy Saturday night at Mission Viejo. He was asked whether it was clear that teen distance star Kate Ziegler was going to break one of Janet Evans’ records.

“I certainly think it’s inevitable,” he said.

Inevitable came the next day. Ziegler, 18, broke Evans’ 1988 world record in the 1,500-meter freestyle by nearly 10 seconds at the TYR Meet of Champions.

It was the oldest swim mark on the books, established at a time when Los Angeles had two professional football teams.

Schubert, who once coached Evans, mentioned a couple of other candidates in addition to Ziegler.

“There’s more than one suspect, [Laure] Manaudou and Hayley Peirsol in the mile,” he said. “There’s a lot of people knocking on the door.

“It just took them an awful long time to get to the door.”

All in the family

Trust that Evans is working on a way to get that 1,500 record back in the family.

Two days after Ziegler took the record came an announcement that Evans’ 8-month-old daughter, Sydney, would be making her “first public appearance as a swimmer” on Thursday at John C. Argue Swim Stadium in Exposition Park.

It will kick off the LA84’s Learn to Swim program.

Who knows? Sydney swimming in the Sydney Olympics has a nice ring. Maybe the Olympics will be back there by 2024.

Trivia time

When did Evans set the world record in the 800 freestyle?

En vogue

It’s that time of year again. The football rankings are out.

Texas is No. 1, Michigan No. 2 and USC is all the way down at No. 9, three slots behind ... Wofford?

It’s true.

At least when it comes to the best college football uniforms in the country, according to SI.com.

In these rankings, defending national champion Florida isn’t even in the top 10 -- but Yale is No. 4.

The website also ranked the 10 worst-looking uniforms.

Notre Dame made both lists. Its traditional blues were No. 5 on the good list, its green No. 9 on the bad.

Oregon was first among the worst, prompting one reader to note the uniform “looks like a duck flew into a chain link fence.”

Surf bored

Men’s Journal, in an entertaining piece about the new HBO series “John From Cincinnati,” also looked at bad surf movies through the ages, including such “classics” as “Gidget,” “Big Wednesday,” “North Shore” and “Point Break.”

Included, “Blue Crush: A young surfer in Hawaii confronts her big-wave fears, falls for an NFL quarterback, and inspires hordes of young women to pick up short boards and Roxy T-shirts.”

Alas, “Blue Crush” was made in 2002 ... a few years too early for the young lady in question to fall in love with Matt Leinart.

Trivia answer

In 1989, at the Pan Pacific Championships in Tokyo.

And finally

Former No. 1 women’s tennis player Venus Williams, to Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch, on marriage and kids: “Right now I don’t understand kids. It doesn’t fit into my life. So I can’t be birthing. I guess I can understand the value of marriage. If I find the right person, I guess I’d say, ‘I do.’ But if you asked me that last year, I would’ve been like, ‘Are you serious?’ I don’t want to get married. I’m getting a little wiser.”

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lisa.dillman@latimes.com