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Trojans counting on Clancy Pendergast to come up with a plan to stop Stanford

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Were he not coaching football, Clancy Pendergast says, he’d probably be back in Arizona, running a dairy farm.

His great-grandfather homesteaded land near Phoenix in 1878, and for generations, Pendergasts became farmers and respected members of the community. Pendergast’s father grew alfalfa, maize and cotton, and ran a dairy farm.

Pendergast’s life was headed that way, too. Then, in 1988, while studying agriculture at Arizona, he decided to ask the football coach at the local high school powerhouse, Amphitheater, if he had any openings.

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“I just missed the game,” Pendergast explained.

Pendergast coached the junior varsity, for no pay. Coached it pretty well too.

Pendergast, USC’s defensive coordinator, has had that effect most places he has gone. He has built a reputation as a turnaround artist. Before his first stint at USC, then-coach Lane Kiffin said he’d hired Pendergast because USC wanted to fix the defense, and “we wanted to get it fixed now.”

This time, Coach Clay Helton waited patiently until he had a chance make Pendergast one of his final major hires.

USC’s game Saturday against Stanford will require the full range of Pendergast’s skills. Stanford put up 41 points on USC last season — twice. Running back Christian McCaffrey accounted for 254, then 461, all-purpose yards. USC lost both games.

Pendergast has faced similar challenges. In 2010, his first season as defensive coordinator at California, he opposed Chip Kelly’s undefeated Oregon team, which had put up at least 43 points in all nine games that season. Pendergast devised a risky strategy: a cover-zero defense, with no safety help. It worked. Oregon managed only 15 points in a close win.

That season, Cal’s total defense improved from 71st in the nation to 18th.

In 2013, when he accepted Kiffin’s offer, USC jumped from 61st to 13th. The next season, without Pendergast, USC slumped back to 78th.

This stint, players credit him with letting them play with more speed and less hesitation. He makes the game simple, they say. Demonstrably so.

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“I think last game, we ran five different plays all game,” safety Chris Hawkins said. “It was working. And once it stops working, he changes it.”

“We may be running some complex defense,” cornerback Adoree’ Jackson said. “But at the same time, he makes it sound very simple.”

Helton said Pendergast’s weekly objective isn’t complicated. He evaluates a team’s No. 1 strength, then neutralizes it. It was the strategy he deployed against Oregon years ago: Defeat us with your secondary options.

“And if you beat us with that?” Helton said. “So be it. Great for you.”

Against Alabama, Helton said, Pendergast determined the threat was receiver Calvin Ridley. USC held Ridley to two catches for nine yards. Alabama beat the Trojans with its No. 2 receiver and on the ground.

Against Utah State, Pendergast keyed on running back Devante Mays. Mays finished with 24 yards.

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Stanford’s biggest threat is well known — McCaffrey. Last season, Helton said, Stanford’s veteran quarterback Kevin Hogan was able to check into plays favorable for McCaffrey.

But, Helton said. “I’ve seen teams try to check. ... It hasn’t worked out.”

Pendergast has lived the transient life of a football coach. He has coached for 10 teams. He told Fox Sports that he still had the washer and dryer Cowboys Coach Barry Switzer gave him, about two decades ago.

Like many assistant coaches, Pendergast’s effectiveness can have a shelf life. After three seasons at Cal, his team defense fizzled, dropping to 95th in total defense. He was fired as the Arizona Cardinals’ defensive coordinator the off-season after making the Super Bowl.

USC is the only team he has returned to after leaving. (And he’d coached there before, as a defensive assistant in 1992.)

“As much as he loved the NFL,” Helton said, “he told me, ‘Coach, there’d be one place I’d leave the NFL for, and that’s USC.’ ”

In interviews, Pendergast is reserved, speaking in clipped sentences — his speech simplified and economical, even then.

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But at practice and in meetings, players say Pendergast can be loud at times, with disarming humor.

“Everyone loves him,” linebacker Uchenna Nwosu said.

Pendergast said he chose football over farming those years ago because he enjoyed the tactical puzzles football provided.

A few years ago, the Pendergasts sold off a parcel of the family’s dairy farm. It was on land Glendale, Ariz., wanted to build a new stadium for the NFL’s Cardinals, and it netted a multi-million-dollar payout. Which was a pretty good turnaround too.

Quick hits

Safety John Plattenburg has passed concussion protocol and will practice next week. … Quarterback Matt Fink, who was taken off the field during Wednesday’s practice, underwent an MRI, which revealed a high ankle sprain and a bone bruise.

zach.helfand@latimes.com

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Twitter: @zhelfand

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