BEVERLY HILLS — It's the first college Super Bowl, that's what it is, with repetitive interrogation, elusive responses and a week of hype that matches anything Pete Rozelle could have imagined for his dear, old NFL. USC vs. Texas on Wednesday night, the BCS championship, so far preceded by the B.S. championship, interviews starting at daily 8 a.m. PST — even in California we're obligated to pay obeisance to the swells from the East — between grumpy, unshaven journalists and diplomatic, unshaven athletes.
Questions of "Threepeat," for USC (they're focusing on the game, surprise!); questions of television viewing, for Texas (a lot of cartoons for Billy Pittman); questions even whether anyone has gone on line at ESPN.com to vote in those contrived polls about the best team in history (asked, of course, by ESPN's Shelley Smith). Also a question, for the Trojans, whether they indeed are "the greatest offense of all time," since they lead the country in total offense with an average of 580 yards and are second in scoring at 50 points a game. And have two Heisman Trophy winners, Reggie Bush and Matt Leinart, in the same backfield.
"Well, there's no way to prove that," Lane Kiffin, the USC offensive coordinator, correctly pointed out. "It's fun for you guys to write about it. But we don't worry about it. It has nothing to do with what we're doing, whether we're the greatest ever." An answer properly evasive. An answer that would meet approval by the gentlemen who helped turn Kiffin into a coach, Jeff Tedford, now head man at Cal. Lane Kiffin, at 30 the youngest offensive coordinatorfrom Sports 1 in Division I-A, had the genes and the background. His father is Monte Kiffin, defensive coordinator with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers but not so long ago and far away head coach at North Carolina State, where one of his assistants was Pete Carroll. Yes, the Pete Carroll who is coach at USC and who hired Lane Kiffin. This stuff isn't coincidental. Lane went to Fresno State, where his quarterback coach was the crusty Tedford who in 1997, when Kiffin was a fifth-year senior, gave the kid the option of suiting up and sitting on the bench behind a freshman named David Carr or becoming a student assistant. Kiffin chose the latter. And at times wondered why.
"Oh," he joked Sunday, "there were good experiences, like making the coffee every morning, picking up his newspapers and then taking his clothes to the dry cleaners. All those things. He was tough. "But it was a great experience." What Kiffin appreciates is Tedford, who in 1998 moved on to Oregon, coached him how to be a coach, not always standard procedure. "As a student assistant, a graduate assistant," he told me, 'Hey, you don't talk when it's not your turn to talk,' things like that, don't try to do what you're not supposed to be doing. You have a job to learn. He's tough on his players and his coaches, and it shows because his teams play with so much discipline. "What I appreciate now is Jeff was such a great teacher. I lot of coordinators don't teach their coaches how to coach. He does." USC supposedly was doomed when the legendary Norman Chow left as offensive coordinator after the 2004 season. Carroll elevated Kiffin from receivers coach and re-hired former assistant Steve Sarkisian, who in'04 was quarterbacks coach with the Oakland Raiders. In an unusual format, Sarkisian is on the field and Kiffin in the press box. "We do everything together throughout the week as far as game-planning," said Kiffin. "During the game, he has the feeling of the players, when it's time to get Matt going with this or LenDale (White) or Reggie ... and then we have a guy away from that behind a closed window able to concentrate on what's going on down there." What's going on is Leinart throwing or Bush running. And as many years he coaches, Kiffin never again may get a combination like that. "Without a doubt," Kiffin agreed. "Our plays don't work the same when you don't have No.5 (Bush), who makes people miss and runs for 70. We're fortunate to have him. He and Matt and LenDale and the rest are the ones who make this offense what it is." The greatest offense ever? "Don't ask," said Kiffin. "We're just trying to win the next game."
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