Columnist Dean Juipe: USC job takes its toll on coaches

Dean Juipe

Monday, Nov. 27, 2000 | 10:52 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or 259-4084.

Whether it was justified or not, John Robinson took the blame -- and the fall -- when his Southern Cal football team went only 6-5 in 1997.

He was fired despite that winning season and despite going 37-21-2 over a five-year period, his second stint as head coach at USC.

Booted by athletic director Mike Garrett, Robinson landed on his feet in Las Vegas and inherited a UNLV program that was in disarray. But today the Rebels are one victory -- Saturday at Hawaii -- away from a 7-5 season and a spot in the Las Vegas Bowl.

Meanwhile, Robinson's successor at USC, Paul Hackett, had his head in the same noose that entangled Robinson. With records of 8-5, 6-6 and this season's 5-7, Hackett's dismissal was inevitable. He was fired today.

The lesson: Mediocrity is tough to stomach at a place that once fancied itself as a dynasty.

From a political standpoint, the historic dynasties were undercut by war, plague, famine and social unrest. In the sports world, their fragility is best expressed by reviewing the record book; even the New York Yankees have had 11- and 12-year stretches without winning so much as a division title since 1969, and the Boston Celtics are now nine years removed from their last division title.

There was a time when those two teams seemed to win everything.

There was also a time when playing football at USC was glamourous to an extreme and fabulously rewarding for its participants. From 1950 through 1990, the Trojans routinely contended for national-championship honors and lost as many as five games a season only eight times.

But in the 10 years since, they've lost at least five games a season another eight times.

They're not what they once were, and neither Hackett nor Robinson nor Larry Smith before them stumbled upon or implemented a solution.

Having seen Robinson remake the Rebels, it's obvious he hasn't lost his touch. And Hackett was widely hailed as an offensive genius when Garrett hired him.

Neither Robinson nor Hackett went brain dead while at the helm of the Trojans, yet unmet expectations sent them packing. What may not have worked for Robinson in Los Angeles is working for him in Las Vegas, and what may not have worked for Hackett in LA may very well work for him at his next coaching stop.

But each was vilified for allowing USC to slip from its once-lofty perch, and therein lies one of the cruel ironies of coaching sports. In some situations, even the best effort of brilliant men isn't enough.

As Hackett's team proved throughout this season and especially Saturday in a mistake-filled loss to Notre Dame, the coach is at the mercy of his athletes. A fumble here, a blocked punt there, and the heat on the coach intensifies.

Hackett, like Robinson before him, seemed to handle the inevitability of his firing with aplomb. Both joked about it, to some extent.

But these high-profile jobs come with little security and they underscore the notion that it's frequently easier -- to say nothing of saner -- to be the big fish in a small pond. As Robinson could now tell Hackett, sometimes tradition just cannot be upheld.