Veteran Linebacker : Former Marine Herrin Is Now Looking for a Few Good Hits With Trojans

The other day at the USC football practice field, an 18-year-old freshman muffed a blocking assignment and was yelled at by a coach.

He trudged back to the huddle, head down. He was still mumbling about it at the next water break.

Errick Herrin, a 25-year-old junior linebacker, suppressed a smile.

It’s only in moments such as those, he says, that he feels much older than many of his teammates.

Herrin spent four years in the Marine Corps before beginning his college football career. He’s a veteran of the Gulf War. He has been shot at and yelled at. He has seen men try to kill themselves.

He doesn’t volunteer counseling services to young, emotionally untested players. But if asked, he’d advise them to examine the alternatives.

Such as basic training at Parris Island, S.C.

“There’s nothing the coaching staff here can do to me on that practice field that would even compare to what I went through in 13 weeks at Parris Island,” he said.

“This really is a game, and guys shouldn’t forget that. They’re not training you to kill people, like the Marines do.

“I had a drill instructor who was 5 feet 4 tall and 5 feet 4 wide. He could really get in your face. He’d scream awful things at me about my mother, my father, my family . . . everything.

“We had guys in basic trying to commit suicide--by hanging themselves, cutting their wrists or pills.

“Sure, I got mad, like the other guys. But I realized early the whole thing was a test, to see if they could break you. So you shut up and kept your mouth shut, that’s all.

“There were days I figured I’d made a mistake. There were days I figured it couldn’t get any worse than this--and then it did, the next day.

“I did a lot of talking to myself, when I was sure no one else was around. That’s how I blew off steam.”

In the Gulf War, Herrin wasn’t involved in combat. However, he had to “hit the deck” more than once, when his base would be hit by stray automatic weapons fire.

For USC, Herrin is a junior college recruit who brings high expectations to Don Lindsey’s defense.

“I can’t think of anything more you’d want in an inside linebacker than what Errick represents to us,” said Lindsey, the defensive coordinator.

“The guy has been to war. He’s a man. He’s got great maturity and you love that when he plays alongside very young players. From what we’ve seen so far, he’s an explosive kind of linebacker.”

Said Coach John Robinson: “There’s a suddenness to his game that really catches your eye.”

Herrin is 6-2 and 225 pounds and not far from becoming the 10th Trojan to bench press 400 pounds. He has lifted 385 pounds and has done 26 repetitions at 225.

To Bob Stangel, his coach at Mt. San Jacinto Junior College, Herrin is a natural.

“He has that God-given ability to know where the ball is going to be, to go to the ball,” he said.

“I called him my quiet assassin. He’s a big-time hitter. By his second season for us last year, two and three guys were blocking him. He disrupts what teams want to do.

“He was a big, strong man when I got him, after four years in the Marines, and he just got stronger with us.

“In 30 years of coaching, he’s the best linebacker I’ve had. He’ll be a pro.”

Herrin, who weighed 170 when he enlisted, hopes to be a starter soon. At his inside linebacker slot, he’s listed behind senior Donn Cunnigan.

“Cunnigan is a fifth-year senior, he started some games last year and he’s paid his dues,” Lindsey said. “He deserves to be listed as the starter now. But after that opening game (Sept. 3 against Washington), all bets are off.”

Herrin joins a strong linebacker unit, led by Jeff Kopp and Brian Williams, who were first and second in tackles last season, with 83 and 78.

Kopp played outside but is inside for his senior season. Williams is listed behind Gerald Caruthers at outside linebacker, but Caruthers will sit out at least the Washington opener because of a broken bone in his foot.

At the other outside slot, Errol Small is listed ahead of another prized junior college recruit, Israel Ifeanyi from Orange Coast.

Originally from Akron, Ohio, Herrin comes from a football/wrestling background.

“I lost only two wrestling matches my senior year, both to the same guy,” he said. “I wasn’t much of a student, I was kind of a party guy in high school.”

When he decided to join the Marines, family opposition was unanimous.

“My uncle was in the Army, and my brother was in the Air Force,” he said. “Both of them came home just to talk me out of it. The Marines were too tough, they told me. They said they’d talk bad to me, that the food was bad. But the more they talked like that, the more I wanted to join. So I did.”