In Offense Shuffle, Pair Replaces an Ace

When Norm Chow left USC to become offensive coordinator for the Tennessee Titans this week, the Trojans were left with a gaping hole in their coaching staff.

So big, it seems, they will use two men to fill it.

Under a plan outlined by Coach Pete Carroll on Thursday, young assistants Steve Sarkisian and Lane Kiffin will share the task of replacing one of the most successful and venerated offensive coordinators in college football history.

Sarkisian will serve as assistant head coach overseeing the offense and Kiffin will take Chow’s seat in the press box as the new coordinator.

They will prepare the game plan together during the week. On Saturdays, Kiffin will call plays down to Sarkisian on the sideline. Sarkisian will have final say as he relays the information onto the field.

“When you’ve got another guy there, doing it kind of together, it makes the challenge a little easier to tackle,” Sarkisian said. “Maybe that’s what it takes.”

The arrangement could also be complicated. Imagine a big call needs to be made in the final seconds. Kiffin is thinking one thing, Sarkisian another. Carroll, with ultimate veto power, represents a third voice.

Carroll acknowledged that getting his new offensive staff in sync “is an area that we will be challenged by, so we’ll practice it in the spring.” But, he said, “on game day the flow of play calling should be very systematic. I’m not worried about it one bit.”

The same cannot be said, at least not entirely, for Sarkisian and Kiffin. At 30 and 29, respectively, they replace a man with more than twice as much experience as the two of them combined.

Add a torrid hot streak, USC’s being expected to compete for a third consecutive national title next fall, and Sarkisian compares the situation to being handed keys to an expensive sports car.

“Boy,” he said, “you don’t want to put a scratch on it.”

If nothing else, the assistants take a measure of confidence from their collective past. They joined the team in 2001 and coached side-by-side for three years before Sarkisian left to spend last season with the Oakland Raiders.

“You know how you work with some people, sometimes you see eye-to-eye, sometimes you don’t?” Kiffin asked. “Then there are people, they say something the same moment you’re thinking it. That’s how it is with Steve and I.”

Sarkisian added: “We were both around Norm a lot. To see how he game-planned, to hear how he called the game. If one of us forgot something, the other will remember.”

A star athlete at West Torrance High, Sarkisian played quarterback under Chow at Brigham Young in the mid-1990s and joined his mentor as an offensive assistant at USC. He became popular with players, working closely with a young Matt Leinart.

Carroll was so impressed that when San Diego State hired Sarkisian to a full-time position in the winter of 2002, he pulled strings to bring the young assistant back as his quarterbacks coach only two months later.

And when the Raiders hired Sarkisian to be their quarterbacks coach last season, Carroll said, “he knew the day he left that I wanted to get him back ... I think the world of this guy.”

Kiffin came to USC with a degree of experience beyond his years.

He is the son of Monte Kiffin, a longtime college and NFL coach who hired Carroll as his defensive coordinator at North Carolina State in the early 1980s.

Lane recalls a boyhood spent on practice fields and sitting in the back of his father’s office, watching plays being drawn on the board.

“Sometimes you had to kick him out because he really wasn’t supposed to be there,” said Monte, now the defensive coordinator for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. “From 5 years old, the boy just wanted to coach. You could see it.”

Kiffin started at USC as the tight ends coach and quickly worked his way up. Last season, he held the titles of receivers coach and passing game coordinator.

He took over as recruiting coordinator when assistant Ed Orgeron left to become the coach at Mississippi. He turned down an offer to join Orgeron.

“Both Lane and Sark are bright young minds,” said Idaho Coach Nick Holt, a former USC assistant. “They’ve been around great coaches and they’ve taken advantage of that. I don’t think they’ll miss a beat.”

On Thursday, Carroll announced two more hires. Dennis Slutak, a graduate assistant who left with Orgeron only weeks ago, will return as director of football operations. Yogi Roth, who played receiver at Pittsburgh with tight ends coach Brennan Carroll, will be Slutak’s assistant.

USC still needs an offensive line coach. Pat Ruel, a New York Giant assistant last season, interviewed on campus this week and Carroll had hoped to make an announcement. But on Thursday, he said the hiring could take a while longer.

In the meantime, the start of spring practice has been delayed until March 22, giving USC’s new offensive leadership time to get reacquainted.

“With different people, this doesn’t work,” Kiffin said.

Sarkisian added: “It’s going to be fun.”