It’s One Brain That Won’t Pick on USC

Eleven months ago, it looked as if tonight’s game between USC and Stanford had the makings of a must-see matchup between two of the best coaching minds in USC history.

Stanford, searching for a replacement for fired coach Buddy Teevens, appeared close to hiring USC offensive coordinator Norm Chow.

USC Coach Pete Carroll, also the Trojans’ defensive coordinator, had schemed against Chow in practice for four years. Suddenly, he realized he might have to do it in a game.

“I always used to think, ‘God, I’ve told him so much. Maybe I should have held something back. I’m giving away all the stuff,’ ” Carroll said this week.

Stanford alleviated Carroll’s concern, and doused the potential drama, when it passed on Chow and hired former Pittsburgh coach Walt Harris. Chow left USC in February for a near-$1 million-a-year coordinator’s job with the NFL’s Tennessee Titans.

However, Carroll will still see a familiar face along Stanford’s sideline tonight.

Harris, 59, and Carroll, 54, are longtime friends.

Their relationship began in 1971 when Harris, an assistant at Pacific, recruited Carroll to play defensive back. They coached together with the New York Jets in 1994, and Harris coached Carroll’s son, Brennan, in college at Pitt from 1999 to 2001.

Tonight’s game marks the first time Carroll and Harris will coach against each other.

“He used to get on my butt when I was first coaching about not working hard enough, and not understanding how to study film,” Carroll said. “Walt doesn’t forget stuff like that, so he still reminds me. ...”

Harris, recalling Carroll’s competitiveness, said he still has scratches and scars on his hands and forearms from pickup basketball games between the two.

“The day he dies he is still going to be slapping at the ball,” Harris said.

The friends are guiding programs that went in opposite directions the previous three seasons.

USC, 8-0 overall and 5-0 in the Pacific 10 Conference, has a 30-game winning streak, a 24-game home winning streak, and is on track for a shot at an unprecedented third consecutive national championship.

USC’s success does not surprise Harris, who said Carroll did not receive “any kind of opportunity” in his one season as head coach of the Jets and was not given a “fair chance” in his three seasons with the New England Patriots.

“Now he is at a place where he has better football players than he did at most NFL jobs,” Harris said.

Stanford (4-3, 3-2) has not had a winning season since 2001, the year a Cardinal team coached by Tyrone Willingham defeated USC, 21-16, the Trojans’ last loss at the Coliseum.

Following three losing campaigns under Teevens, Harris’ tenure began with a victory over Navy. The Cardinal then suffered an embarrassing defeat against UC Davis -- “a huge wake-up call,” Harris said -- and lost to Oregon before winning three straight games.

Last week, Stanford blew a 21-point lead in the fourth quarter and lost to UCLA, 30-27, in overtime.

“We were devastated and in shock, but we had no one to blame but ourselves,” Harris said. “Both sides of the ball failed to get it done.”

Stanford’s meltdown against UCLA conjured images of last season’s game against USC in a Pac-10 opener.

Cardinal running back J.R. Lemon scored on an 82-yard run on the final play of the first half, putting USC behind, 28-17, at Stanford Stadium.

“They had us on the ropes,” Trojan quarterback Matt Leinart said this week.

The situation created what proved to be the turning point in USC’s season.

With senior offensive lineman John Drake and senior defensive lineman Shaun Cody leading the way, the Trojan locker room turned into a frenzy of emotion, players bouncing off each other and knocking over water coolers.

“It was the most fun, the most intense situation, I’ve ever been in,” linebacker Lofa Tatupu said last spring.

USC held Stanford scoreless in the second half and came back for a 31-28 victory that sent the Trojans on their way to an unbeaten season and the bowl championship series title.

Trojan players said this week that despite Stanford’s losses to Davis and UCLA, the Cardinal looked like a well-coached team under Harris.

And they said they were happy not to be facing Chow.

“Fortunately for us, that’s not the case,” middle linebacker Oscar Lua said with a grin.

Safety Darnell Bing agreed.

“It wouldn’t have been too fun,” he said, laughing.