USC Turns to Hackett

With mussed hair and owlish glasses, he is known around Kansas City as “The Mad Scientist.”

With its football program cracking at the foundation, what USC needs most is a construction worker.

The key to Paul Hackett’s success as the new Trojan coach will be his ability to behave as both.

He is arguably the brightest offensive mind in the sport.

Can he carry that intelligence from the press box to the field?

He is so enthusiastic, one of his colleagues joked he should take sedatives.

Can he use that energy to convince a bunch of young men they can actually beat UCLA?

He has worked magic with the likes of Joe Montana and Marcus Allen.

Will the same tricks fly in the living room of high school running back Justin Fargas?

He failed miserably in his first attempt at leading a college team, winning 13 of 34 games at Pittsburgh.

Have five years since then taught him anything?

The most unsettling thing about Paul Hackett comes from Paul Hackett, soon after he joined the Kansas City Chiefs as offensive coordinator in 1993 following his bad experience at Pitt:

“This is the best atmosphere for me, because I see myself as a teacher, and I want to teach every day, all day,” he said at the time. “There are a lot of restrictions in college football now with the 20-hour week, and a lot of things that compromise your ability to be really good at something.”

Have these restrictions changed? Or has Hackett changed?

Whether Hackett is a good choice to lead USC is impossible and unfair to determine while the man is still scheming to beat the New Orleans Saints, which he was doing late Tuesday night in his Kansas City office.

The only thing for certain is, he arrives with some uncertainties.

Hackett must prove he is different than dozens of headset-wearing, coffee-drinking nerds who prefer Xs and O’s to humans.

He must prove that Pitt was a fluke.

He must prove that the following quote is for real:

“The thing that Paul spends a lot of time on is detail, probably more so than anybody I have been associated with. It’s constant, constant. Everything you do is scrutinized, from little handoff drills to footwork in passing. He drills and drills and tests and really prepares you well.”

That was spoken by Montana, with whom Hackett won a Super Bowl as a quarterbacks and receivers coach with the San Francisco 49ers in 1985.

Hackett cannot suddenly feel so big here that he forgets those details.

But he cannot remain so detail-oriented that he forgets to see big.

Is he the bright guy who led this year’s Chief offense to 11th place in NFL rankings with Rich Gannon and four aging or average running backs?

Or is he the bright guy who once, in the final minute of a Pitt game against Notre Dame, kicked an extra point instead of going for two and lost by nine?

Or is he both?

One observer said Hackett’s biggest failing at Pitt was, “He cared too much about academics.”

For USC fans, this is good news.

But . . . “You’ve got to check and see if he’s willing to recruit,” said Beano Cook, former Pitt employee and alumnus.

This could be bad news.

Then again, as even Hackett’s detractors admit, after Pitt hired him it changed the rules.

University officials wanted an academic taskmaster to clean up the mess left by Mike Gottfried. When they realized that this meant Pitt could no longer recruit great players with marginal academic skills, they fired him.

Those close to Hackett say that the last five years have given him the confidence to turn those bad times into learning experiences, to believe he is deserving of another chance.

“He is ready to move in all directions,” said Jim Erkenbeck, tight ends coach with the Chiefs. “He is tremendous under pressure, a great thinker, a great people person.”

He could be a nice fit for USC too, in that he is an unusual thinker.

During his free time as a Trojan assistant coach 20 years ago, he would poke around Pico Boulevard in search of antique jukeboxes. He buys them, refurbishes them, and compares his strategy to their sound.

“Music is about movement, music is about rhythm,” Hackett said a couple of years ago. “Football is about movement. There’s a sense of how these two fit together.”

Come to think of it, his offenses have worked like music, Montana to Rice, Montana to Willie Davis, Elvis Grbac to Andre Rison, even Rich Gannon to Kimble Anders.

Mike Van Raaphorst to R. Jay Soward? Sure, why not?

“Paul will take a college quarterback, work with him a couple of years, and he will be an NFL quarterback, guaranteed,” said Bobb McKittrick, longtime offensive line coach for the 49ers.

First thing Hackett needs to do is hire a top defensive coordinator. Then add a couple of more assistants--smart like him--who understand and are willing to work the Southland streets.

He needs to set them all loose on recruiting trips while he is trying to scheme the Chiefs to the Super Bowl.

Then he needs to show up in town on Monday, Jan. 26, with his hair mussed and glasses askew. He needs to start plotting like the Mad Scientist, but with the fervor and swagger of a man building houses.

He needs to convince his players and the Trojan community that he is more than just brains, he is heart.

It will be a tough assignment. Pitt will seem like a holiday. We will learn about the teacher.