USCFootball.com - New coaches means new challenges

October 31, 2009

Bryan Fischer
Special to USCFootball.com

When the Trojans visit Oregon on Saturday, perhaps Pete Carroll will head to midfield and chat with Mike Bellotti for a few minutes during warm-ups. It's an act the two coaches have done for the past eight years since Carroll was hired at USC. After chatting this year however, Bellotti will head up to the athletic director's suite while Carroll gets ready to coach his team.

Carroll, who takes Bellotti's title as the dean of Pac-10 coaches, knows that familiarity with other Pac-10 teams has given the Trojans an advantage in past years. This year is different however as the Ducks have a new head coach in Chip Kelly, and the Trojans have a new play caller in Jeremy Bates. The lack of familiarity with the opponent for the two coaches means they have to devote even more time than usual to the film room.

"There's a learning curve; sure there is," Carroll said. "As you rush to get a plan together each week, the familiarity helps a really good coach. When you see the teams and see them a couple years in a row, it helps you understand what you're up against and what you're dealing with. You can make a lot of evaluations in a short amount of time."

The familiarity with Pac-10 teams has allowed the Trojans to maintain continuity when game planning but has forced USC's two new coordinators into different situations when preparing for conference opponents.

"It doesn't affect Rocky (Seto) because he's been in our system for so long," Carroll said. "For Jeremy, he had to get used to and accustomed to these teams in the work he did over the summertime. We have a lot of guys on our staff that have been together and that really helps."

The challenges a new coach such as Bates or Kelly face when running through the conference for the first time is something Carroll remembers well.

"It's a challenge for a new guy first time around the conference," he said. "I remember the first time I went through it, I thought I knew guys and thought I was getting to know them. I look back three, four years later and you have a different perspective of teams and a different understanding of them."

While Bates can lean on Carroll for information on the Ducks, Kelly turns to a staff that has seen more of USC than even Carroll has. Running backs coach Gary Campbell has been at Oregon for 27 years and defensive coordinator Nick Aliotti is going on his 19th season. Yet Bellotti, the former head coach, is not one who Kelly turns to for advice regarding conference opponents.

"He knows I'm slightly different than him and I have to do things my way," Kelly said. "He wouldn't micromanage me when he was the head coach and I was the offensive coordinator, and he certainly hasn't micromanaged me now that he's the athletic director and I'm the head football coach.

"We have a great relationship but we haven't spent any time this year at all talking about the upcoming opponents or discussing football. It's just 'how are you doing' or 'can I help you in any way' and all those other things. We don't discuss X's and O's or what SC's doing on defense or offense or whatever or whoever we're playing."

When the two teams meet again on Saturday, it may be that the game plans will be just as different as the coaches calling them.

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