Oregon OC Joe Moorhead, USC DC Todd Orlando share familiar football roots

It's been more than a decade now, but the two seasons USC defensive coordinator Todd Orlando and Oregon offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead spent together at Connecticut in those same respective roles remains largely responsible for where they are today.

Which is squaring off against each other Friday evening in the Pac-12 championship game, as USC hosts Oregon in the Coliseum.

There's another component to their connection and shared history, though -- both Orlando and Moorhead played football at Central Catholic High School in Pittsburgh, Pa.

Orlando was a linebacker and offensive guard on Central Catholic's 1988 state championship team. Moorhead came along later as a tall, prototypical quarterback.

They couldn't have been more different in personality, their HS coach John Fischetti recalls.

"Completely different. Joe was more laid back, and Todd was one of the most intense kids in my 41 years of coaching," Fischetti says over the phone Thursday night from Pittsburgh. "Not that Joe wasn't intense, it was just that their personalities were different."

(The years blur together now, but Fischetti doesn't think the two were varsity teammates at any point, and that part of the story didn't come up in Orlando's media session this week).

From there, though, Orlando went on to play linebacker at Wisconsin while Moorhead later played QB at Fordham. Both got into coaching when their playing careers ended and eventually landed those career-shaping opportunities at UConn.