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Joey Johnston's Sidelines: Coaching Corner At Coliseum

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 13, 2008

Heading into tonight's mega-game, it might be difficult to find more different coaching personalities than Southern Cal's exuberant Pete Carroll and Ohio State's buttoned-down Jim Tressel.

"He's from Akron and I'm from San Francisco," Carroll said.

But Carroll and Tressel said they have never had more respect for an opposing program.

Carroll was the secondary coach on Earle Bruce's Ohio State staff and spoke glowingly of a chance on-campus meeting with Woody Hayes.

Tressel said he was a big believer in USC's I-formation, employed by Coach John McKay, when his coaching career began in 1975.

"At the time, whatever USC was doing, that's what you did," Tressel said. "USC was the pinnacle."

TALE OF THE TAPE

Mammoth Matchups

Ohio State-USC, of course, is the game of the day (and probably the season), but Michigan at Notre Dame is a clash of the No. 1 and No. 2 victory teams in college football history. The all-time top 10:

(Ohio State-USC edition)

•You won't find a better pair of middle linebackers in one game - well, maybe if you dig up a Butkus-Nitschke tape - than Ohio State's James Laurinaitis and USC's Rey Maualuga.

•How will Ohio State employ prized freshman change-of-pace QB Terrelle Pryor? He didn't play much last week - decoy? - but USC has prepared for him, even using elusive RB Joe McKnight as the scout-team quarterback.

•USC QB Mark Sanchez vs. the Ohio State defense. If Sanchez truly is in the league of Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart, he must perform on this big stage.

Be Forewarned, Badgers

Since the 2000 season, Fresno State of the Western Athletic Conference has 13 victories against BCS conference opponents, second-most in the nation during that span by a non-BCS school (Utah has 14). Tonight, Wisconsin plays at Fresno State (and the Bulldogs go to UCLA on Sept. 27). Here's the giant-killing lineup for Coach Pat Hill's Bulldogs:

Humbled Gamecock

Here's a question you have rarely (never?) heard.

Has South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier, the author of Florida's revolutionary offenses in the 1990s, seen the game pass him by?

"The way we play offense, you'd say that," Spurrier said as the Gamecocks (1-1), coming off a loss at Vanderbilt, prepared for today's SEC East game against Georgia (2-0). "If your team doesn't play well, you're not a very good coach. I'm not a very good coach right now. That's just the way life is.

"When I had a bunch of guys running around scoring a bunch of points, I was a real good coach. And right now, I don't have a bunch of guys running around scoring a whole bunch of points, so I'm not a very good coach."

A Pirate's Life For Me

The East Carolina Pirates (2-0) are the talk of college football after victories against Virginia Tech and West Virginia. But ECU coach Skip Holtz, preparing for today's Conference USA opener at Tulane, wants to keep the momentum going.

He has reached out to former BCS-busting coaches such as Boise State's Chris Petersen and Fresno State's Pat Hill. He also spoke to SMU's June Jones (formerly of Hawaii) and Florida's Urban Meyer (formerly of Utah) about how to maintain an edge and handle the hoopla.

After beating West Virginia, Holtz said he had 107 text messages. By noon on Monday, he had received 218 e-mails. All were congratulations. But Holtz said he won't get carried away.

"Fresno State was 8-0 one year, fell off at the end and didn't win their conference championship," Holtz said. "I'm trying to learn from their past non-BCS teams success, get different ideas. What would they do differently? What did they learn from it?"

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