USC Morning Buzz: The Original Lane Kiffin Was Paul Hackett

HACKETT

Paul Hackett is mostly considered an unsuccessful USC head coach today. But back in the 1970’s, he was a bright, young offensive coordinator and establishing himself as a quarterback guru of sorts. The problem was Hackett turned out to be a much better assistant than head coach (sound familiar?). Here he is in 1976. That staff also featured Bob Toledo, who experienced success as UCLA’s head coach.

My favorite Hackett story from this era came in the 1980 Rose Bowl. USC came-from-behind to defeat Ohio State, 17-16, as Charles White (247 yards rushing) scored a TD with just more than a minute remaining. The winning drive is famous because USC ran the ball every play behind its star-studded offensive line (Brad Budde, Keith Van Horne, Anthony Munoz, etc.).

Anyways, during the drive, Coach John Robinson said to Hackett, “if you call a pass, you’re fired!”

31 thoughts on “USC Morning Buzz: The Original Lane Kiffin Was Paul Hackett

  1. Have to admit “…if you call a pass, you’re fired!” is really really funny!

  2. College offenses are so much more efficient today than back then. If a RB ran for 247 yards today you would expect the team to finish with 35-50 points. And that was one heckofa OL.

    • Well admittedly there is a real dearth in RB’s but every once in a while a ‘Reggie Bush’ pops up and opponents are at a loss how to control that threat.

      I would hope that someone on the scouting staff is seeking such.

    • You are unaware of the efficient wishbone offenses of the 1970s like Oklahoma’s that used to have running backs with over 200 yards and rack up 50-60 points per game.

    • Only Scott would bother dragging Lane Kiffin into a “tribute” to Paul Hackett…..dude has serious issues….

    • No but he wasn’t much of a coach either – came out of Pitt, come to think of it just as Howland did.

      As to Kiffin – yes he was his own worst enemy but one thing I’ll give him credit for is he had a lot of patience in dealing with situations and when he ordered (later rescinded because of local 4th estate push back) for Wolf to be banned from being on the practice field one only need see the subject matter of this ‘discussion’ to appreciate why.

      • I agree on the coaching aspect. I never heard of anyone disliking Hackett on a personal level, just that he wasn’t cut out to be a head coach.

        I can see Wolf as a turd and Wang as a not too ambitious Cal Bear. These are free sites and we get what we pay for!

        • Agreed – didn’t know Wang was out of Berkely – has some class not flying that out there i.e. Ramona Shelburne who somehow on every broadcast makes sure all hear she went to Stanford – reminds one Rex Hudler doing the same about Notre dame offering him a FB scholarship and instead choosing to go play for the NYY who chose hims as their 1st round draft pick.

          Much as I feel Wolf is merciless in his anger towards those he feels warrant such 9for whatever reason) it does allow a daily outlet to just vent and counter ideas.

  3. Mr Wolf:
    Amazing how you have discovered the 2 cases of a good Assistant Coach being a terrible Head Coach. Bravo and keep up the outstanding work.
    JW

      • Oh yeah! Norm? The best of the three hands down regardless of the claim of the talent he had to deal with – Chow was the best.

        • He seemed to know how to get the most out of his QB’s…..That’s why I’ll be following Max Wittek’s development during the season over in Hawaii…..

  4. Paul Hackett was a fraud, and Mike Garrett was an idiot when it came to hiring coaches. And when you have two overly controlling people running their respected departments, they will fail every time. I remember Hackett didn’t want Carson Palmer to lift weights because he thought it would mess up his throwing motion, so Palmer ignored him, and became a #1 draft pick. When you try to control irrelevant things, you lose focus as a head coach.

    • Larry Smith was another control freak……in some ways, he was the undoing of Todd Marinovich’s USC career, although his dad, Marv, wasn’t much better…….

      • After Larry Smith used up Ted Tollners recruits, he was a disaster of a coach, because he was a control freak,arrogant, and couldn’t recruit at all.

        • Remember when he stated he didn’t want to play Notre Dame and UCLA on back-to-back weekends in even number years in fact stating he believed that should change?

      • Yeah. Instead of trying to deal with Marinovich like a Rose Bowl winning QB he treated him like he was his master. Marinovich had his faults, but Smith could’ve handled that situation a lot differently.

    • He was an idiot at firing coaches also. I remember in the LA Times that he fired John Robinson by leaving a message on his answer machine.

      • True but Robinson fenagled to get back into USC as Smith was going down – Garrett honored the 5 year deal plus 1 more before sacking Robinson – remember Garrett’s anger towards Robinson was the fact Robinson had quit just as the tutor/cheating scandal broke leaving the school to take the full hit as well as having to scramble in getting a new head coach.

        • I did not know that about Robinson. Still, call him in the office or when he gets off the plane and then fire him.

          • sas the scandal was after the 1981 season and Robinson, as HC, stated he would stay but when the Rams offered him their HC job he booked – it was a crummy move on Robinson’s part.

    • Paul Hackett was many things good & not so good. But when it came to QBs, he was a noted authority that even the pros respected. Too much lifting weights developing too much muscle in the wrong area of the shoulder & arm will affect any throwing motion!

  5. Don’t know what went wrong with Hackett as a head coach. He had masters (in John McKay & John Robinson) to learn from. But yet, he obviously had his own ideas in running a program… such as calling a pass play when the running game was working just fine.

    • That’s why I think this whole “coaching tree” nonsense that Scott likes to harp on is overrated……

Comments are closed.