Trojan epoch? Not so fast: USC might look unstoppable, but sustaining a college football dynasty is next to impossible these days

Now, there is no second-guessing on game day, no contrasting ideas in game-planning, no one to delicately yet forcefully advise Papa Bowden that it's time to find another offensive coordinator--one not named Bowden. Richt, like Chow, coached two Heisman Trophy-winning quarterbacks (Charlie Ward and Chris Weinke), and when Richt left for Georgia before the 2001 season, the FSU fast-break offense was one of the most feared units in the nation. Before he left to coach N.C. State in 2000, Amato, FSU's linebackers coach, was the team's best recruiter (like Orgeron was at USC) and worked the fertile Miami area.

"You better have direction," says Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops. "A lot of teams have guys who can run or throw a ball through a wall. But they've got to know what they're doing when they step on that field, too."

So if Chow leaves and Leinart skips his senior season for the NFL, the Trojans will be left with a new quarterback and a new quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator. In other words, the inevitable step backward will have its initial push.

The three teams other than the Trojans that have won national titles in the past four seasons have hit rough patches--proving that things can turn south in a hurry.

When Butch Davis left Miami for the Cleveland Browns before the 2001 season, Larry Coker took the keys to the Ferrari as the new coach and steered away from trouble. Now that Davis' elite recruiting classes are graduating, the Canes aren't as dominant. Miami had 13 first-round NFL draft picks from 2001 through '03, and if not for one final holdover from the Davis era (cornerback Antrel Rolle), it wouldn't have a single first-rounder in this year's draft. The Canes went from arguably the most talented team in the history of college football in 2001 to a team that lost to North Carolina and Clemson in the same season three years later.

The situation is nearly identical at Ohio State, where Jim Tressel inherited a supremely talented group from former coach John Cooper--Mike Doss, Michael Jenkins, Craig Krenzel, Darrion Scott, Will Smith--and won a national title in his second season. Two years after winning it all, the Buckeyes lost to Northwestern for the first time in 33 years and couldn't find a quarterback or any semblance of offense until the last month of the season.

LSU, too, had problems with a new quarterback after winning its title. Were it not for a missed extra point by Oregon State's freshman kicker, the Tigers could have lost in Game 1. As it was, Marcus Randall and JaMarcus Russell never embraced the quarterback position, and LSU couldn't even defend its SEC West championship, much less its national title.

"There are so many good players out there, so many chances for a team to find that spark and have a memorable season," says Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville. "But there's a lot of potholes."

About 90 minutes after winning another national title and moments after stepping onto the bus that would take his team to a hotel in Fort Lauderdale to begin a party that lasted until 6 a.m., Carroll saw the light on his cell phone flashing. There were four messages from blue-chip recruits who had called to congratulate the coach. When it's all going your way, it's almost embarrassing how easy it looks: The laugher over Oklahoma, the 22-game winning streak, the 33 wins in the past 34 games, the recruits begging to play at Troy.