A winning recipe: USC has all the makings of a perennial national title contender—a sharp head coach, a capable quarterback, a tough defense—but Norm Chow and his explosive offense are the key ingredients

Sporting News, The, Nov 24, 2003 by Michael Bradley

It was a simple practice play. But Norm Chow couldn't get his new charges to understand him. He wanted the fullback to run an "F angle" pattern. F what?

When he arrived at Southern California in the summer of 2001, Chow became the school's fourth offensive coordinator in four years. That meant four different terminologies. Four foreign languages. He might as well have been speaking Klingon.

Carson Palmer saw his teammates struggling, so he translated: "Just run Texas;' the quarterback said, giving the pattern one of its previous names. Ah, Texas. Everybody understood, including Chow.

"It was sad, really," Chow says. "All those other coordinators were good guys and tremendous coaches, but there was no continuity."

Chow's assignment was to do more than instill continuity. It was to take his legendary Top Gun offense, which had scorched defenses for two decades at Brigham Young, temper it with the kind of run-pass balance mandated by Trojans boss Pete Carroll and build it around the talented but inconsistent Palmer. By the middle of a 2002 season that ended with an Orange Bowl victory and an 11-2 record, the job was done. Now, as USC heads for a possible BCS championship game date with Oklahoma, it is evident the Trojans not only are rolling now, but they are headed for a long period of prosperity.

Their last two recruiting classes have been tremendous, and there is no reason to believe they won't continue to harvest top talent from the fertile California soil. "Four or five years ago, they were just another team" says Auburn defensive tackles coach Don Dunn, whose Tigers were walloped, 23-0, by USC in the season opener. "Now they have one of the best teams in the country, and they're going to get nothing but better. That's what winning breeds."

Carroll deserves most of the credit for the program's recent success, but Chow has provided a huge assist. "He's a guru," says Palmer, the 2002 Heisman Trophy winner and the first overall pick in last spring's NFL draft. "Being around him that first year, you knew he knows his stuff. You trust him. You trust what he calls."

Chow's ability to tailor his offensive scheme to his talent has given Carroll the chance to concentrate on the Trojans' stingy defense. That's perfect for the former NFL head coach and defensive coordinator. Chow, meanwhile, has crafted a scheme that will develop players at all positions for the next level. Think that combination will be attractive to recruits?

During his 27 years at BYU, Chow rose from graduate assistant to the man primarily responsible for the development of the most productive line of quarterbacks--Jim McMahon, Steve Young and Ty Detmer among them--in NCAA history.

"We were always totally prepared," says Robbie Bosco, who quarterbacked the Cougars' 1984 national title team and now is a member of Gary Crowton's BYU staff. "There was nothing presented to us from a defensive standpoint that we hadn't practiced."

The success Chow had then and since has resulted in great attention, but he can do without it, and his family-man persona proves that. One of the reasons Chow stayed in Provo for so long was that he wanted his children to stay in the same school district for as long as possible. He deviates further from the coaching norm by acknowledging the substantial pressure under which he works. The offense he coaches is great to watch, but making it go hardly is relaxing. "This is not fun," he says. "It never has been."

But Chow does derive considerable fulfillment from the relationships he develops with the players he coaches, and those close ties make him successful, particularly with quarterbacks. They trust him, and he reciprocates by giving them a good measure of freedom on the field. Chow constantly is encouraging his passers to change plays at the line, provided they have reason. Even Philip Rivers, whom Chow directed during his one season (2000) as coordinator at North Carolina State, was granted substantial autonomy--and he was a true freshman.

"He said if I see it, I had the freedom to change to it,' Rivers says. "I threw a good number of touchdown passes doing that."

Given his success on the field, many figured Chow would succeed LaVell Edwards at BYU, and Chow doesn't deny that he had similar expectations. But Cougars athletic director Val Hale wanted to go with a younger, "hotter" coach, a philosophy that led him to Crowton, who had developed a reputation as an offensive whiz while a head coach at Louisiana Tech and an offensive coordinator for the Chicago Bears. Crowton is a BYU grad and 11 years younger than the 57-year-old Chow.

"I talked to LaVell, and I knew the end was near," Chow says. "He told me to stick around, but I couldn't stick around and not have a job." So when new N.C. State coach Chuck Amato called Chow after the 1999 season, looking for an offensive coordinator recommendation, Chow had just the candidate: "I said, 'I'm here.'"

Chow never may become a head coach, but that's all right with him. "If it happens, it happens," Chow says. "If it comes along, fine."