Time Warped

Mike Garrett thinks the position of head coach at USC is still one of the plum jobs in college football.

“We’re a great program, with great tradition,” the Trojan athletic director says. “We’re situated in a place with talent pool and weather. None of that has changed.”

Garrett says the landscape of college football has not changed.

“I don’t believe it has.”

Garrett says USC football can be what it was 20 years ago.

“I’d say even 30 years ago,” he says.

Garrett says he doesn’t believe in parity.

“I never bought into that.”

Garrett says job openings at Arizona State and Arizona do not affect his coaching search.

“I don’t fear that. I think USC is different than the other two. I think if we’re interested, they’d be interested in us.”

Reality check: USC was a great program, the landscape has changed, there is parity and there are coaches who have already scratched USC off their lists but are considering vacancies in Arizona.

“Mike Garrett is living in Fantasy Land,” one former USC assistant coach said this week.

The sooner Garrett gets back to Main Street, the better.

The truth is the landscape has changed so dramatically in college football that two of the game’s premiere programs, USC and Alabama, are hearing “thanks, but no thanks” from prospective hires.

We’re talking Alabama and USC, folks, which rank No. 1 and No. 2 in bowl appearances and victories.

Oregon State Coach Dennis Erickson reportedly has already rejected an offer from USC, and word is Wisconsin Coach Barry Alvarez isn’t even returning phone calls.

Alabama desperately tried to hire Virginia Tech Coach Frank Beamer, who instead entertained an offer from North Carolina before deciding to stay in Blacksburg for tons more money.

This week, Miami Coach Butch Davis turned down the Crimson Tide, telling the Associated Press, “I’m not going to Tuscaloosa, I’m not going to meet with the Board of Trustees, none of that stuff.”

USC and Alabama have gone from powerhouse pillars to bargaining chips for coaches looking to secure sweetheart deals.

In part because of Alabama’s play on Davis, Miami has offered to bump his annual salary from $900,000 to $1.3 million.

Erickson’s toe-dance with USC no doubt changed the dollars and decimal points in the renegotiated contract at Oregon State he has yet to sign.

Why is this happening?

Because expectations at USC and Alabama have exceeded reality.

Both schools expect to compete for national championships annually, as if John McKay and Bear Bryant were still at the helms.

The reality is that the 85-scholarship limit has leveled the playing field. Garrett counters that Florida State, Penn State and Florida have managed to maintain dominant programs.

Yeah, and those schools just happen to have three of the greatest coaches of all time in Bobby Bowden, Joe Paterno and Steve Spurrier.

Bowden and Spurrier operate in a state teeming with quality players, most of whom stay home. Paterno has recruiting ties in the Northeast dating to 1950. Conversely, USC, which has ratcheted up its academic standards, can only get its fair share of players from a talent-rich L.A. basin that is picked clean by national powers and all nine other Pac-10 schools.

“They have to change their expectations,” the former USC assistant coach said of the Trojans.

Is USC still a good job? Maybe.

Is it the best job out there?

Not by a long shot.

Prospective coaches scouting USC will find a program at which the last four coaches have left before their contracts expired.

Why is that happening?

They will find a program with four Heismans in the trophy case but facilities that lag behind other schools.

How far behind?

“Eighth in the Pac-10,” one coach said.

They will find an athletic director, Garrett, who has been known to be overbearing and intrusive.

“It’s a mediocre job,” said one Division I coach, who asked not to be identified. “No one has come to grips with the 10- to 12-year non-investment in the program.”

Is this not a changing landscape?

As of Wednesday morning, there were 12 major colleges looking for coaches: Alabama, Arizona, Arizona State, USC, Brigham Young, Maryland, Memphis, Missouri, North Carolina, Wake Forest, Oklahoma State and Rutgers. (Maryland hired Georgia Tech offensive coordinator Ralph Friedgen on Wednesday afternoon.)

In terms of facilities, lifestyle, amenities and potential, you could argue Arizona State, Arizona, Maryland and North Carolina are all better situations for prospective coaches than USC.

With athletic directors at those schools offering million-dollar packages to lure a fast-dwindling list of available coaches, you understand why USC’s short list is getting shorter.

“The market is a bear,” Garrett conceded.

In fact, most of the truly talented coaches are locked up: Bob Stoops at Oklahoma, Beamer, Spurrier, Davis, Tommy Bowden at Clemson, Tommy Tuberville at Auburn.

USC has been trapped and cornered by its own reputation. It feels it must hire the best “name” coach available, when maybe the better route is trying to identify the next great coach no one knows about yet.

Bob Stoops was that coach in 1997, a relatively unknown defensive coordinator at Florida. USC hired Paul Hackett instead and Stoops ended up at Oklahoma.

Could USC really have hired a guy named Stoops?

How is USC going to identify the next great young coach when he might be Dirk Koetter, the two-time Big West Conference coach of the year at Boise State. Koetter’s 9-2 team scored 64 touchdowns in 11 games this year and lost to Arkansas and Washington State--which defeated USC--by a total of 14 points.

But USC can’t hire a coach from Boise State, even if it should. So Koetter might end up at Arizona.

So who out there doesn’t think the landscape has changed?

HURRY-UP OFFENSE

Here’s a another twist in the Pac-10 vs. BCS saga. Oregon State is not guaranteed an automatic at-large berth in a major bowl with its No. 6 ranking in the BCS standings, yet non-BCS member school Texas Christian would have been guaranteed an at-large berth had the Horned Frogs finished No. 6 or higher in the BCS.

How does that happen? When 13-1 Brigham Young was snubbed by a major bowl in 1996 because the Western Athletic Conference was not a member of the old Alliance, the conference threatened an antitrust lawsuit, actually pleading its case before Congress.

Result: The Alliance, which morphed into the BCS in 1998, added a provision that allowed non-BCS member schools automatic access to a major bowl provided the school finished No. 6 or higher in the BCS standings.

TCU was No. 9 in the BCS on Oct. 30, but a three-point loss at San Jose State on Nov. 4 halted the Horned Frogs’ BCS game charge. TCU is 14th in this week’s BCS standings and is set to play Southern Mississippi in the Dec. 20 Mobile Alabama Bowl.

More apologies? Proving that mediocrity is often rewarded, it appears Big Ten officials will be assigned the BCS national title game in the Jan. 3 Orange Bowl. Big Ten officials? These are the guys that blew two fumble calls that allowed Michigan to beat Illinois, 35-31, on Sept. 23. The calls were so egregious that the Big Ten office issued a formal apology to Illinois.

We can see it now: Florida State beats Miami on a last-second field goal in the Orange Bowl and some Big Ten stripe calls it wide right.

Dollars and Domers: If Notre Dame has qualified for a $13.5-million BCS game, why hasn’t the Fiesta Bowl formally offered the Irish the bid?

Because, as George Bush used to say, it wouldn’t be prudent. With the Pac-10 lobbying hard for Oregon State, the Fiesta Bowl has no reason to further strain relations by selecting Notre Dame before Sunday’s deadline.

In a worst-case scenario, in which Kansas State beats Oklahoma and the Fiesta Bowl feels it has to pair Notre Dame vs. Kansas State, the Fiesta can always say it considered Oregon State until the last minute.

To suggest everyone involved in this Pac-10/Fiesta spat is rooting for an Oklahoma victory may be an understatement. If the Fiesta gets both at-large picks, the committee can solve the Pac-10 problem and get Notre Dame by pairing the Beavers and Irish and letting Miami play the SEC champion, Florida or Auburn, in the Sugar Bowl.

Glitches: OK, to put this politely, Washington is getting shafted in two of the BCS’ eight computers. The Dunkel Index has Washington at No. 11 this week while Richard Billingsley’s computer has spit out the Huskies at No. 10. Is it the competition? Well, no, Washington owns the nation’s No. 8 schedule ranking. Weak conference? Well, no, Washington plays in the Pac-10, arguably the nation’s best this season. Is it because Washington hasn’t beaten anybody in the top 10? Well, no, Washington has in fact defeated two teams ranked ahead of it in the Dunkel and Billingsley computers--Miami and Oregon State.

Is it just plain ridiculous? Ah, now you’re on to something.

Bowl talk: You figure Boston College Coach Tom O’Brien is leading cheers for Oregon State to get a Fiesta Bowl bid. Why? If Oregon State doesn’t get in and goes to the Holiday Bowl, Oregon will end up facing Boston College in the Christmas Day Aloha Bowl. Another bowl thrashing is not what O’Brien needs. Last year, Boston College was routed by Colorado, 62-28, in the Insight.com Bowl.

More talk: If Oregon State ends up in the Fiesta, Oregon jumps up to Holiday Bowl and the Pac-10 is left without a bowl-eligible team for one of the two Hawaii Bowls. In that scenario, for ratings purposes, Arizona State would probably play Virginia in the Christmas Eve Oahu Bowl, leaving the Aloha to match Boston College against an at-large pick, likely Georgia.