Norm who? USC students don’t have total recall

LOS ANGELES »Four days before the start of the football season most USC undergrads have other things on their minds. Not the name of the opposing head coach … even if he was an iconic figure with the Trojans highly successful program just a few years ago.

That’s what I learned while conducting a one-question survey on campus Wednesday: "Do you know who Norm Chow is?"

My first victim, freshman Travis Eurick, had no clue. "I’ve heard the name. Is he a politician?"

Five others — three young men and two women, four of whom described themselves as football fans — all said simply, ‘No.’ No one remembered Norm … actually, they just never knew of him in the first place. Too young.

Maybe part of it is because they don’t retire headsets of national assistant coaches of the year (an award Chow won three times) and display them in Heritage Hall along with O.J. Simpson’s jersey and Matt Leinart’s Heisman Trophy. Also, It’s been eight years since Chow left USC.

At least Rosie Gomez, the waitress at Denny’s, ventured a guess … and she wasn’t wrong, just not completely right.

"Um … Is he a famous Chinese guy?"

Well, yes, Chinese … and Hawaiian and Portuguese, too.

Finally, senior Nick Palacio comes close enough. But he gets only partial credit, too.

"Is he, like, a recruiter, or a football coach at UCLA?"

Yes, he was with the Bruins two years ago.

Of course, we all know Chow is more well-known as the BYU and USC offensive mastermind (who also made stops at NC State, UCLA and Utah, along with the NFL’s Tennessee Titans) and is now the new head coach at the University of Hawaii.

And the farther you get from the center of USC’s campus and closer to Brian Kennedy-Howard Jones Football Field, the students in the vicinity become more Chow-knowledgeable. That’s because it’s the Trojans practice field.

"I knew him as a powerful offensive coordinator when I was a kid," sophomore linebacker Hayes Pullard said. "I heard they stopped running the four-wide (at Hawaii)."

Defensive tackle Christian Hayward made reference to USC taking on Chow last year, when he was offensive coordinator at his alma mater.

"We have to think that some of it will be similar to what Utah ran last year," Hayward said. "I wasn’t very familiar with him, but I knew he coached here and did some good things."

Senior safety T.J. McDonald sounded like maybe he’d heard enough questions about the opposing coach.

"We don’t get into too much about that, whether we’re playing Norm Chow or whoever," McDonald said. "We definitely have a lot of respect for him. We know who Norm Chow is. But that era’s over with. We’re just caring about ourselves and our preparation and execution on Saturday."

Assistant head coach Monte Kiffin — who has one of the best coaching bodies of work around, particularly on defense — is wary of Chow’s wiliness.

"He’s a great guy and a great coach. We’ve seen it with UCLA and Utah, so it’s here we go again. And some of it will be similar to ours," the father of USC head coach Lane Kiffin said. "But there will be a lot of the unknown. He’s got a new coordinator who is going to have input."

"You don’t fool Norm Chow. You have to execute. He’s seen it all."