November 21, 2024 • 10 mins
Ron remembers NFL legend John Robinson.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, I'm Ron Barr, and this is today's edition of
Ron Barr's Sports Byline USA podcast on the eight Side Network.
In our continuing series We Remember, We now Remember college
Football Hall of Fame coach and later head coach of
the Rams, John Robinson, who passed away recently.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
John Robinson canal say he is a member of the
College Football Hall of Fame and deservedly so because he
began his coaching career at his alma mater, the University
of Oregon, and then of course went on to have
great success at USC and then onto UNLV. And at
USC he had a record of one hundred and four wins,
thirty five losses, and four ties, led the Trojans to
(00:38):
a share of the nineteen seventy eight National Championship, four
Rose Bowl victories, and also of course coach two Heisman
Trophy players in Charles White and Marcus Allen. Also coached
in the NFL for nine years with the Rams. That's
a lot to do in a in a long period
of time. When you hear all of that and think
about it, John, what comes to mind.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Oh, it's you know, it's the people that come to mind.
All of the you know, coaches that you coached with,
coaches that you coached against. You and I were just
talking about Bill Walsh before we went on. I coached
against Bill when he when I was at SE and
he was at Stanford, and then when I was at
(01:18):
the Rams and he was at the forty nine er.
So it's always the people that you that you deal with, players,
assistant coaches, all that makes makes the journey really special.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
You played at the University of Oregon, and, as you said,
began your coaching career at your alma Manter. What was
it that made you want to gravitate toward coaching?
Speaker 3 (01:39):
You know, I suppose you know you start out wanting
to be a great player when you're young. When I started,
I lived in Daily City, California. John Madden and I
were best of friends from the third grade on and
we both wanted to be great players, and we both
were smart enough to figure out that wasn't going to happen.
(02:00):
Had of gravitated towards coaching, I don't, you know. I've
never had a real job. I've just been a coach
all my life and so and I feel very thankful
for that.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
When you went to USC, who did you follow John
McKay down there.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Yes, John McKay left and I came in right after him,
and you know, he had had a great era there
before me, and so it was it was really a
great opportunity to get a chance to start out at
a great place.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
The reason why I say that is, of course, down
in Los Angeles at that time, there was no better
than the UCLA basketball program, no better than the USC
football program. What was recruiting like for you? Because of
all the great success that John had and then you continued, well,
we were successful.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
But you know, when you're out there fighting with people,
you you pretty much if you're recruiting the right guys,
they're making decisions between you and Notre Dame or Ohio
State or you know, they're on a national basis too.
It probably wasn't as intense then for the national recruiting
as it is now. But if you were going to
(03:13):
be the best, you had to find the best. Probably
the key to that was the evaluation process, and that
I think can kind of can kind of get you
to the point that if you make very many mistakes,
you're stuck with them for four years, so you have
to be accurate in them.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Were you fearful in anyway, John of kind of tinkering
with the program since it had had such great success.
I mean, and it had running back after running back
and then you had two Heisman Trophy winners. Did you
want to not mess with it at all? Or what
was the philosophy you had taking it over?
Speaker 3 (03:49):
Well? No, I was smart enough not to screw it up.
I was a devil, say, of the running game. That's
what I liked. That's where I coached as an assistant,
believed in. I really believed in the John McKay philosophy. Uh,
(04:09):
and so it was not hard for me to want
to continue that at the time. We wanted, you know,
like any time you join a group, you can improve it.
And so we did some things we thought helped us.
We had good passing, good receivers in that in the
era that we were there, and I think that helped
(04:30):
us a lot.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Of course, they always talked about student body, right, student
body left with those great running backs.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
What is it?
Speaker 2 (04:36):
What was it about that program in the offensive philosophy
that always made the running back so successful? Was it
the scheme, was it the players or a combination of both.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
Oh, I think a combination of the both. You know,
every scheme, whether it's mine or we talked about Bill Walsh,
they were he was going to make a quarterback successful,
didn't matter who who it was, you know, and I
think we're that way. The offensive lineman played a big
role in that we had recruited that area well. And
if you look at USC football, you talk about tailbacks,
(05:07):
but probably it's even more pronounced the number of great
offensive linemen that played there. And so that's sure. That
sure helped.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
The other thing too, about their running program, and I
don't know that it ever got the credit that it deserved.
John Was You mentioned about the tailbacks, but I always
thought did your upbacks the guys that were leading the
blocking into the hole probably never got as much credit.
Am I correct in that observation?
Speaker 3 (05:33):
There's no question about that. You know. Sam Cunningham really
one of the best football players I was ever around.
You know, he should be in the Hall of I
mean he's not yet. I think he will be. But
he was one of the unique players I've ever seen.
Played a long time for the New England Patriots, but
we had a number of really outstanding players, mostly Tufu
(05:57):
played a long time, but a series of me that
and that's one of the toughest positions in football, a
linebacker and a fullback on a running offense. Boy, most
of those fullbacks were six one or six to two
and when they finished playing about five to ten. All
the collisions they.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Have, John, what was it that you looked for in
that up back both from a personality standpoint and also
from a talent standpoint, because I think you know as
well as I do that everybody wants a little bit
of the glory in the limelight. But guys had to
kind of subjugate their their egos, did they not to
be able to play that position and give the glory
to the tailback.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
Well, you know, most of the players that we had
at fullback were high school tailbacks. They were the guys
that got the ball, the best athletes in high school,
but maybe a little bit slow, not able to match
the speed. Were quick enough to play, but not quite
fast enough. We got kids that were linebackers in high school.
(06:58):
They were the you know, the guys that played fullback
or played running back but also played on defense. Those
are the guys that we were looking for in that position.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
You stayed right there in Los Angeles when you jumped
to the National Football League nine years with the Rams,
as I mentioned, and how did you find the college
game as compared to the pro game. What were the
pros and cons of it for you?
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Well, a lot of it was the same. I think
we tried to do the same things. Our first draft
choice was Eric Dickerson, who tried to recruit at SC
and then we picked him. I think he was the
second pick in the draft. And he was a great,
great player, Hall of Fame NFL player and probably would
(07:42):
have every record in the NFL except our management. And
he fell out and didn't agree on contracts and we
traded him, which was disaster for us. We'd built our
team around him, but he was a great player. But
we were in a division with the forty nine, and
although we competed well against him, we couldn't beat them,
(08:04):
you know, in terms of the winning the division. We
were in the playoffs seven of the nine years I
was there, but we wouldn't We couldn't quite compete with
Bill Walts's teams. John.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
As you mentioned about Bill, I mean he was the
architect of what they called, of course, the West Coast offense.
What was so different about that that made it hard
for other teams to defense.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
Well, they were just good. I mean, it's like anything
that's good. You asked the same question about the running game.
Bill was so precise in what he did. He believed
in having a quarterback that was extremely accurate. None of
his quarterbacks were particularly strong armed players. They were all
(08:48):
good athletes, great competitors, and very accurate throwing. And he
just he created an extremely efficient offensive team. Of times
you could stand on the sideline and know what was coming,
and but you couldn't do very much the stuff.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Yeah, I mentioned about the success, and you talked about
going to the playoffs so many times with the Rams.
Do you think that the success that you had at USC,
you know, that co National championship and the overall success,
that that set of standard that people expected the same
thing out of you with the Rams.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
Oh, I think so. I you know, I mean we
were we were a franchise that was in a lot
of trouble when I got there. We got stability, but
you know, at times we just didn't didn't put together
the kind of focus necessary, uh to win a championship.
(09:45):
When you look at championship teams, they have that the
right combination of coaching and management ownership. It's a very
much of a team effort in terms of those teams
that we remember Bill's teams of the Dallas Cowboys, New
(10:05):
England Patriots, those teams that had dynasties or dynasty type
teams they had, they kept that and kept the competition
for the winning as the predominant point of view.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
John Robinson is best known in the college ranks for
guiding USC to their nineteen seventy eight national title. He
also coached the program to five Pac ten titles and
also eight Bowl game appearances, including a perfect four and
zero record in the Rose Bowl. In all, he had
a one oh four, thirty five and four record during
his career at USC. He went on to coach the
(10:42):
La Rams for nine seasons. John Robinson, Gone, but never forgotten.
You have been listening to Ron Bar's Sports Byline USA
podcast on the eight Side Network
Hi, I'm Ron Barr, and this is today's edition of
Ron Barr's Sports Byline USA podcast on the eight Side Network.
In our continuing series We Remember, We now Remember college
Football Hall of Fame coach and later head coach of
the Rams, John Robinson, who passed away recently.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
John Robinson canal say he is a member of the
College Football Hall of Fame and deservedly so because he
began his coaching career at his alma mater, the University
of Oregon, and then of course went on to have
great success at USC and then onto UNLV. And at
USC he had a record of one hundred and four wins,
thirty five losses, and four ties, led the Trojans to
(00:38):
a share of the nineteen seventy eight National Championship, four
Rose Bowl victories, and also of course coach two Heisman
Trophy players in Charles White and Marcus Allen. Also coached
in the NFL for nine years with the Rams. That's
a lot to do in a in a long period
of time. When you hear all of that and think
about it, John, what comes to mind.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Oh, it's you know, it's the people that come to mind.
All of the you know, coaches that you coached with,
coaches that you coached against. You and I were just
talking about Bill Walsh before we went on. I coached
against Bill when he when I was at SE and
he was at Stanford, and then when I was at
(01:18):
the Rams and he was at the forty nine er.
So it's always the people that you that you deal with, players,
assistant coaches, all that makes makes the journey really special.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
You played at the University of Oregon, and, as you said,
began your coaching career at your alma Manter. What was
it that made you want to gravitate toward coaching?
Speaker 3 (01:39):
You know, I suppose you know you start out wanting
to be a great player when you're young. When I started,
I lived in Daily City, California. John Madden and I
were best of friends from the third grade on and
we both wanted to be great players, and we both
were smart enough to figure out that wasn't going to happen.
(02:00):
Had of gravitated towards coaching, I don't, you know. I've
never had a real job. I've just been a coach
all my life and so and I feel very thankful
for that.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
When you went to USC, who did you follow John
McKay down there.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Yes, John McKay left and I came in right after him,
and you know, he had had a great era there
before me, and so it was it was really a
great opportunity to get a chance to start out at
a great place.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
The reason why I say that is, of course, down
in Los Angeles at that time, there was no better
than the UCLA basketball program, no better than the USC
football program. What was recruiting like for you? Because of
all the great success that John had and then you continued, well,
we were successful.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
But you know, when you're out there fighting with people,
you you pretty much if you're recruiting the right guys,
they're making decisions between you and Notre Dame or Ohio
State or you know, they're on a national basis too.
It probably wasn't as intense then for the national recruiting
as it is now. But if you were going to
(03:13):
be the best, you had to find the best. Probably
the key to that was the evaluation process, and that
I think can kind of can kind of get you
to the point that if you make very many mistakes,
you're stuck with them for four years, so you have
to be accurate in them.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Were you fearful in anyway, John of kind of tinkering
with the program since it had had such great success.
I mean, and it had running back after running back
and then you had two Heisman Trophy winners. Did you
want to not mess with it at all? Or what
was the philosophy you had taking it over?
Speaker 3 (03:49):
Well? No, I was smart enough not to screw it up.
I was a devil, say, of the running game. That's
what I liked. That's where I coached as an assistant,
believed in. I really believed in the John McKay philosophy. Uh,
(04:09):
and so it was not hard for me to want
to continue that at the time. We wanted, you know,
like any time you join a group, you can improve it.
And so we did some things we thought helped us.
We had good passing, good receivers in that in the
era that we were there, and I think that helped
(04:30):
us a lot.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Of course, they always talked about student body, right, student
body left with those great running backs.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
What is it?
Speaker 2 (04:36):
What was it about that program in the offensive philosophy
that always made the running back so successful? Was it
the scheme, was it the players or a combination of both.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
Oh, I think a combination of the both. You know,
every scheme, whether it's mine or we talked about Bill Walsh,
they were he was going to make a quarterback successful,
didn't matter who who it was, you know, and I
think we're that way. The offensive lineman played a big
role in that we had recruited that area well. And
if you look at USC football, you talk about tailbacks,
(05:07):
but probably it's even more pronounced the number of great
offensive linemen that played there. And so that's sure. That
sure helped.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
The other thing too, about their running program, and I
don't know that it ever got the credit that it deserved.
John Was You mentioned about the tailbacks, but I always
thought did your upbacks the guys that were leading the
blocking into the hole probably never got as much credit.
Am I correct in that observation?
Speaker 3 (05:33):
There's no question about that. You know. Sam Cunningham really
one of the best football players I was ever around.
You know, he should be in the Hall of I
mean he's not yet. I think he will be. But
he was one of the unique players I've ever seen.
Played a long time for the New England Patriots, but
we had a number of really outstanding players, mostly Tufu
(05:57):
played a long time, but a series of me that
and that's one of the toughest positions in football, a
linebacker and a fullback on a running offense. Boy, most
of those fullbacks were six one or six to two
and when they finished playing about five to ten. All
the collisions they.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Have, John, what was it that you looked for in
that up back both from a personality standpoint and also
from a talent standpoint, because I think you know as
well as I do that everybody wants a little bit
of the glory in the limelight. But guys had to
kind of subjugate their their egos, did they not to
be able to play that position and give the glory
to the tailback.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
Well, you know, most of the players that we had
at fullback were high school tailbacks. They were the guys
that got the ball, the best athletes in high school,
but maybe a little bit slow, not able to match
the speed. Were quick enough to play, but not quite
fast enough. We got kids that were linebackers in high school.
(06:58):
They were the you know, the guys that played fullback
or played running back but also played on defense. Those
are the guys that we were looking for in that position.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
You stayed right there in Los Angeles when you jumped
to the National Football League nine years with the Rams,
as I mentioned, and how did you find the college
game as compared to the pro game. What were the
pros and cons of it for you?
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Well, a lot of it was the same. I think
we tried to do the same things. Our first draft
choice was Eric Dickerson, who tried to recruit at SC
and then we picked him. I think he was the
second pick in the draft. And he was a great,
great player, Hall of Fame NFL player and probably would
(07:42):
have every record in the NFL except our management. And
he fell out and didn't agree on contracts and we
traded him, which was disaster for us. We'd built our
team around him, but he was a great player. But
we were in a division with the forty nine, and
although we competed well against him, we couldn't beat them,
(08:04):
you know, in terms of the winning the division. We
were in the playoffs seven of the nine years I
was there, but we wouldn't We couldn't quite compete with
Bill Walts's teams. John.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
As you mentioned about Bill, I mean he was the
architect of what they called, of course, the West Coast offense.
What was so different about that that made it hard
for other teams to defense.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
Well, they were just good. I mean, it's like anything
that's good. You asked the same question about the running game.
Bill was so precise in what he did. He believed
in having a quarterback that was extremely accurate. None of
his quarterbacks were particularly strong armed players. They were all
(08:48):
good athletes, great competitors, and very accurate throwing. And he
just he created an extremely efficient offensive team. Of times
you could stand on the sideline and know what was coming,
and but you couldn't do very much the stuff.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Yeah, I mentioned about the success, and you talked about
going to the playoffs so many times with the Rams.
Do you think that the success that you had at USC,
you know, that co National championship and the overall success,
that that set of standard that people expected the same
thing out of you with the Rams.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
Oh, I think so. I you know, I mean we
were we were a franchise that was in a lot
of trouble when I got there. We got stability, but
you know, at times we just didn't didn't put together
the kind of focus necessary, uh to win a championship.
(09:45):
When you look at championship teams, they have that the
right combination of coaching and management ownership. It's a very
much of a team effort in terms of those teams
that we remember Bill's teams of the Dallas Cowboys, New
(10:05):
England Patriots, those teams that had dynasties or dynasty type
teams they had, they kept that and kept the competition
for the winning as the predominant point of view.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
John Robinson is best known in the college ranks for
guiding USC to their nineteen seventy eight national title. He
also coached the program to five Pac ten titles and
also eight Bowl game appearances, including a perfect four and
zero record in the Rose Bowl. In all, he had
a one oh four, thirty five and four record during
his career at USC. He went on to coach the
(10:42):
La Rams for nine seasons. John Robinson, Gone, but never forgotten.
You have been listening to Ron Bar's Sports Byline USA
podcast on the eight Side Network
Host
Ron Barr
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