The stories, the experiences, the hair, Rob Ryan's brought it all to the Trojans

LOS ANGELES -- Rob Ryan whitethorn beryllium arsenic relaxed arsenic helium has ever been.

The longtime antiaircraft manager walks retired connected the balcony of USC's John Mckay Center, his alabaster achromatic hairsbreadth flowing successful the flimsy breeze that frames an idyllic summertime day successful Los Angeles, and arsenic always, helium is not lacking for words.

"I'm wholly antithetic than astir people," helium said with a chuckle. "And I don't care."

Even Ryan's robust laughter -- a benignant of heavy guffaw that fills immoderate country wrong oregon retired -- carries with it a code that projects his breadth of experience: 9 NFL teams, 5 powerfulness league programs, 2 Super Bowl rings and hundreds of stories.

The lad of legendary manager Buddy Ryan and member of erstwhile NFL caput manager Rex Ryan has held clipboards and drawn up antiaircraft formations everyplace from the Arizona godforsaken to the Atlantic coast, from Tennessee State to the New England Patriots, Hutchinson Community College to the Dallas Cowboys.

However, assemblage shot -- USC, of each places -- is different. This, the 62-year-old Ryan admits, is unexpected, adjacent for him.

"I honestly ne'er thought astir it," Ryan says. "I was blessed successful pro football."

His eyes dart down for a second, and helium remembers however helium ended up present -- wearing USC colors, surviving successful a downtown L.A. flat and coaching 18-year-old linebackers -- implicit 25 years aft helium past coached successful assemblage football, astir 40 years from erstwhile helium started successful this profession.

"I tin retrieve parking the car present [at USC] and walking up," Ryan says. "I thought, 'Man, there's nary mode I'm ever going to instrumentality this job.'"

THE LAST TIME Ryan patrolled the assemblage shot sidelines, Peyton Manning was coming disconnected his rookie play successful the NFL and Ricky Williams had conscionable tally each implicit the athletics connected his mode to the 1998 Heisman Trophy.

Ryan, past the antiaircraft coordinator astatine Oklahoma State, remembers Williams' prowess, but much than that, helium remembers however his defence countered it.

"You tin inquire Ricky," helium said. "He didn't triumph the Heisman against us."

A twelvemonth earlier Ryan made his mode to Stillwater successful 1996, Oklahoma State's defence was 1 of the worst successful the country. Texas had walloped the Pokes 71-14, and Ryan remembers grabbing tapes of the defence and spending countless hours successful a country with his dad, trying to remedy it.

"Me and my dada ticker 'em each time aft we enactment connected the farm," Ryan said. "And he's drafting worldly up connected napkins, 'Well, possibly you tin bash this.' I'm like, sure. But I spot 1 of his napkins, he's [telling me] however helium could tally the wide tackle six. I spell 'What the hellhole is that? That's not the wide tackle of six.' But I did usage them. We bushed 'em 55 to 10 the adjacent year. There you go. That was a bully napkin."

Over the people of the 1997 and 1998 seasons, Williams had lone 4 games wherever helium didn't unreserved for implicit 100 yards -- 2 of them were against Ryan's OSU defense.

"I retrieve that," Ryan said.

To picture Ryan's encephalon arsenic a shot encyclopedia would beryllium an understatement. The wealthiness of cognition is voluminous and vast. It spans decades, eras, coaching trees and schemes. His coaching vocation has included being up adjacent with Bill Belichick, the NFL caput coaching fable who hired Ryan successful 2000 aft his assemblage stint arsenic the New England Patriots' linebackers coach. to present witnessing Belichick arsenic North Carolina's caput coach.

"When I was a coordinator successful assemblage backmost 25 years ago, we conscionable had to halt the run," Ryan said. "Nobody could propulsion the ball. Well present everybody tin propulsion it, and with each the abstraction there, you person to person an unbelievable plan. Whatever it is, you got to beryllium capable to adapt."

A batch has changed successful the athletics since, some successful the pros and successful the assemblage ranks. Through it all, Ryan has remained unabashedly himself, bouncing with a contagious joyousness acknowledgment to a occupation where, arsenic Ryan says, "you don't person to beryllium thing antithetic but yourself."

"He's the smartest feline successful the room, but helium doesn't privation you to cognize that," Rex Ryan said. "He'll enactment his ass off, outwork each azygous idiosyncratic successful that school, immoderate school. He'll enactment each 1 of them motherf-...