LOS ANGELES — If everyone who claims to miss Cal State Fullerton football had actually gone to a game, the Titans wouldn’t be missed. They’d still be playing.
As it was, Fullerton spent its home Saturdays at Santa Ana Bowl in front of wives, parents and the curious, and they gave up the sport after the 1992 season. But they threw the ball and they spread the field and, even though they didn’t always win, they entertained.
They also coached. Gene Murphy’s disciples are still representing.
Jim Chaney is the offensive coordinator for Georgia, which plays Oklahoma in a national championship semifinal that wears the brand of the Rose Bowl.
He has called offenses at Tennessee, Purdue, Arkansas and Pittsburgh, and he even served the Los Angeles Rams of St. Louis for a while.
But on Thursday night, Chaney sat down in a Rose Bowl hospitality room “with a cocktail” and began hearing himself tell tales of the Titans, and the one-room coaching office and the hopeless body-bag trips to Auburn and LSU, and a whiteboard on which Murphy inscribed the word “Normalcy.”
“In 1984 I drove out here, just a farm boy from Missouri, driving a Chevette with no floorboard,” Chaney said Friday. “I went to Blackie’s By The Sea in Newport Beach, and I thought I was in heaven.
“Gene brought the joy of coaching to his job every day. We never had anything. Everything you got, you earned.”
Steve Mariucci, Tom Cable and Hue Jackson all coached for Murphy on their way to head coaching gigs in the NFL. Mike Heimerdinger was Tennessee’s offensive coordinator in a Super Bowl, and Richard Smith got there on Denver’s staff, Don Johnson on Chicago’s.
Jerry Brown was Northwestern’s defensive coordinator and Rich Ellerson coached Army. And Chaney wound up coaching running back Mike Pringle and wide receiver Allen Pitts, who both set yardage records in the Canadian Football League.
“Murph made football fun,” Chaney said. “I try to have fun. But it’s not always fun. The stakes are higher. You see the impact on families, and the impact when coaches are chosen to leave.”
At Georgia, football is fun under one condition: The number on the home side of the scoreboard must exceed the other one.
Mark Richt coached six top teams at Georgia and went 145-51. He was fired two years ago and took the job at Miami where, incredibly, he is now the longest-tenured Division I coach in Florida.
The Bulldogs themselves lost only to Auburn 40-17, and then bludgeoned the Tigers 28-7 in the SEC championship game.
“I’m a line of scrimmage guy,” said Chaney, who was a nose tackle at Central Missouri State and, at 55, still looks the part.
“People in our league try to outnumber you in the box and then play press-man coverage and say, you can’t run it on us. We say, oh yes we can. We’ve got a bit of a bully-ball identity.”
Georgia cranks out 263 rush yards per game, but Chaney admitted he played too much bully ball in the Auburn loss. “But I’m not sure who would have beaten them that day,” he said.
The Bulldogs suspected Auburn would beat Alabama and win the SEC West, so they began game-planning the rematch almost immediately. Quarterback Jake Fromm hit 16 of 22 passes in the title game, but Georgia also scooped two fumbles and blocked a field goal, and linebacker Roquan Smith was the game MVP.
“As a coach you want to be at a place where you can win every game,” Chaney said. “The high school programs and coaches in Georgia are great. We’re the home boys. We feel like we should recruit our state.
“Then every position room is super competitive. We don’t give a rat’s butt who plays. If you’re a freshman and you’re the best, you’ll play. That’s helped us recruit. Kids want to be in a competitive environment.”
Yet Chaney believes the players dictate the plays, not the other way around. He was close to the late Joe Tiller, who won at Wyoming and Purdue with “basketball on grass.” At Purdue, Drew Brees was the bandleader.
“I still see the same guy with the Saints,” Chaney said. “He’s looking to see over everybody else’s helmet, still licking his fingers. I remember (Michigan coach) Lloyd Carr saying our style wouldn’t work in the Big 10. I said it just worked in Laramie, Wyoming. It’ll work anywhere.”
But if there’s one football, how do you keep all those Georgia runners happy?
“Their job is to keep me happy,” Chaney said, and he laughed again. He’s worn a rainbow of colors, but his torch burns Titan orange.