McGee and Teaff Meet to Discuss USC Vacancy

Baylor football Coach Grant Teaff met with USC Athletic Director Mike McGee Thursday in Dallas to discuss the head coaching vacancy at USC, it was learned Sunday night.

Teaff wouldn’t confirm or deny the meeting with McGee. Sources in Texas said that McGee was granted permission by the university to interview Teaff.

“My commitment and loyalty to Baylor runs very deep,” Teaff told Dave Campbell, sports editor of the Waco, Tex., Tribune-Herald. “Our recruiting looks good and we’re working very hard to get ready for a bowl game.”

Baylor will play Colorado Dec. 31 in the Bluebonnet Bowl game at Houston.

“I will say that the USC job is one of the top five in college football in the country,” Teaff said. “If I was forced to make any decision now, I’d stay with the Baylor program.”

A source close to the Baylor athletic program said that McGee told Teaff the job carried with it a $250,000 base salary. He reportedly earns $80,000 a year as Baylor’s coach.

McGee has a policy of not commenting about coaching candidates.

“I’m just trying to maintain the confidentiality that most of the people we are interviewing have asked for,” McGee said, adding that any comments should come from other parties.

Teaff, 53, is Baylor’s all-time winningest coach with a 15-year record of 89-76-5. The Bears finished the regular season with an 8-3 record. One of the losses was to USC, 17-14, in Waco when Don Shafer kicked the winning field goal on the last play of the game in a thunderstorm.

Teaff has coached Baylor into six bowl games. He has been named Southwest Conference Coach of the year six times and National Coach of the Year once.

In an earlier interview, Teaff conceded that it’s difficult recruiting against Southwest Conference schools such as Texas, SMU and Texas A&M;, which have larger athletic budgets. But he has held his own against those schools over the years.

Teaff is a member of the NCAA football rules committee and is chairman of the American Football Coaches Assn. ethics committee. He is in demand as a motivational public speaker, augmenting his base salary.

The L.A. Herald-Examiner in its Sunday editions reported that McGee interviewed Miami Coach Jimmy Johnson Thursday in Atlanta. It’s possible, even though Johnson attended a Heisman Trophy dinner Thursday night in New York and McGee spent some time in Dallas with Teaff.

The Orlando Sentinel reported in its Monday editions that Johnson, coach of the No. 1-ranked Hurricanes, initiated contact with McGee.

Johnson said recently, though, that he doesn’t intend to leave Miami. His multi-year contract has been extended by the school through the 1991 season.

McGee interviewed Dave Levy Saturday in San Diego. Levy, the San Diego Chargers’ offensive line coach, was a USC assistant coach for 16 years under John McKay.

Paul Hackett, an offensive coordinator for the Dallas Cowboys and a former USC assistant coach, has confirmed that McGee wants to interview him once the NFL team’s season has ended. The Cowboy season ends Dec. 21 since they were eliminated Sunday from playoff contention.

Washington Redskins Coach Joe Gibbs and Arizona Coach Larry Smith, regarded as candidates for the USC job, are presumably out of the picture now. Gibbs’ salary, estimated at $750,000 a year, makes him untouchable. Smith has said that he doesn’t want to interview for any coaching job.

It’s believed that McGee will not officially name a USC coach until after the Trojans’ Jan. 1 Florida Citrus Bowl game with Auburn. But he could have one in place before then.

The thinking is that the university doesn’t want to have two head coaches at the same time. Ted Tollner, who was fired as USC’s coach last Monday, has consented to coach the team through the bowl game.