Matt Leinart spent part of this week denying a rumor he was bunking with pal Nick Lachey, who may or may not be at odds with wife Jessica Simpson.
John Zilka spent part of his week wondering whether he would be standing anywhere near the Southern California quarterback Saturday at Notre Dame or simply watching him on TV like most of us.
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Zilka’s status in college football, in other words, is about as far from Leinart’s as A is from Z, but you won’t hear the USC senior wide receiver complaining about it.
His walk-on story may not rival that of Rudy Ruettiger, whose unlikely Notre Dame quest wound up in movie theaters, but it’s hard to imagine a much better case of right place, right time.
In four seasons Zilka has vaulted from a 5-5 Lake Forest football team to a storied USC program aiming for its 28th straight victory, not to mention a third consecutive national title. He has been on the field for only about 15 plays as a Trojan but has two national title rings to show for it.
“It’s just crazy sometimes when you look back at how much I’ve been a part of,” Zilka said. “I’ve been very blessed to have that experience.”
Partly because of injury, Zilka didn’t register on recruiting radar screens after his senior season at Lake Forest. He decided to choose a college for non-athletic reasons and worry about football later.
His choice was USC, which had just finished a 6-6 season under first-year coach Pete Carroll.
“I probably could have gone to a Division III school and played, but I wanted a big-school experience,” Zilka said.
Then-Lake Forest coach Willie Snead encouraged him to walk on at USC and helped him submit a highlight tape. That led to an invitation to become a Trojan.
“I was blown away,” Zilka said.
He felt the same way after he joined his new team in August 2002.
“It was a shock and a challenge at first,” he said. “Going from a high school practice to a college practice was a 180-degree difference just in terms of the speed of the drills and how athletic, fast and physical the guys were.
“There was a point probably in the middle of the season where it was a little overwhelming, but I never really thought I’d stop. As the season went on, I started to feel more a part of it and more in the groove.”
He felt even better when he made his competitive debut, participating in three plays in USC’s 11th game, a blowout road victory over UCLA. He told his dad, Jim, it was the greatest day of his life.
“To have your first real downs on the turf of the Rose Bowl was a real thrill,” Zilka said. “I still have the socks I wore, and I took some turf home with me.”
His second appearance came six weeks later in USC’s Orange Bowl victory over Iowa. He played in one game in each of the last two seasons, and so far this year has appeared in a 70-17 rout of Arkansas.
In that game, the 6-foot-4-inch, 200-pounder was in on USC’s final drive, which ended with a 4-yard TD pass to another receiver. It was the first time Zilka had been on the field during a pass play.
He has learned to savor such small victories as simply running a pass pattern, being on the travel squad for this season’s opener at Hawaii and standing on the sidelines the last two seasons when bowl triumphs ensured national titles.
But his biggest reward has been his work on USC’s “service team,” which runs the upcoming opponents’ plays in practice. This week Zilka is impersonating Notre Dame receiver Maurice Stovall.
“What I learned here is I probably won’t play Saturday, so my role is to prepare our defense the best I can,” Zilka said. “Give it the best look possible, run routes hard and make good blocks.”
Zilka’s diligence in practice and in the classroom, where he has a 3.4 grade-point average, impressed Carroll enough that the coach put him on scholarship over the summer. That was a huge victory in money and prestige, but Zilka still prizes the small triumphs, which will include a spot on USC’s travel squad for Notre Dame.
He will graduate in May and is considering a career in sports marketing or coaching. Wherever he goes, he’ll utilize hard-earned lessons as valuable as anything he picked up in class.
“John has gotten firsthand experience seeing a good management organization, seeing the different challenges that had to be met each year and what leadership Pete Carroll and his staff have brought,” Jim Zilka said. “I think he fully appreciates that in a successful organization every role is important.”
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Zilka also appreciates the value of persistence and of occasionally rolling the dice.
“I’ve learned that you have to go for it sometimes,” he said. “I could have said, `USC is Division I. I don’t have a shot. Why waste my time?’
“But I gave it a shot. I had nothing to lose, and look at all the things I’ve been a part of because of that.”
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