Strip search

Down in the basement of the USC athletic department, in the far corner of a windowless room where members of the football team's defense meet each day, there is a black chair.

Set apart from rows of hard seats. High-backed. Cushy. With armrests.

It is called the "Strip King" chair.

Before you get the wrong idea, this specific piece of furniture awaits the player who, at the previous practice, made the most verified attempts to snatch the football from his teammates on offense.

"You want to be in that chair," defensive tackle Fili Moala says. "Oh, dude, everyone knows you're the Strip King."

Call it a cheap prop, a teaching gimmick, but each fall the talk around USC football inevitably turns to turnovers. Nothing in the program is more revered, or constantly harped upon, by coaches.

Not breakaway runs. Not touchdown passes. Nothing.

"Being able to take care of the football, and take it away, will decide more games than any other factor," Coach Pete Carroll says. "That's why it is the No. 1 emphasis."

With the third-ranked Trojans set to open the 2008 season at Virginia on Saturday, consider these numbers:

From 2002 to 2005, as the Trojans reemerged on the big stage by winning two national championships, their turnover margin -- how many times they swiped the ball versus how often they gave it away -- averaged plus-19.5.

Over the last two seasons -- no titles -- that average dipped to plus-three.

No wonder linebacker Rey Maualuga waxes nostalgic about former players such as Lofa Tatupu and Troy Polamalu, "guys who knew how to get the ball out."

"We've got to get that mind-set," he says.

The effort to revive the lagging turnover margin has focused on two areas.

Fans might know about "Turnover Wednesdays," the weekly practice in which defensive players focus on interceptions and fumbles while the offense -- sometimes annoyed at all the grabbing -- tries to hold the ball high and tight. But there is another, more technical area.

Over the years, Carroll and his staff have tried to dissect the art of larceny, studying film, categorizing different types of takeaways.

"The more you can identify, the easier it is to teach," secondary coach Rocky Seto says. "You don't just tell them to go after the ball."

Safeties are taught to shadow the receiver's downfield shoulder on the post route, the spot they see as most likely to intercept the path of the ball.