Director of football operations Dennis Slutak beautifully coordinates the behind-the-scenes logistics for a hectic last 10 days for Trojan football
By Ben Malcolmson
USCRipsIt
PeteCarroll.com
Dennis Slutak can joke about it all he wants, but there’s no disguising the long days of behind-the-scenes work he’s been logging to coordinate a hectic last 10 days for the USC football program.
“It’s been the equivalent of fraternity hell week,” the director of football operations kidded. “That’s probably the best way to summarize it.”
Look at the last 10 days for Slutak, or “Slu” as he’s known around Heritage Hall, and it’s easy to understand why he describes it that way. By the end of Wednesday, the period will have included five practices, a two-day coaches clinic, walk-on tryouts and Pro Day, all of which were magnificently organized and coordinated by the fourth-year Trojan football logistics expert.
“It’s been a challenging stretch, but an important one nonetheless,” he said.
Last Tuesday, USC’s Spring Practice began and walk-on tryouts were held, Wednesday featured walk-on orientation and Thursday and Friday had two more Trojan practices before the biggest hurdle arrived.
Roughly 600 coaches attended the two-day Nike Coach of the Year Clinic, held at the Galen Center, a brand-new location for an event that is already a logistics nightmare without any major changes. In a 36-hour period from Friday morning until the event concluded Saturday night, Slutak worked 32 of those hours.
Throw in another practice Sunday, one Tuesday and Pro Day on Wednesday, and Slutak said he was ready for this 10-day stretch to be done.
“I sure was relieved after Pro Day,” Slutak said with a grin.
USC’s Pro Day on Wednesday showcased 25 former Trojans in front of 88 scouts and personnel from most, if not all, NFL teams.
“The NFL was very well represented because of the stratification of our guys in the draft,” Slutak said. “There were a lot of people coming out for the event.”
And to make matters even more troublesome for Slutak, rain was in the forecast for Wednesday afternoon.
“We usually don’t have to worry about the weather,” he said with a chuckle while checking the weather online Tuesday afternoon. “As long as it rains late in the day, we’ll be good.”
Fitting for the way things have been going for Slutak over the last 10 days, the rain didn’t come Wednesday.
It was a perfect ending for a frenzied week.
• Ben Malcolmson is the Director of Online Media for USCRipsIt/PeteCarroll.com. You can contact him at Ben@PeteCarroll.com.
