John Robinson ( American football coach ) John Alexander Robinson ( born July 25 , 1935 ) is a former American football player and coach best known for his two stints as head coach of the University of Southern California ( USC ) football team ( 1976 – 1982 , 1993 – 1997 ) and for his tenure as head coach of the NFL ' s Los Angeles Rams ( 1983 – 1991 ) . Robinson ' s USC teams won four Rose Bowls and captured a share of the national championship in the 1978 season . Robinson is one of the few college football head coaches to have non - consecutive tenure at the same school . In 2009 , he was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame . He is a Board Member for the Lott IMPACT Trophy , which is named after Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive back Ronnie Lott , and is awarded annually to college football ' s Defensive IMPACT Player of the Year . Biography . Early life and playing career . Robinson grew up in Daly City , California , where he attended elementary school with future Pro Football Hall of Fame r John Madden , and graduated from Junípero Serra High School . He attended the University of Oregon , where he played end on Oregon ' s 1958 Rose Bowl team . Coaching career . He began his coaching career at the University of Oregon , his alma mater , where he served as an assistant coach under Len Casanova and Jerry Frei from 1960 to 1971 . He served as USC ' s offensive coordinator in 1972 under John McKay , who had been an assistant coach at Oregon when Robinson played there , then served a stint as the Oakland Raiders ' backfield coach in 1975 , rejoining Madden , who was by then Oakland ' s head coach . Robinson coached at USC from 1976 to 1982 and again from 1993 to 1997 , putting up a career record as a college head coach of 104 – 35 – 4 , for a winning percentage of . 741 . Robinson is considered one of the more successful coaches in Rams history , twice leading the team to the NFC title game . Both of those contests ended in defeat against eventual Super Bowl champions , the 1985 Chicago Bears and the 1989 San Francisco 49ers . Robinson ' s tenure as Rams coach was made more difficult by the fact that the Rams played in the same division as the 49ers , the dominant team of the 1980s , but he was also the coach who drafted running back Eric Dickerson . Robinson was hired to coach football at the University of Nevada , Las Vegas in 1998 . After a 2 – 0 start , the second win coming at Baylor where the Rebels won despite entering the game ' s final play down by three points and not possessing the ball , Robinson ' s first UNLV team finished only 3 – 8 . The Rebels rebounded to win eight games in 2000 . In 2002 , Robinson was chosen as the university ' s athletic director , but he stepped down from that position a year later to concentrate on the coaching position . Despite being relieved of duty as athletic director , his tenure ended on a disappointing note with the Rebels going 2 – 9 in his final season in 2004 . In 2010 , Robinson returned to coaching as defensive coordinator at San Marcos High School in San Marcos , California . He had never before coached at the high school level . Broadcasting . Robinson currently serves as a color analyst on NFL game broadcasts for the Sports USA Radio Network .