USC/Columbia connections in the Super Bowl

It didn’t take Ray Rychleski long to get a little face time in his first Super Bowl.

Rychleski, the former USC special teams coordinator who holds the same post for the Colts, was shown next to Colts coach Jim Caldwell and QB Peyton Manning singing the national anthem along with Carrie Underwood.

Rychleski’s special teams got off to a good start, holding the Saints inside the 25-yard line on Indy’s first three kickoffs. Rychleski, whose only season with the Gamecocks was 2008, did not have the benefit of being able to call on clutch kicker Adam Vinatieri, who has two Super Bowl-winning kicks to his credit.

But Vinatieri lost his spot to veteran Matt Stover when Vinatieri was injured in October. Though Vinatieri is now healthy, he was on the inactive list for the game.

Stover drilled his first field goal to put the Colts up 3-0.

Other than Rychleski, who still owns a townhouse in Five Points that three USC assistant strength coaches rent, there weren’t many other USC storylines in the game.

Former Gamecocks offensive lineman Jamar Nesbit, an NFL veteran who started for the Saints in previous seasons, was inactive. Na’Shan Goddard, another ex-USC offensive lineman, was in Miami on the Saints’ practice squad.

Goddard was an outgoing and engaging player when he played for the Gamecocks under Lou Holtz and Steve Spurrier. He obviously hasn’t changed.

Goddard received his 15 minutes of fame in Miami during Tuesday’s media day when he jokingly bench-pressed a female reporter – a moment that was captured by an Associated Press photographer and published in a number of newspapers across the country.

There was a Columbia connection in the game. Saints starting center Jonathan Goodwin, who was featured in The State on Sunday, grew up in southeast Columbia and graduated from Lower Richland with Richard Seymour in 1997.

Former LR coach David Moore tried to get USC and just about every other big school interested in Goodwin, who played one season under Jim Grobe at Ohio University before transferring to Michigan, where his older brother played.

When Goodwin was weighing his transfer options, Moore called ex-USC assistant Buddy Pough, who was familiar with Goodwin from Pough’s days as Fairfield Central’s head coach. But Pough said Brad Scott was cool on Goodwin.

A couple years later Moore took Lance Laury, who wound up at USC and is still active with the Seattle Seahawks, on a recruiting trip to Clemson. Scott asked Moore where Goodwin was playing.

Moore pointed to a nearby TV, which was tuned to a Michigan-Notre Dame game.

After Moore told Scott that Goodwin was starting for the Wolverines, Moore said Scott laughed and told him, “That’s why I got fired.”