SAME OLD JEFF TENNESSEE COACH CHANGES LITTLE SINCE HIS WINNING DAYS AT TAFT HIGH.

Byline: Rich Hammond  Staff Writer

If coach Jeff Fisher's Tennessee Titans hold a slim lead over the Oakland Raiders late in the fourth quarter of today's AFC Championship game, perhaps Fisher will flash back to a play he made for Taft High in a 1975 game against Chatsworth.

The Toreadors of Woodland Hills led by four points with just a few seconds remaining and had the ball on their own 4-yard line when Fisher suggested to coach Hal Lambert that quarterback Cal Garvin scramble in the end zone and then take a safety.

Fisher, who had already totaled almost 275 receiving yards and recovered a fumble on defense, ran his pattern as usual, and then things got interesting.

``Garvin is doing what we talked about, running around, killing the clock a little but looking like he might throw the ball,'' Lambert said, ``and the next thing I know, Jeff turns around, runs back and knocks Garvin out of the end zone for the safety. We asked him why he hit Garvin, and he said, `I thought he forgot the play.' ''

Lambert recalls the play as though it happened last week, a testament to the esteem in which Fisher is held by coaches, teammates and friends who knew him at Taft.

Fisher might not look the same - his hair no longer sweeps across his forehead, as it did in his teenage years, and he grew a full beard this season - but those who knew him back then insist Fisher is essentially the same guy: kind, generous, humble and a winner.

``I knew that whatever he chose to do in life, he would be successful,'' said Pat Visciglia, who graduated from Taft two years before Fisher and remains a close friend. ``He was a great athlete, he was a very sharp guy, very smart, and he always got along with everybody.

``He's a great role model for people who went to Taft High School and people in this area. I couldn't really think of anything bad to say about him at all.''

Sports were Fisher's passion at Taft. He didn't join any clubs, but he played junior varsity baseball and football in his sophomore year and made varsity in both sports as a junior, starting in left field in baseball and split end and cornerback at football.

``He was, and still is, the fastest white guy I've ever seen,'' said Fisher's friend Bill Spooner, now an NBA referee who was a teammate in both sports at Taft. ``He played right cornerback and I was right safety, and it was pretty easy to play safety when he was the cornerback.

``I've never said this publicly, because I didn't want to hurt coach Lambert's feelings, but if we had used Jeff at tailback in his junior year instead of receiver, we might have won the City championship.''

Fisher wasn't just serious about sports, he was talented. His baseball coach, Ray O'Connor, said he moved Fisher from the outfield to catcher because he thought Fisher had the intelligence to handle the pitching staff.

``Jeff was a hell of an athlete,'' said Spooner, who graduated from Taft a year before Fisher. ``The guy could run, he could hit and he could throw. He probably hit .400 or .500 the year I played with him.

``In football, I was the first receiver in Taft history to catch 50 passes in a season, and of course the next year he blew right by me. I still tease him, though, because he needed 12 games to break the record, and I only got 10 games.''

When it came time to choose a college, Fisher's coaches knew his heart was with UCLA, the school his parents attended and he grew up following. Unfortunately, the Bruins didn't honor Fisher's devotion, and Fisher went on to star in the defensive backfield for USC and had a five-year professional career with the Chicago Bears.

``I knew he wanted to go to UCLA,'' Lambert said, ``so when he got a letter from USC I called UCLA right away. Jerry Long was the guy who recruited our area, and I told him, `Hey, this kid is good, he just got a letter from USC,' but they never looked at him.

``A few years later, I was at a retirement dinner, and I ran into Jerry Long. I wasn't even thinking about it, and I said, `Hey, what do you think about how Jeff's doing?' He said, `Damn you, because of you I never got so chewed out as I did over not recruiting that kid.' ''

Fisher's NFL career ended prematurely because of a serious ankle injury in 1985, and he had plans to work for a software company in Woodland Hills.

His coaches and friends say Fisher never expressed a desire to be a coach during his younger years, but Fisher accepted an offer from then-Chicago defensive coordinator Buddy Ryan to be an assistant shortly after his injury, and the Bears went on to win the Super Bowl.

Fisher followed Ryan, who became head coach in Philadelphia, and Fisher coached defensive backs in 1986-87 and became the NFL's youngest defensive coordinator with the Eagles in 1988.

After brief stints with the Rams and San Francisco 49ers, Fisher joined the Houston Oilers in 1994 as the defensive coordinator under Jack Pardee, but Pardee was fired after the Oilers started 1-9. Fisher, at age 36, became interim coach and was permanently hired for the job after the season.

``We're all extremely proud of him, because he was such an outstanding kid,'' O'Connor said. ``I've got a picture of him in my den that he signed, and it says, `Thanks for giving me a great start, coach.' ''

Even as Fisher became one of the most respected coaches in the NFL, he never forgot his roots. He returns to the San Fernando Valley every summer and volunteers his time on behalf of a golf tournament that benefits the Valley Youth Conference.

``He's the kind of guy who, even if I hadn't talked to him in a long time, if I called him up and asked for a ticket to a game, he'd say, `Sure coach, no problem,' '' O'Connor said. ``It's very gratifying to watch him succeed.''

Fisher hasn't forgotten his friends, either, as Visciglia found out when he suffered a stroke in 1995.

``It was a Sunday, about 7:30 in the morning, and they said I had a call,'' Visciglia said. ``I thought, `Who in the hell is calling me at this hour?' and they said it was Jeff Fisher. He was on the team bus, pulling into Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh.

``Here's a guy who is so into his job, a couple hours before a game, and he's calling to see how I'm doing. He has such great balance in his life. He's an unpretentious guy, and he's worked hard for everything he has earned. He's pretty much the same guy he was in high school, and that's good to know.''

Should the Titans win two more games and become Super Bowl champions, Fisher will be heralded as a hero in Tennessee. However, even if the Titans lose today, Fisher's reputation in the San Fernando Valley will remain stellar.

``I remember him well, because he was an extremely nice young man,'' O'Connor said. ``He had no chip on his shoulder and no ego problem. Of all the great kids who came through Taft, like Robin Yount and Larry Dierker, I think Jeff Fisher is certainly right there with them.'

TODAY'S GAMES

NFC Championship

Tampa Bay at Philadelphia

When: Noon

TV: Ch. 11

Radio: 1070-AM

AFC Championship

Tennessee at Oakland

When: 3:30 p.m.

TV: Ch. 2

Radio: 1070-AM

CAPTION(S):

4 photos, 4 boxes

Photo:

(1 -- color) no caption (Tennessee Titans coach Jeff Fisher)

(2) Tennessee Titans coach Jeff Fisher was a standout athlete in high school, playing receiver and cornerback at Taft. Fisher also was on the baseball team.

(3) FISHER IN 1975

(4) The people who knew Jeff Fisher at Taft High of Woodland Hills say the Tennessee Titans coach was not only an talented athlete but a ``nice young man.''

Dave Martin/Associated Press

Box:

(1) AFC CHAMPIONSHIP

(2) NFC CHAMPIONSHIP

(3) AFC CHAMPIONSHIP MATCHUP

(4) NFC CHAMPIONSHIP MATCHUP