Talkative Stewarts Are Talking Again

The gag order on the loquacious Stewart twins, Lodrick and Rodrick, was pulled by Coach Henry Bibby two days before their much-anticipated homecoming at Washington,.

“It [was] just to help the kids through with the experience of dealing with reporters and how to deal with them,” Bibby said of the Stewarts, high-profile national recruits who chose USC over Washington in a move that rankled many in Seattle. “Again, you have to know what to say. You can’t just say everything at one time. You have to kind of be selective, so we’re helping them through that period, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

“The whole institution here is about educating, and we educate them in that way as well.”

Rodrick said the silence was deafening.

“Especially after every win, we’d just stay in the locker room and think that he might change his mind, but he’d be like, ‘Nope, go home,’ ” Rodrick said. “We wanted to talk to the media to give our perspective on the game. It might have helped us. He’s not going to do anything to hurt us.”

Lodrick said the gag order took on a life of its own. “He said it was because we said we took tests for each other in high school,” Lodrick said. “But that was high school. That’s what people want to hear -- the truth.

“We’re not going to lie and be like, we didn’t [take tests for each other]. I just tell the truth. I mean, that’s what twins do, though, you’ve got to expect that. They look exactly the same, they’re going to do that. Any twins.”

Still, Lodrick was quick to claim that they hadn’t pulled the switch at USC, though they are enrolled in the same classes.

“We just did it in high school to have everybody laugh,” he said, “to show that the teachers don’t know us apart.”

-- Paul Gutierrez