Friday, November 21, 2008

Carroll to NFL . . . Ever?

This seems like good news . . . unless it's just standard coach-speak in response to the same question about the NFL Carroll fields every fall:

Washington: “You can go down as a legendary coach at the college level, but (are there) any desires when you’re sitting around at the table in the offseason saying, “I wonder if I can do that at the NFL level, and just dominate like how (I’ve) done at the college level?’ ”
Carroll: “I think I’m very fortunate that I had a lot of years in the NFL and had a blast. And I still love the NFL. I think it’s a great league. It’s a great level of competition and all. But we just found home here. It just seems to fit well, and we’ve had a great time here at ‘SC. Been very lucky to be at this school at this time.
“I’m having the time of my life, as content as you can get. And hopefully we’ll just be able to stay here and keep this thing rolling as long as we can.”

Thursday, November 06, 2008

The Legend of Rey Grows

There is this:

"We let Rey say who he wanted on the kickoff team," recalled Todd McNair, who counts special teams among his coaching duties. "He said 'Gimme all the linebackers.' They're called the Myrmidons."

What?!
Maualuga revived the USC tradition that started four years ago, just after the movie "Troy" was released. "It's kinda backwards, because the Myrmidons were Achilles' elite fighting unit," laughed McNair. "They were fighting against Troy and we are Troy. But, we like the idea of the Myrmidons."

How cool is that? Also from the Washington game:
Late in the third quarter, Maualuga asked his coach if he could go in for another kickoff. "Get outta here, you crazy?" McNair told the senior.
Clearly unsatisfied, Maualuga instructed a younger player to walk halfway onto the field and pretend to join the coverage team, then return to the sideline. Maualuga took his place.
"I'm standing there, and Coach [Pete Carroll] is like, 'T-Mac, what the heck?!?'" I look, and he's out there!" said McNair. "Then he proceeds to go down the field, knock two guys down, and tackles 'em on the 2- yard line!"

They took his helmet away after that.