My Take on Pete Carroll’s Recent Flirtation with the Dolphins

Over the last six years, Pete Carroll has been consistent about at least three things: he is happy at USC; he is constantly in search of new challenges; and he would only return to the coaching in the NFL if given the level of control he enjoys at USC, which is total control. Until approached by Wayne Huizenga of the Miami Dolphins, Carroll did not believe that such a situation existed at an NFL franchise, and so did not seriously entertain the notion of returning to the NFL.

Huizenga described a setup at the Dolphins that was exactly what Carroll thought could not exist in the NFL. According to Carroll’s nature of seeking new challenges, he seriously considered the Dolphins job. After all, he has conquered just about every challenge at USC with five straight Pac-10 championships, five straight BCS bowl appearances (with four wins), and five straight top five recruiting classes. In fact, I believe he was closer to declaring himself a candidate for the job than maybe anyone realizes. However, when Carroll sat down to earnestly work through his decision-making process, he came to the conclusion that there were still challenges to address at USC, and he loves his job at USC too much to leave. I don’t think he made his final decision until just after his Tuesday press conference upon returning from vacation in Costa Rica.

I think this is an extremely positive development for USC fans who want Carroll to stay. If, after being presented with this opportunity by Huizenga and comparing his USC job to this potential NFL gig, Carroll decided to remain a Trojan, what other job could possibly draw Carroll away from USC? He has glimpsed his ideal NFL job and come to the conclusion that he is better off where he is. He is possibly more certain than ever before about his future at USC. This is great news for USC fans.

Jill Painter at the L.A. Daily News has a similar take on the situation as me. From her column:

"If you're asking me if I'm ever going (to the NFL again), if I was ever going to go, that (the Dolphins' job) would've been the best one," Carroll said.

Sam Farmer at the L.A. Times argues that staying at USC would be a much better decision for Carroll than the one John McKay made to go to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Update: Pete Carroll said as much to the Daily News on Thursday:

"I was at the brink of it," Carroll told the Daily News of Los Angeles. "I made the decision to return right before I talked to (the media Tuesday).

Warp Speed, Scotty!

I’m already sick of hearing how the SEC is light-years (as in the top speed of SEC defensive linemen) better than the Big Ten because Florida beat Ohio State in the BCS Championship. The only thing that game proves is that Florida was better than Ohio State on January 8, 2007.

If people are going to point to the results of bowl games as an indicator of the relative strength of conferences, shouldn’t they include all the bowl games played between the two conferences? Including Florida’s victory, the SEC was 1-2 versus the Big 10. Yeah, they’re definitely a better conference.

It seems like the mainstream media would have us believe that kids in the South are genetically programmed to grow up faster than kids in the Midwest, and kids in the Midwest are genetically programmed to grow up bigger and stronger than kids in the South. Yes, I know that programs recruit countrywide, but these maps (HT: The Wizard of Odds) show that Florida and Ohio State, at least, get most of their talent regionally, just like the Trojans, who enroll a handful of recruits every year from across the country, but fill the vast majority of their roster with players from California and other western states. Maybe Urban Meyer is recruiting players from Alpha Centauri.

I am no partisan of either the Big 10 or the SEC. It just annoys me when the media delivers shoddy analysis and expects their audience to accept it without question.

I'm Ready

After watching last night’s BCS “national championship” game, and feeling very little surprise at the outcome, I’m finally ready for a playoff in NCAA Division 1-A college football.

Until now, I have not been in favor of a playoff. If I had my way, we would throw out the BCS and all related formats and return to the pre-Bowl Coalition/Alliance days. Bowls could invite whichever teams they wanted and form any deals that suited their interests with the conferences. I would be satisfied if the Trojans’ annual goal was simply to win the Pac-10 and go pummel some unlucky Big Ten team in the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day (that’s all the Trojans have control over now anyway). Of course, that would require acknowledging that the Div. 1 national championship is truly “mythical”, something that the vast majority of college football fans seem unwilling to do. Since the likelihood of this scenario occurring is extremely low, having a playoff is a much better alternative than the ridiculous BCS.

Before bowl season started, I was relatively confident (25 of 32 confidence points, if you're interested) that Ohio State would beat Florida handily. That changed when I watched the Rose Bowl. The beat-down suffered by Michigan at the hands of USC led me to question the strength of the upper echelon of the Big 10, and therefore the superiority of Ohio State, a notion the mainstream media had presented as canon for almost the entire season. Time and again the bowls have demonstrated that a team’s performance in its conference is not predictive of its performance against teams from other conferences in bowl games. The underdog has won four of the last five BCS championship games. Hence my underwhelming surprise at Florida’s victory last night. Only a playoff system guaranteeing match-ups between different conference champions would provide a true national champion.

Limit playoff participants to the six major conference champions plus two at-large teams. Have a committee select the at-large teams and seed all eight teams using a BCS-like formula as a guide or something simpler like the college basketball ratings percentage index (RPI).

I guess you could say this change in attitude was partly provoked by selfishness. After watching how USC played against Michigan and Florida played against Ohio State, I would have loved to see USC take on Florida. The Trojans would have been tough to beat. But who knows; maybe LSU would have taken the title this year. Or Boise State. Obviously, you’d have to say Florida would be the favorites after last night.

I figure if a playoff had been in place for the last five years, the Trojans could have two more national championships. Over the past five years, USC under Pete Carroll has demonstrated a talent for performing very well in big games, especially against teams from other conferences. Aside from this year, USC was playing at the highest level in the country when they beat Iowa in the 2003 Orange Bowl. They would have made a playoff that year as an at-large team.

By the way, no way is the team that got its ass handed to it last night in the desert anywhere close to the second-best team in the country.

Congratulations Gators!

Effin' Hilarious

I missed this while watching the game live, but laughed my ass off when I saw it on YouTube. Keep an eye on Henne as he is rapidly removed from the scrum.



HT: RCollier27 at Conquest Chronicles

Consensus

Somewhat of a consensus has emerged among the fans (or bloggers, at least) of the three teams in contention to face Ohio State in the BCS Championship game: Florida, Michigan, and USC.

Orson at EDSBS, which is always an entertaining read, does not concede that USC deserves the spot over Florida, but acknowledges that Florida fans don't have a leg to stand on if they complain about USC getting the nod:

"This is something Florida fans cannot do, since in the anarchic world of college football, the team with the biggest heads on their pikes wins. At the moment, an unbelievably tough Florida team loses this comparison with USC, who laughs at the lolling tongues of the midget skulls of UCF and Western Carolina we’re carrying around in our schedule. If you don’t care about the national picture, fine; yet if the sports bar discussion turns to a Gator claim on a title shot, take the stool you sit on and saw one of the legs off before you begin, since you might as well begin where Jeremy Foley’s [Florida AD] put us schedule-wise."

Brian at mgoblog actually conducts a side-by-side analysis of the three teams' resumes [entire schedules] and argues that USC deserves to make the BCS Championship game over Florida and Michigan:

"Michigan has a narrow advantage in "best win" but after that it's all Trojans until you get to the loss category. They clearly lost to the least intimidating opponent, but unlike their competition they battled back and had a chance to tie at the death. Also, OSU benefited from a panoply of freak plays: a punt return touchdown, USC turnovers, etc. I think the most astounding thing about USC is this: they played one team worse than 5-7. When they rolled on to the field this year, all but one of their opponents was capable of beating them.

"If you really think that Michigan's Notre Dame win was superlative enough to override USC's season of wins against solid opposition and that their Oregon State loss was an unforgivable sin, you can make a case for Michigan. But let's give it up, guys. USC's tiebreaker is Arkansas and Nebraska versus our Vanderbilt, Central Michigan, and Ball State. They took on two above-average BCS teams. We took on the worst team in the SEC and two MAC teams, though one of them happens to be okay this year. Set aside the Michigan fandom and look at the big picture: if USC has this season and does not make the NC game, no one will ever schedule anyone again. It's time to take the bullet."

This all presumes USC will beat UCLA tomorrow, so you can be assured everyone in both fan bases will be pulling hard for UCLA.

GO 'SC! BEAT THE BRUINS!

L.A. Recruiting Wars

There's more in the balance when USC plays UCLA tomorrow than bragging rights (and a spot in the BCS Championship game for USC). The victor also wins an advantage in the recruiting competition that's in full swing across the region.

Everyone knows a big factor in the dramatic turnaround of the USC football program from 2000-2002 was Pete Carroll's masterful recruiting. His philosophy is to lock up all the best players in southern California and then augment that talent with a handful of the best players from across the country. I always wondered how Carroll was able to immediately dominate recruiting in southern California, almost as if UCLA didn't exist. According to an article by David Wharton in today's L.A. Times, Carroll didn't have to go against UCLA head-to-head in many cases.

The Bruins held the upper hand in the late 1990s as former coach Bob Toledo led them on a 20-game winning streak. But soon after, UCLA appeared to shift its focus to the national scene. "You talked to the City Section coaches and they said they never saw UCLA on campus," said Greg Biggins of StudentSports.com.

Carroll filled the gap.

All in all, it's an interesting piece about the origins of Carroll's recruiting success, and how Karl Dorrell has tried to emulate Carroll's approach, with some success. Of course, USC has a seemingly insurmountable advantage at this point and figures to maintain that advantage as long as the USC coaches maintain their recruiting intensity.

Sweet USC vs. ND 2005 Videos

USC vs. Notre Dame 2005


Episode 5: Darth Poodle (everybody loves the Imperial March!)

Wake up the echoes . . . not so much. Notre Dame did pull out all the stops and almost pulled off the classic upset. More likely, based on the result of this year's game, it seems that Notre Dame merely used up all their mojo for at least the next four years (or did Dr. Evil just steal it).

I'm sure somebody will soon put together something pretty cool from this year's game.

Trojan Envy?

From a Domer? Yes, indeed, and expressed in a public forum, no less. What is the world coming to?

What has to be even more painful (if you're a Notre Dame fan), is the realization that your hoodie-wearing, crew-cutted, robot genius coach with all the Superbowl rings may not be the savior of your storied football program after all. I wonder if anybody in South Bend is having second thoughts about giving Charlie Weis that multi-million dollar 10-year contract extension after his seventh game as a collegiate head coach.

USC to Wear Home Jerseys at the Rose Bowl?

A quote from Pete Carroll's weekly Tuesday press conference:

"I'm going to ask Coach Dorrell next year that they wear their home jerseys at the Coliseum . . . . I am hoping when they come here, they will be able to do that. I asked the Pac-10 about that last year and there are some issues. I think it's silly that there are some issues that we are going to have to forfeit a timeout or something, but I will do it. I think it's worth it. We should continue to enhance the beauty of this matchup."

This would be a return to the tradition of both teams wearing their home jerseys for the rivalry game, as they used to do when the game was played in the Coliseum every year before fUCLA moved their home games to the Rose Bowl. It's unclear from the quote - is Carroll planning to play in the home jerseys this Saturday against fUCLA or does he want to resolve the issues with the Pac-10 or work out an agreement with Coach Dorrell first? Lord knows we could get by without the time out; we practically threw one away last week on that ridiculous coach's challenge of a fourth down spot.

Anyway, I think it would be outstanding if the Trojans came out in their home jerseys this Saturday, like sort of an eff you to fUCLA . . . yeah, we know we have to play this game on your home field, but this is really our house and everyone knows who's king in this city.

Roses!

Forget all the BCS rankings nonsense. You can't control that shit. The Trojans, however, took care of everything in their control and clinched the Pac-10 title. In doing so, they became the first team in the Pac-10 to win five straight conference championships, and I couldn't be happier. Congratulations!

Michigan is still second in the BCS rankings after losing to Ohio State yesterday. Big deal. I don't think it'll stay that way if USC beats Notre Dame and UCLA. Michigan has finished their regular season. USC has two games left and their computer rankings will only improve if they keep winning. Of course, it would definitely help matters if Arkansas and Nebraska win their conference championships. Like I said above, none of that is worth worrying about. It's out of our control. In the meantime, we'll enjoy our record-setting championship and kick some ass in the Rose Bowl if it comes down to that.

One thing I will guarantee is that you won't see Pete Carroll whining to the media and campaigning to the pollsters à la Mack Brown, Tommy Tuberville, or Charlie Weis.