Pete Carroll leaves USC

[knapplc]

So.... does everyone think this was just Carroll's golden opportunity to finally return in glory to the NFL with all of the bells and whistles he wanted?

Or are there other cynics like me who think this is just Carroll fleeing USC before the NCAA hammer falls?

[WaCougMBS]

I am thinking it's about 70% the former and 30% the latter - I'm trying to completely quiet the pessimist in me cause I like the move in general, but I'm pretty sure there is at least an element of getting out of So Cal while the gettin' is still (pretty) good

[A Fleshner Fantasy]

I think it's somewhat of each of those, but also, let's not ignore that they had a very poor season (by their standards). It's nice being a coach when your team is going to championships and BCS games, but once you lose games you should win and get blown out in games that should be close, it's nice to just go take a new job instead of answering questions about why you are losing all of a sudden.

[Nfl Fan]

As a Duck and Seahawk fan... I couldn't be happier!

[steelerfan513]

I'm in the cynical bunch with you knapp. Regardless of how poor a year USC had by their standards, they still won 9 games, and that was despite having a freshman starting at quarterback. Carroll had built one of the best programs in the country that would still have attracted a ton of great recruits even with their struggles in this one year, and in my humble opinion, no NFL head coaching vacancy could justify leaving that. No offense to you Seahawks fans, but in my humble opinion, it would seem much better for Carroll to stick with the great situation he has at USC over trying to turn the Seahawks back into contenders, unless there's something we don't know about.

Either Carroll wanted to show people he can succeed in the NFL, USC is about to get hit hard by NCAA sanctions or there's something else that's driving him out of USC. I'm skeptical that he would have much of a desire to get back to the NFL unless the prestige of the USC program was threatened in any way, and I'm guessing we'll find out that that was the case.

[A Fleshner Fantasy]

I love how everyone talks about how badly Carroll failed in the NFL. Overall, he had a winning record, went to the playoffs twice in 4 seasons and only had one losing season. He definitely wasn't great, but he wasn't horrible either. And steelerfan, I know he won 9 games, but that doesn't change the fact that he lost about 4 times as many as he usually loses in a season at USC. 9 games is good for most programs, but not by USC's standards. I agree that NCAA sanctions could have a role, but he sort of already dealt with that in the past with the Reggie Bush stuff and he didn't flee to the NFL at that point, so either this is way worse, or there are other things than just NCAA sanctions driving him out of USC.

[knapplc]

Flesh, let's not sugarcoat this. Carroll went 33-31 in four seasons. That's hardly a glowing record. That'll get you fired in most places.

[steelerfan513]

And steelerfan, I know he won 9 games, but that doesn't change the fact that he lost about 4 times as many as he usually loses in a season at USC. 9 games is good for most programs, but not by USC's standards.

Your point? Even the best football programs in the country have down years. That doesn't mean their coaches are going to jump ship just because of one season where the group of players they had didn't pan out. One 9-4 season wasn't going to change USC's status as a marquee destination for recruits. Additionally, USC went 9-4 despite having a true freshman as a starting quarterback, one who threw 15 TDs to 14 INTs and completed less than 60% of his passes. There are very few programs that can win nine games with that kind of play from their quarterback, and it's a positive reflection on Carroll and the affect he's had on recruiting that they did that well.

And yes, his stint in the NFL wasn't a total failure, but his stint in college has been nothing but a total success. It seems surprising that he would want to leave that unless he wanted another shot at the NFL or his excellent situation at USC was being threatened in some way. We'll just have to let everything play out and see if anything comes of the investigations going on at USC.

[A Fleshner Fantasy]

And steelerfan, I know he won 9 games, but that doesn't change the fact that he lost about 4 times as many as he usually loses in a season at USC. 9 games is good for most programs, but not by USC's standards.

Your point? Even the best football programs in the country have down years. That doesn't mean their coaches are going to jump ship just because of one season where the group of players they had didn't pan out. One 9-4 season wasn't going to change USC's status as a marquee destination for recruits. Additionally, USC went 9-4 despite having a true freshman as a starting quarterback, one who threw 15 TDs to 14 INTs and completed less than 60% of his passes. There are very few programs that can win nine games with that kind of play from their quarterback, and it's a positive reflection on Carroll and the affect he's had on recruiting that they did that well.

And yes, his stint in the NFL wasn't a total failure, but his stint in college has been nothing but a total success. It seems surprising that he would want to leave that unless he wanted another shot at the NFL or his excellent situation at USC was being threatened in some way. We'll just have to let everything play out and see if anything comes of the investigations going on at USC.

Fine, let's assume that in general, winning nine games is okay for USC. That doesn't mean their losses last year were ok. Let's take a look at them:

1. They lost to Washington which is simply unacceptable regardless of who the heck you have at QB
2. Lost by 27 to Oregon. Yeah yeah yeah, Oregon is good, fine. But losing to anyone by 27 is not okay for USC.
3. 34 point loss to Stanford. Ummmm, what? I thought I just said that losing by 27 to a good team is not okay. Well, I did, but expanding off of that, losing by 34 to an okay team (or even a reasonably good team), is really freaking bad for that caliber of a program.
4. Loss to Arizona. 2nd loss to an unranked team (not to mention that one of the losses to a ranked team was a loss to a team ranked #25). USC should not lose to unranked teams.

And yes, you can argue that part of the reason for their lack of success is due to having a freshman QB. That's probably true. That being said, Carroll was the one who chose to start that freshman QB, so why would we cut him any slack for one of his decisions not working out? He had another QB who could have started who was not a freshman, so the fact that Barkely wasn't that great when Carroll was the one who started him doesn't make the team's lack of success any less of Carroll's fault.

Sure, maybe 4 losses isn't that bad, but when 2 of them are to unranked teams and the other 2 are by an average of over 30 points, a program like USC needs to be concerned.

[knapplc]

Additionally, USC went 9-4 despite having a true freshman as a starting quarterback, one who threw 15 TDs to 14 INTs and completed less than 60% of his passes.

As a Nebraska fan, I'm jealous of that stat line. Our starting QB:

177/302/.586/14/10

We won 10 games, but our SOS was 52 compared to USC's 19.