[Bumped to top of page — again! — and new content added; see below. -ed.]
When something bad happens to Michigan football, MGoBlog posts photos of kittens. For Pete Carroll’s resignation from USC and impending introduction confirmed hiring as coach of the Seahawks, I think another type of animal would be more appropriate:
Photo attribution: http://www.flickr.com/photos/anita__greg/ / CC BY-NC 2.0
The King is dead. Long live the King? King?!? (WTF?)
P.S. I alluded on Friday to how the missed opportunities of 2006, 2007 and 2008 — starting at the Rose Bowl versus Texas, and continuing through a Thursday night in Corvallis in September ’08 — suddenly loom much larger now that we Trojan fans face a period of profound uncertainty, and perhaps even some time in the football wilderness. (Serious NCAA sanctions would potentially be the “other shoe” yet to drop, obviously.)
Brian Grummell summarized this in a tweet thusly: “RIP: USC 2001-2004 WTF: USC 2005-2009.” But that’s not really right, since 2005 was a great year, arguably the very pinnacle of the Trojans’ success, as they built their winning streak to 34 games with epic victories over Notre Dame and Fresno State, and had a brilliant season overall against a brutal schedule. It wasn’t until the Rose Bowl — on January 4, 2006 — that Vince Young single-handedly ushered in the “WTF” era.
So the proper delineation, it seems to me, is RIP 2001-2005 and WTF 2006-2009.
The first five years of the Carroll Era saw a meteoric rise from obscurity to utter dominance, both on the field and on the recruiting trail. The next three years witnessed a series of deflating woulda-coulda-shoulda losses, starting with Rose Bowl (yes, VY was amazing, but if Reggie Bush doesn’t try that lateral, or if the replay equipment doesn’t malfunction, or if Bush lines up on 4th and 2, or…) and continuing with a series of inexplicable losses to inferior foes (Oregon State ’06, fUCLA ’06, Stanford ’07, Oregon State ’08 — also Oregon ’07, but the Ducks with Dixon were not so “inferior” and thus not as “inexplicable”), each and every one of which potentially prevented the Trojans from winning a national title.
If USC just manages to beat Oregon State or UCLA in ’06, and just manages to edge out 41-point underdog Stanford in ’07, and just manages to not have a letdown of epic proportions against the Beavers in ’08, we could’ve been talking about five consecutive national titles. That’s a lot of “ifs,” I know — and it depends on beating Ohio State twice (ha!) and Florida once in the national title games — but don’t forget how excruciatingly close each of those losses were. And also keep in mind, USC didn’t have very many close wins in that time period. It was generally blowout win or down-to-the-wire loss. So it’s only natural to ponder what might have been. Especially now.
Instead, the Carroll Era yielded “just” two national championships, one of which is AP-only and will always have something of an asterisk next to it, the other of which may yet be declared doubleplusungood and wiped from the record books by the NCAA’s Ministry of Truth. I know LSU fans are just waiting for the moment when they can declare that the “USC dynasty” featured zero national championships.
The Trojans’ trevails of 2006-2008 had wider consequences for college football, too. Into the power vacuum created by USC’s annual failure to win the “little games” stepped Florida and LSU, and 2006-2008 became an era of alleged SEC dominance in college football (extended in 2009 by Alabama, natch). USC had the most talent in the country, and thus was by far the most logical contender to put the It’s-A-War crowd in its place, yet the Trojans never even got a chance to play any of the godlike SEC teams on their way to ascending into BCS heaven — all because we couldn’t get a freakin’ “W” in Corvallis, couldn’t beat a horrible Bruins team in Pasadena, couldn’t overcome mighty Tavita Pritchard and his merry band of Drunken Trees at home in the Coliseum. Year after year, we were “playing the best football in the country” at season’s end, yet because we kept shooting ourselves in the foot against lesser opponents, we kept casting away BCS title berths that were being presented to us on a silver platter.
But we, or at least I, always figured we’d have plenty more chances where those came from. Then came ’09, which initially (when we beat tOSU, then lost to UW in Seattle) seemed like a re-run of ’06-’08, but instead turned into a horror show of mediocrity — unthinkable blowout losses, multiple defeats at home, four “Ls” on the win-loss record — not seen since the Hackett days. An 8-4 season, and a trip to Emerald Bowl, suddenly made the previous three years’ “sick of the Rose Bowl” gripes seem like the musings of, well, spoiled children.
But hey, we’d be back, baby! We’re USC! And now this. And now, who knows.
In the final analysis, 2001-2005 was an era of ascendancy and dominance that won’t soon be forgotten — even if the NCAA ends up tossing some portions of it down the memory hole. But 2006-2008 will be remembered as an era of missed opportunities. And 2009 will barely be remembered at all, except perhaps as the year when it all started to fall apart. That last part, though, depends on what the next chapter holds.
Beat the Warriors.
P.P.S. In e-mail correspondence, Joel writes: “The Pete Carroll era will be over when SC recovers from whatever sanctions they get. If they don’t get any sanctions or get a slap on the wrist, then his legacy will be great. If they vacate wins, have a multiple season bowl ban, and lose significant scholarships, then Carroll did more harm than good.”
BK adds: “I agree with Joel. It’s too early to tell what Carroll’s legacy will be. I was talking about this with another friend over the weekend, and he tried to tell me that Carroll couldn’t be blamed for the (ALLEGED) infractions or any penalties which may be handed down, arguing that (again, ALLEGEDLY) Carroll didn’t know about what was going on. Aside from the obvious ‘the buck stops here’ argument, and assuming Carroll didn’t know what was going on, could he really be credited with the success of the program? In other words, if you aren’t going to blame him for what he was unaware of, can you credit him with the success even though it was arguably attributed to a corrupt program or at least improper means?”
My two cents are, well, let’s wait and see what the NCAA finds (or has found) before we start reaching any conclusions about a “corrupt program.” If it turns out that USC’s success was fundamentally built on a rotten foundation, such that the entirety of the Carroll Era is as tainted as the baseball’s 1998 home-run chase, then some serious re-evaluation will be necessary, and I’ll be the first to undertake it (although no one can ever take away my memories of 10/15/05, dammit). On the other hand, it seems far more plausible that what happened was, a handful of bad actors were allowed to run amok in a few isolated instances because of, perhaps, a failure of adequate policing (or, ahem, institutional control). That’s bad enough to warrant serious sanctions, but it’s not the same thing as the entire program being corrupt from top to bottom, with players only coming to USC because they were effectively being “paid” by way of endless illicit activity.
The latter scenario seems to manifest itself only in the dark, gleeful fantasies of Notre Dame and UCLA fans and other USC-haters, and has, it seems to me, little to do with the reality of what’s been alleged. The actual allegations are damning enough, and if they’re proven true, USC will most likely deserve the sanctions it gets* (and Mike Garrett will certainly deserve to be fired, explicitly, and not allowed the soft landing of a “resignation” or “retirement”). But I’ll need some actual evidence before I go along with the conclusion that the entirety of USC’s success from 2001-2008 was fundamentally built on a foundation of corruption. Those incredible teams were not mirages; their accomplishments were not myths. Those seasons really happened, and if, say, USC didn’t take actions it should have taken with regard to Reggie Bush’s house, that doesn’t somehow negate the entirety of what the 2004-05 and 2005-06 teams accomplished. It means that some very, very serious mistakes were made, and punishment will be necessary. But even a lack of institutional control is not the same thing as across-the-board, top-down, deliberate institutional corruption.
That said, yes: it will be impossible to fully judge the Carroll Era until we see how this all shakes out.
*As regular readers know, I fundamentally hate, with every fiber of my being, retroactive “Orwellian” type sanctions, whoever they’re levied against. I understand the arguments for them, I even get that they’re arguably more fair than forward-looking sanctions, but I still hate them, because I hate the idea of going back to pretending to rewrite history. So I’d be hard-pressed to say USC would “deserve” those types of sanctions, in the abstract. That said, if anyone ever “deserves” such penalties from the NCAA, certainly USC would, if the worst of the allegations are proven true.
[Original timestamp: 1/10/10, 8:24 PM. -ed.]
For the home team sake I hope Pete does a bang up job for the Seahawks, but damn I wish he’d stayed at ‘SC 🙁
I won’t believe it until I see Pete say it.
My replacement wish list is (in this order):
Jon Gruden
Jeff Fisher
Jim Harbaugh
Mike Riley
Lane Kiffin
Tony Dungy
Tommy Tubberville
Barry Switzer
Bill Bellichick (I just wanted to see if I could spell it right, I don’t actually want him)
Tuberville has already taken the job at Texas Tech, I do believe. Unless I dreamed that. But it would be really weird if I was dreaming about the Texas Tech head coaching vacancy, so I think it must be true.
Did you know that, in 16 seasons as an NFL head coach, Jeff Fisher has won three division titles and has 6 winning seasons to his credit?
Whatever the magic dust that causes folks to consider Fisher a genius, I gotta get me some of that.
I understand that Sandy may have been listing Fisher here due to Fisher’s USC connection; its just that any time I see his name on a wish list it triggers an instinctive “Whaaa?” response…
Fisher is a Trojan and an NFL guy. Anybody who’s been coaching for 16 seasons with the same pro sports franchise has to be doing something right. Remember Nick Saban couldn’t win in the NFL. Pete Carroll couldn’t win in the NFL. Steve Spurrier couldn’t win in the NFL. And so on and so forth. I heard Mike Garrett wants Mike Riley as the head coach and wants to bring Norm Chow back as OC. I could find that agreeable.
Sandy, Riley is out, Dungy is out, Tubberville is out. Now that Urban Meyer might be gone Kiffin might be willing to leave so he can have a feud with Rick Neuheisal instead I suppose 🙂
Thanks for the plug Brendan!
Fair rebuttal but personally my WTF started in (retrospect) 2005 because that is when it was official Carroll was taking the program in a different direction.
Out went a small army of highly skilled, experienced, credible assistants who were in appropriate positions in favor of mostly a bunch of guys with very thin resumes.
Once the epic 2005 compilation of talent (built by much of the departed staff) headed out and PC had a more normal roster, the offense quickly declined, and I think we all know why.
2005-2009 still had a bunch of good years obviously but actually watching the games, consistency and discipline were clearly on the decline despite the record.
I think that was unintended, obviously, but at the same time willful. That was baked into the cake, if you will, and Carroll stopped being the guy willing to put the right people in place and stood by these personnel decisions in the face of declining results.
Thus, my WTF starts in 2005.
I loved the Pete Carroll of 2001-2004. I never understood and was oft frustrated with the Pete Carroll of 2005-2009.
So the proper delineation, it seems to me, is RIP 2001-2005 and WTF 2006-2009.
January bowl games always throw me off when college football seasons are discussed. (All the more reason not to have so many of them!)
will always have something of an asterisk next to it
It’s a very large asterisk because, unlike the Michigan/Nebraska split, there was a consensus that there was a “national championship game” being played and the winner would be marked as such – and that winner was not USC. The AP just flipped the BCS the bird that season (and then dropped out of the standings formula).
On a lighter and more conciliatory note, has this news prevented you from having the strength to finish your decade list? 😉
I’m not going to rehash the entire LSU/USC argument that we’ve had countless times before, and you’ve probably even participated in. Suffice it to say, I completely disagree with the notion that there was ever any such “consensus”. The AP always retained, from the inception of the BCS, and retains to the day, the independence to decide who is “its” national champion. This is and remains a core operative fact of the college football landscape.
And no, Pete Carroll isn’t responsible for my decade-list procrastination. 🙂 At some point this decade, I will finish…
I think there might be something wrong with your keyboard. Whenever you type ‘UCLA,’ the letter ‘f’ appears at the start for some reason. I’d get that checked out if I were you…..
I sort of think it was past time for Carroll to go.
I agree with Brian Grummell’s assessment that USC never quite looked the same after we lost Chao and the rest of the gang. We had some dominant talent on our team, sure, but we never looked like we just outhought the other team (like in the Orange Bowl versus Oklahoma).
I recall that Chao’s departure was fomented by Carroll’s arrogant attitude and desire to hog credit for the program’s success. And honestly, if I could think of one word to summarize the WTF years, it would be arrogant. We didn’t prepare adequately and wound up losing to vastly inferior teams, but then still walked around with chests puffed talking about how we could beat anyone, anytime. To be frank, the post-Chao Trojans developed an arrogance to them that made me understand why some people hate them. It wasn’t the sort of swagger possessed by the Jets or Ravens; it was more a sort of unearned pride, expecting champion’s credit for second rate play.
We will get a marquis coach to follow Carroll, I’m quite certain of it. And I think the program might be better off for it.
I’m amazed at how jaded some ‘SC fans are. SC enjoyed a level of success seldom seen, and people think that what you had the last few years was a let down? Are you f*ing kidding me?!?! If an 8-4 season is the worst thing that happens to you over a 9 year period, if back, to back, to back, to back, etc. conference championships and multiple BCS games and title shots are not good enough, well damn, you are starting to make Notre Dame fans look reasonable in their expectations. I certainly think Pete Carroll isn’t the ONLY coach out there who can have success at USC, but for those who think it was time for him to go? Are you kidding me? Almost makes me wish that the Trojans fall flat on their face for the next few years so you can realize what you lost.
It’s Kiffin time.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/01/12/sports/AP-FBC-USC-Kiffin.html
DK, I thought you were joking in post 6, but you must have your ear to the CFB ground, good work. When you talk about ND fans expectations, are you talking about the ridiculous National Championship talk during the off-season or the possibility of becoming Bowl eligible in late October?
Maybe Carroll’s USC teams seemed arrogant, it was only because they proved they were the best program in CFB every time they played a big time game. Considering that Carroll was 97-19 over 9 years with 2 national championships, 3 Heisman Trophy winners, 7 consecutive conference championships, 6 BCS bowl wins, more players sent to the NFL than any other program, and a 7-2 bowl record… well has ANYONE ever been that successful in the history of CFB? I mean EVERY time USC got beat the fans storm the field like they just won the World Cup, that says something.
RE: LSU’s fake 2003 national championship– USC was ranked #1 by the Coaches Poll and the AP poll when the season ended. Oklahoma got blown out in their conference championship game. So the BCS “championship” game featured LSU vs. a team that wasn’t even the best team in their conference on a blow out losing streak ranked #3 in all the polls. #2 vs. #3 does not produce #1. USC beat the Big-10 champions in the Rose Bowl and remained #1 in the polls, that’s how you determine the champion. It also says something when the BCS was completely overhauled after that season to prevent something like that from ever happening again. It’s not LSU’s fault, but USC and LSU proved the following season that LSU couldn’t even hold Pete Carroll’s clipboard.
There are aspects of the Seahawks move that strike me odd.
First of all, Paul Allen and Co made it to the franchise’s only Super Bowl 4 years ago with Holmgren wearing both the “coach” and “personnel” hats; it sounded like Carroll wanted both, but he won’t get them.
The pundit-sphere insists that Carroll will wield immense power, including on the hiring of the GM, but if he’s going to be so powerful, why not give him both hats the way they did Holmgren? Perhaps this will shake out that way, a la Cheney leading Dubya’s VP-search committee.
Until then, it looks like Carroll is going off to coach a middling NFL franchise, with only implied personnel authority. Not the outstanding deal you might expect for one of the most successful college coaches of all time.
But then you remember that, in spite of his boyish appearance, foufy fake hair and co-ed girlfriend at the Malibu flat, Carroll will turn 59 at the start of next season, and his sell-by date is rapidly approaching.
I’m no USC insider, but from the looks of everything, it would seem like Carroll has been standing at the top of the mountain since the Oklahoma game in 2004, thinking about unfinished business at the next level, and time may have been starting to run out on him…so he took what he could get.
Or, alternatively, the “time running out” on Carroll may have been that some very very bad sanctions are about to be placed on the USC football program, and the Seahawks job is an escape from that for Carroll.