Tennessee head coach and former USC assistant Lane Kiffin is going to be the next head coach at the University of Southern California after only one season at the helm of the Volunteers. His father, Monte Kiffin, will be joining him as the Defensive Coordinator. Also returning with him is Ed Orgeron. Norm Chow is rumored to be a possibility for Offensive Coordinator.
On a clean slate with no knowledge of the past 10 days, if you gave me Pete Carroll/Jeremy Bates/Ken Norton Jr. and asked if I would trade them for Kif/Monte/Ed/Norm, based on last season and the lack of fire PC showed for SC, I think I’d take what USC has now.
What a difference a week makes. Mike Garrett is god.
I refer you to this comment I left earlier for Casey:
“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.”
I’m pissed, frankly. It’s more from a perspective of what it does to our current recruiting status than anything else. If you don’t poach a coach from another college program with recruits, then you’re screwed for the year. Hopefully some of the kids actually liked UT enough during their time on campus to actually stay there and honor verbal commits. Same damn thing I had for basketball this season for Memphis.
David, think about the Indianapolis Colts for a minute. They have the best QB in NFL history, a talented offense around him, and a solid defense. With this season done, they now have SEVEN consecutive seasons with 12 wins or more, and a good shot at a second Super Bowl title.
Imagine that they went 9-7 one year and missed the playoffs. That might be a good year for the Houston Texans, but not for the Colts. With their talent level it would be a disgrace. Coaching heads would roll.
The point is that when you have a large talent advantage, you SHOULD win a ton. If you don’t, coaching is fairly to blame.
That’s why Pete Carroll gets blame for this year and also for past years to some extent. USC’s recruiting position gives it premium access to talent year in, year out. This year Poodle Pete brought that talent to the Emerald Nuts bowl. How do you think USC’s talent level compares to BC?
The point is that I can be an appreciative fan of USC’s players and program while still being sharply critical of Pete Carroll. That’s because I appreciate subtlety, whereas you are a monkey turd.
Seriously Casey, no offense but I think you need a reality check if you expected USC to be a perpetual dominant power with no set-backs or bumps in the road ever. The kind of success SC had, the kind of success you seemed to expect them to continue having is just not possible to sustain indefinitely. There are going to be years where things don’t work out. For one thing recruiting isn’t a science, its an art, and sometimes when you paint something, even if you are Van Gogh, it sucks. Sometimes talent doesn’t pan out, sometimes things just don’t gel, sometimes teams have a bad day or even year, talent or not. Its why we play the game. If you want to go on recruting and raw talent alone then you might as well play the game on paper and not show up at the stadium. One abberation of an 8-4 season, are you kidding me? You are complaining about one season where you didn’t get 10 wins in what, a decade? Do you know how many programs would kill to have just 1 or 2 seasons like that?
Fine, throw Pete Carroll under the bus as the problem, even though he’s the primary reason you had what you had in the first place. Get jaded after one slightly not awesome season.
University of Spoiled Children indeed.
The last time a national championship-caliber BCS program hired a failed Al Davis experiment, Nebraska found their way to giving up 76 points to meek Kansas, and currently kissing their program goodbye with the departure of Ndamakuh Soh. At least that coach won an AFC championship! Kiffin sucked worse than most of Davis’ projects at Oakland, and while Davis’ behavior is notoriously bad, no one has had the public run-ins with him quite like Kiffin did at the end of his disastrous tenure. Then after one hyped-up, mediocre season at Tennessee he’s the guy to inherit the Carroll tenure?
Woody Allen famously said that 90% of life is showing up. This hire may work out for USC, but up til now, Kiffin’s resume looks like the classic example of what Allen meant.
“and currently kissing their program goodbye with the departure of Ndamakuh Soh.”
Are you serious? Suh accounted for a lot of Nebraska’s defensive awesomeness, but the unit as a whole was incredible this year. Bo Pelini has a track record of putting together great defenses wherever he goes. I agree about the failed Callahan experiment, but I don’t know what you’re talking about regarding the current state of the Nebraska program. Holding Texas to 13 and Oklahoma to 3 is a far, far cry from letting Kansas run up 76.
Can someone explain what Casey is “blaming” Pete Carroll for? Winning 3 consecutive Rose Bowls (which no one has EVER done)? Winning 7 consecutive conference championships (which no one has ever done)? Having seven 11+ win seasons? It’s a big statement that a 9-4 season with an uncompetitive bowl win sans 1000 yard rusher, leads to dilweeds like Casey looking to “blame” someone for it. In between Florida’s 2 SEC championships under Urban Meyer there was a 9-4 season that included losing to a bad Michigan team in their bowl game. Do you blame Meyer too? Get real.
but I don’t know what you’re talking about regarding the current state of the Nebraska program
You’re right – that was pretty stupid hyperbole on my part. Nebraska may not be quite what it was in the Osborne heyday, but my comment was definitely too extreme, and not necessary to take down the ex-Raider-coach meme. Apologies.
My position is slightly different form that of Sandy Underpants, FIRE Mike Garrett!
I just hope all these returning coaches works out better than JR2 did.
Absolutely Fire Mike Garrett, that goe without saying. Also, they should have hired Norm Chow, not Lane Kiffin.
Sandy — The Carroll years were great for USC, but runs of similar success are hardly unprecedented. Maybe nobody else has 7 straight Pac 10 titles, but big streaks abound elsewhere. For example, Florida State won 9 consecutive conference championships back in their ACC dynasty years of the 1990’s, and BYU won 10 straight MAC’s in the 70’s and 80’s. There’s plenty of other streaks of 9 in 10 years and stuff like that, with national titles peppered in. USC’s success is only unprecedented from the very narrow perspective of statistical anomalies in the Pac 10.
We have put a boatload of talented players into the NFL, though — that may be a unique distinction of the Carroll era.
For the record, I think Pete Carroll did a fantastic job at USC. That doesn’t mean I can’t have issues with the guy. He’s a football coach, not the pope.
Finally, on the point of being jaded after one bad season — all teams perform relative to their expectations. If the Buffalo Bills had gone 9-7 this year and just missed the playoffs, I would have been proud as hell. The Steelers did just that, and Steeler fans are pissed and jaded.
With SC’s standards of success, wins are expected and defeats are crushing. It’s just how sports fandom works. I don’t care that other programs suck. USC is good, and I expect it to remain so. Anything less is a disappointment.
Correction — BYU won 10 straight WAC’s, not MAC’s. It’s hard to win a conference that you’re not in.