Anyone Else See USC's Writing on the Wall?

Submitted by Robbie Moore on
Pete Carroll is a douchebag. As soon as it was determined that Reggie Bush's testimony could be used by the NCAA against USC, Carroll takes the 3:10 to Yuma...or in this case Seattle. Sayonara! So now we have the dominos falling in LA, where I suspect USC is looking at an Ed Martin caliber debacle. That doesn't bear well for this Trojan recruiting class at all and not much for the next few classes after the sanction hammer drops. Who is the top dog in the PAC 10 now? I guess it would have to be Oregon.
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SFBlue

January 8th, 2010 at 8:24 PM ^

Unless you know something I don't know, at USC there is a series of apparently unrelated situations. What elevated the Ed Martin scandal was the magnitude of it--the thinking of the NCAA (whether you agree with it or not) was that serious questions were raised by there being a person who had apparently such close connection with the program, over such a long period of time, touching a relatively large number of recruits. The implication is that someone at the program should have taken note of Martin's presence. Let me be clear: I am no USC fan, but I do not see the probability of serious sanctions. Am I missing something?

Joined: 11/02/2009

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restive neb

January 8th, 2010 at 8:57 PM ^

First, if you believe the statements of one of the men who was involved in paying Bush, there is significant reason to believe that USC should have known what was going on. What's even worse is that USC doesn't appear to have even tried to self-investigate once the allegations came out. More than one of the primary accusers has told the NCAA that USC never approached them to ask their side of the story. Combine multiple allegations, at least some of which USC should have known about, and the fact that it appears that USC made no attempt to dig to the bottom of it prior to the NCAA getting involved, and there is the potential for serious repercussions against the USC Athletic Department. For further information, check out this article.

Joined: 04/06/2009

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restive neb

January 8th, 2010 at 11:57 PM ^

Even if you believe that there is no connection between the multiple issues (Bush, Mayo, McKnight), which I admit is a reasonable belief, the fact that so multiple major issues allegedly occurred, it provides evidence of "lack of institutional control," which is an extremely significant charge. Secondly, while the NCAA acts slowly, it expects quick action and cooperation from the school. It appears that they've seen neither from USC, which would greatly compound the penalty, should USC be found guilty. There were rumors from the start of this investigation that USC was not only not ardently investigating, but actively impeding the NCAA's investigation. While I agree that we must take the accusers' words with a grain of salt, we cannot automatically discount them, either. If all (or most) of the accusations are true, the penalties will be extreme.

Joined: 04/06/2009

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SFBlue

January 9th, 2010 at 1:59 AM ^

I agree some penalty is warranted, and likely. But Mayo and Bush/McKnight cannot rightly be taken together. Leaving aside the Bush situation, which has been rehashed to death, and I will assume for purposes of this discussion that there is smoke, what in the McKnight incident can be connected to USC? You could say that USC should investigate, but my understanding is that they are doing so. You could possibly infer that the guy who had leased was a "front" for a booster, but you could also draw many other inferences, such that the guy was trying to get his "sports promotion" business off the ground, and was hoping for a quid pro quo.

Joined: 11/02/2009

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D.C. Wolverine

January 8th, 2010 at 8:19 PM ^

They have been building up some bad karma down there in Southern Cal, and it's coming back to get them. I am interested to see if they still have such great home crowds if they start strugling.

Joined: 09/21/2009

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WanderingWolve

January 8th, 2010 at 9:43 PM ^

I've never been able to read the writing people put on walls. Sometimes I wonder if it's even English. I hate the "For a good time call..." when it's my phone number on there. So many nasty calls. Seriously, what else does he have to accomplish? He never was a lifer, he's a career coach who needs challenges--probably why they're so good in big games and have an upset every year.

Joined: 01/03/2009

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stankoniaks

January 8th, 2010 at 11:01 PM ^

I think it's very presumptuous to think that Carroll is leaving b/c of sanctions against SC. Could that be a factor? Perhaps, but there are much more obvious reasons why he would leave. As mentioned before, the money is there. $7 million is a lot of change and would be a significant bump over what he's making right now. As stated, you're really underestimating the pull this would have. Cost of living is also less in Seattle than LA, and there is no state income tax there. But the real reason Carroll is leaving is b/c of his ego. For those who follow Pac-10 football pretty closely, it's pretty well known that Carroll wanted another crack at the NFL. There was an interview recently where some reporter asked Carroll why he was such a successful college coach after failing in the NFL. He quickly corrected the reporter, and made sure to let them know that he had a winning record in the NFL. Even though Pete had a mediocre coaching career in the NFL, it kills him that he believes others view him as a failure. He's always wanted to go back and prove otherwise. His name also pops up every year when NFL coaching positions open up. He was linked to many of these including Atlanta, AZ, and Miami. IIRC he even interviewed with Miami, and even talked with AZ and Atlanta. One of the sticking points is that if Carroll was going to go back to the NFL, he wanted total control of the team (HC & GM). None of those teams were willing to give him that. Seattle was willing to give him total control. That coupled with the money, plus his desire to rewrite his NFL legacy is what got him to leave USC -where I do believe he was very happy at and would only leave for the perfect offer- more so than the threat of USC sanctions.

Joined: 02/04/2009

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dahblue

January 9th, 2010 at 12:29 AM ^

I'm inclined to think that he sees trouble on the horizon, but might this help us with any recruits? Do we have any big targets who are between UofM and USC? Any USC commits that we thought we had a chance at who might now look to switch?

Joined: 11/09/2009

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Clarence Beeks

January 9th, 2010 at 2:06 AM ^

One other area where the writing may really be on the wall is for USC's recruiting class for this year. As of this moment, USC has 14 verbals. At least 2 of those have already said they are going elsewhere if Carroll leaves. They are always a late closing team who is in on a lot of big time signing day decisions. This has the potential to really blow up on them. If he leaves I can see a situation where USC sits on signing day with about 10 players in this class.

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Dave Brandon

January 9th, 2010 at 2:31 AM ^

it seems like an open and shut case to me as well. pc has been getting nfl offers every off-season for almost five years now. there is nothing at all that is special about seattle (other than the fact that he might be able to hire his own personell guy). the fist of the ncaa is FINALLY coming down on usc and pc is taking off. we can only hope that their nc's get taken out of the record books...and he sucks in the pros, again.

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