Southern Cal Trojans And Pete Carroll – Fourth Choice Was The Charm

Tuesday, June 8th, 2010 at 11:55 am

The University of Southern California Trojans have been playing college football since 1888, and have been playing winning football for much of that history. Their regular domination of the teams in the Pacific-10 Conference has helped them to win a total of eleven national championships, while being in contention for many others. In addition, the team has been one of the most consistent over the last ten years, and has been a regular recipient of a top ten ranking in the major polls. They have spent much of that time in the top five of the AP and BCS polls. That decade coincided with the tenure of Pete Carroll, who brought a professional style of offense and defense to the college game when he was hired by the Trojans in the year 2000.

Not the first choice

It is almost amusing to look back on the history of Carroll's hiring at USC. Almost everybody thought that the job would not be right for Carroll, especially given his background as an NFL coach, and lengthy time away from the college ranks. There was so much doubt about his ability to lead the Trojans that the school actually pursued three other candidates before seriously considering Carroll -and this was despite the fact that USC had even tried to hire Carroll away from the Patriots only three years before. After being rebuffed by the coaches of Oregon, Oregon State, and the NFL's San Diego Chargers, the University had no other qualified candidates from which to choose and turned to Carroll. Carroll, for his part, never gave up on the job, despite the time spent waiting for USC to complete its futile recruitment efforts with other coaches. He had good reason to wait, as his daughter's presence at the University made it a perfect fit for his entire family.

Rocky starts don't always smart

Carroll's USC Trojans team took to the field for the 2001 campaign - and immediately fell on their faces. With only two of seven victories to their credit as the season began, the agonizing over Carroll's selection grew even more intense. Some in the press even went so far as to refer to his selection as the worst choice in the history of college football. The consensus was that Pete Carroll would prove to be the death of USC football supremacy and the dawn of an extended period of mediocrity. E was, in the minds of many, the bringer of the dark ages.

As usually happens in such instances, the pundits were proved wrong by Carroll and his team's refusal to accept conventional wisdom. The team bought into the Carroll professional-look system, and began a period of domination the likes of which has seldom been seen before or since. Over the next 74 games, the Trojans would win 67. Those victories would propel them to two wins in the national title game, while ensuring that USC's position as a premier football team was firmly set in stone. Carroll also managed to lead his team to victory in every Conference Championship between 2003 and 2008.

By then, everyone had forgotten about the early days of his tenure with the team, and even the media began to refer to him as perhaps being the best coaching selection ever made by any team.

Freddie Brister is a big fan of Football check out his: Ohio State Watch

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