Carroll is responsible for the latest letdown
Posted September 21, 2009 at 11:35 pm in Columns, Football, Sports
(Votes: 12; Avg: 1.00) 
Loading ...F. Scott Fitzgerald ended The Great Gatsby with the metaphor of boats beating against the current, an image that has become so cliché it seems to have lost all meaning.
But it was hard not to think of the passage while watching USC flail against Washington on Saturday. And it wasn’t only the boats sailing on Lake Washington just outside of Husky Stadium that conjured up the image.
Unfamiliar ground · USC coach Pete Carroll is not often outcoached in football games, but that was clearly the case Saturday in the Trojans’ upset loss to Washington, columnist Michael Middlehurst-Schwartz writes. - Leah Thompson | Daily Trojan
The Trojans’ struggles against a scrappy, mid-level Pac-10 team have become so institutionalized at USC that the annual event is almost a cliché in itself. Instead of being surprised by Saturday’s outcome, most Trojan fans felt like they were headed in a direction they had been before.
In fact, it’s a surprise there wasn’t a USC fan in the crowd who could have spoiled the ending for everyone based on past follies. A true fan might have stood up after USC’s tying drive and blurted out, “I’ve seen this one before — the other team kicks a field goal in the final seconds and the fans rush the field. I’m gonna head out and beat traffic.”
But this year was supposed to be different, right? USC coach Pete Carroll spent all week insisting the Trojans wouldn’t be caught off-guard again, that they had finally learned their lesson.
To the players’ credit, they certainly appeared up to the task. They made it look like they were on pace for another USC blowout with their first quarter performance.
“It wasn’t a question of being ready to play emotionally or anything,” Carroll said, drawing a contrast to past letdowns.
This wasn’t a matter of the Trojans falling behind and seeing their comeback cut short by time or one key play like in so many past losses.
It was simply a case of USC getting outcoached.
Carroll took ownership for the loss immediately afterward, despite most of his players showing maturity by placing the burden on themselves. But this mea culpa might mean the Trojans are in for more trouble.
With Carroll having more than enough scouting information at his disposal, there was no excuse for being unprepared for what the Huskies threw at the Trojans. USC coaches and players alike said after the game that there were “no surprises” in the game beyond their own mistakes, but maybe that’s a cause for concern.
The Trojans’ struggles to adapt down the stretch might have been understandable if Washington had beaten USC by employing some Boise State-like gadget plays.
But Washington could have broadcast its gameplan on the JumboTron and USC still might have been too fickle to adjust.
Carroll’s blunders are best exemplified by his handling of the quarterbacks throughout the week. Both he and quarterbacks coach Jeremy Bates kept reporters guessing while they waited to see how Matt Barkley’s shoulder injury progressed. But with the bone bruise to the true freshman improving only incrementally over the week, sophomore Aaron Corp took all the first-team snaps and looked like he had seized temporary command of the position.
At some point, Carroll would have to invest himself in Corp and show him that the team was committed to rallying around him as a starter.
Or not.
Asked when the coaching staff told him he would be starting Saturday’s game, Corp said — with his head held low — that “they never really did.”
Corp would never say it, but the message came through louder than a bullhorn: USC’s coaching staff never really showed faith in him.
The coaches’ attitude was evident in the play-calling. Corp was forced to be a dropback passer instead of using his trademark mobility. It’s possible the decision was due to the lingering effects of Corp’s preseason fractured fibula, but coaches insisted during the week that he was 100 percent recovered.
Their trepidation also showed on a third-down play from the Huskies’ 7-yard line when the Trojans elected to run the ball instead of taking a shot at the end zone. Ensuring the game-tying field goal may have entailed the lowest risk, but since when has Carroll made it a point to adhere to coaching conventions?
Corp was not at his best on Saturday, but quarterbacking should never be a pop quiz. Yet Corp is the one who unfairly faces being a potential pariah among students instead of Carroll.
If Carroll isn’t a fan of Fitzgerald, perhaps he can learn through literature by picking up a book by Malcolm Gladwell. The coach references Outliers when referring to Barkley, but he might want to take a look at The Tipping Point, which details how the tiniest factors can catalyze unforeseen and sometimes disastrous endings.
The book could re-emphasize the point that if the Trojans can’t get back to their normal standard of play, they will find themselves falling short of another Pac-10 championship. Then the only thing at stake will be an at-large BCS bid. Or the Holiday Bowl. Or the Sun Bowl.
And if English isn’t Carroll’s pleasure, maybe a spelling lesson will do. Right now, there’s no “SC” in the word “finish,” despite what those T-shirts may say.
But finishing strong might be the only way for Carroll to right his ship.
“Tackling Dummy” runs Tuesdays. To comment on this article, visit dailytrojan.com or email Michael at middlehu@usc.edu.
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Krishna, I was foolish enough to entertain your attempt to steer the conversation away from sports and over to academics, where you could depend upon your trusty arsenal of well-rehearsed cheap shots. But that wasn’t the conversation we were having, was it? Such an action is typical of a whiny Pac-10 fan who really doesn’t know how to do much more than scream “Fight On” after USC blows out yet another high school team. It kind of reminds me of the LSU/Tulane games. Tulane always gets blown out, and the sour student section starts chanting “Safety School” over and over again. And your comment on Vandy’s football team? No, they’re not terribly respected. But perhaps that would change if they only played one ranked team each year. Such is not the case in the SEC.
I find it funny that you’re willing to discuss wit when your best argument yet–”You probably researched US News to expediently support your weak repartee”–is just a more sophisticated way of saying, “Nah uh, you’re stupid.” In addition, judged on your weakly founded, cop-out, “you’re just proving my point” response, I can only assume that affirmative action has played a significant part in your being accepted at a major university.
Beating on Pete Carroll, a coach who has brought 7 Pac-10 and three National championships, by some wanna be writer would have been funny had appeared in Daily Bruin.
Football teams lose a game or two here or there. That is part of the game. We put a whole lot of pressure and foist expectations from freshmen student athletes and then rag on them if they somehow don’t come up to our expectations.
Michael, I would take your inane column more seriously once you take the helm of a Division-1 football team. Until then please keep to writing about things that you have some idea about.
“SEC Fan” you bristle when someone has to say something contrary to your view. Typical of SEC football fans. You issue some inane comment in hopes that you elicit a response from SC fan. I took the bait. Again you respond with petulant blathering. You are not even offering up witty trash talk. Please grow up.
As for academics, I don’t care about the endeavors of your matriculation. I concede Vanderbilt has a better ranking academically than USC on US News Report for National schools. My statement was made on the body of SEC schools. When you admit to bouncing around for your Undergrad, I wonder if you are even a Vanderbilt Alum. Your comment reeks of a convenient statement. You probably researched US News to expediently support your weak repartee. Anyways, outside of Vanderbilt what other SEC schools are even close academically? On the whole, does Vanderbilt even have (ever had) a respectable football program? In the end, you’re still here earning a degree from USC. You proved no point.
I assume you’ll continue to run your childish mouth. The fact is USC is a well balanced school across many sports as well as academics. No SEC school compares. You’re a football polemicist with no real factual support. Besides, there’s no playoff system yet just the BCS that most everyone dislikes.
Lastly, I didn’t come on hear to pick fight over which conference is better. The gist of my observation is that the SEC fan base has some strange obsession with going out of their way to make comments about the PAC-10 and in particular USC. You continue prove my point with your response. I recommend you spend your energy on earning that degree and move on. No one is going pay you for your opinion of USC football.
Pete Carroll isn’t perfect, but when you lose only 1 to 2 games a year consistently, you’re pretty close. When a kid, whose entire life is no older than one of my suits, offers advice, second guesses, and generally calls out the man who single handily restored respect back to our football program, that’s disrespectful.
Pete Carroll has lived a thousand lives and overcame a thousand setbacks. He won’t be bothered by this article no more than a tick on his arm, yet I wonder how all those whom he mentored feel about their life coach dismissed in such fashion. I for one find it disgraceful.
“Their attacks are overwhelmingly based out of fear and jealousy (misspelled) of a great and storied program.”
Not at all. Believe me, there’s no jealousy and certainly no fear. Everyone outside the Los Angeles area seems to realize how overrated USC always is. If anything, I would love for USC to win out this year, and hopefully have a chance to win the national title–only to be massacred by Alabama, Florida or LSU. I want USC to schedule one of those teams (not Arkansas or Auburn) instead of these bullshit games against Ohio State and Notre Dame.
“Obviously, ‘SEC Fan’ sees the apparent advantage to attending USC as opposed to enrolling at an inferior SEC school to earn their degree.”
Actually, I’m at USC for my masters, and love the school (other than the sports fans). And the sports fans, to me, is a minute detail in the grand scheme of things when you’re choosing a college. But I attended several schools to get my undergrad… guess what one of them was? Vanderbilt! That’s right, an SEC school that is, in fact, superior to USC. Whoops! But I digress…
USC has proven time and time again that they cannot take advantage of the cushy schedules they are given. Give me a break–the only top 10 teams USC ever faces are Ohio State (who has been pummeled by SEC teams twice in the last three years) and California, and we all know that they never have a top 10 team. Ever. Bitch and moan all you want, but Les Miles, Nick Saban and Urban Meyer are laughing their asses off at all of you because you can’t capitalize on the silver platter than has been handed to you by the Lack-10.
Stop with the self-loathing if not petulance. We had a chance to seize perfection for a few years now and failed. How many teams in any sport achieve perfection? The reality is football teams win and lose for a variety of reasons. Pete Caroll has accomplished much in such a short amount of time. He has restored the self-esteem to a program that was beleaguered for quite some time.
Amid the caucophony of criticism, I believe this is a rebuilding year. However, it is apparent that Sanchez left a huge void. Frustrations and questions now rise because it appears neither Corp or Mustain seem capable or prepared to take the helm while Barkley develops. Further, the departure of Norm has left the offensive coordinator position lacking creativity and aggressiveness. Our newest personnel addition seems even a far cry from filling Sarkisian shoes. Lastly, the tail back rotation appears impotent at the worst times. What is so wrong with featuring just one bulldozing full-back and one explosive tail-back? Against Washington, a casual observer would think we didn’t know how to run student-body right or an I-formation.
On a side note, it is rather funny how the SEC fans always find a way to post some blather about USC football in articles completely unrelated to them. Their attacks are overwhelmingly based out of fear and jealosy of a great and storied program. Obviously, “SEC Fan” sees the apparent advantage to attending USC as opposed to enrolling at an inferior SEC school to earn their degree.
Finally, let’s remember the lean times USC faced. Just a decade ago, when a perfect season seemed an impossibility let alone winning the PAC-10 title. Things will change for the better. They may even get worse before they get better. Barkley may or may not be the future. But I have faith that Pete Caroll will not abandon the winning tradition he has brought back to the Coliseum.
If the media would give USC the amount of credit it deserves, the Washington loss wouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. So why should it be called a letdown? I know I wasn’t surprised.