Par For The Course

Posted by DontBendDontBreak | Filed under Failing To Deliver, Media Bias, Non-conference Cupcakes, Offensive, PAC-10 Failures

A 10+ win season.  Pounding a Big Ten team in the Rose Bowl.  Finishing in the top four of the polls.  And sending a number of players to the NFL, many of whom will be drafted in the first round.

I’ve come to expect nothing less from Coach Pete Carroll.  And I’m sick of it.

It’s the same story of coming up short as 2006 AND 2007.  In none of these seasons did Carroll win a national championship, or even make it to the game.

But listening to the media, you’d think the Trojans just won the championship game in Pasadena instead of a close victory over a #5 team that should have been much worse than the final score.  Sure, that gives the Trojans a 12th win for the season, but considering they got to play Washington, Washington State, Arizona State, AND ucla, all that means is that Carroll is capable of keeping the players alive.

Everyone seems to forget that he LOST to Oregon State back in September AND that he continually failed to score style points against a PAC-10 opposition that was all but willing to roll over and play dead.

After the offensive barrage the Trojans put on during the Rose Bowl under the beautiful orchestration of Steve Sarkisian, Carroll admitted that during the season they played the offense “close to the vest” because of how well the defense was playing.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t a team allowed to play both offense AND defense well?  And even if a high-powered offense had caused the defense to slack off a bit, wouldn’t we rather have our team win 48-24 instead of 24-0?  Scoring touchdowns impresses voters.  Forcing teams to punt over and over, especially PAC-10 teams, makes people turn off the TV in boredom.

Don’t get me wrong, I love a good defense.  But Carroll can’t even manage that successfully.  After the Rose Bowl was done, most commentators were saying the game was much more lopsided than the 14 point differential might indicate.  Only Kirk Herbstreit had the guts to call USC’s defensive performance, which allowed 17 fourth quarter points, what it really was: “Unacceptable.”  I couldn’t agree more.

To understand this fourth quarter defensive collapse, one must look no further than two states north, to the campus of the University of Washington.  Sarkisian, content with producing a game’s worth of offense in just the second quarter, was laying the groundwork with Nick Holt, who was USC’s defensive coordinator at the time, but as since accepted the same position at Washington.  No doubt he was anxious to bolt for a team that will be productive on BOTH sides of the ball.  Confident with the Trojans’ lead, Holt left the defense in the child-like hands of Carroll for the second half of the Rose Bowl, and we all saw the results.

He tried to blame it on the fact that they put in a lot of different guys on defense so that “they would be able to say they played in the Rose Bowl.”  As if that’s a valid excuse.  Do you think these guys would rather be able to SAY that or SHOW someone a national championship ring they got when the AP decided the Trojans’ win was just too impressive to ignore.  But now they will be ignoring USC for many years to come.

With both Holt and Sarkisian leaving for Washington, you can expect more of the same from the Trojans next year.  Even the dumbest caddy with the least knowledge of golf looks good while handing shiny new clubs to Tiger Woods.  Carroll, the caddy of the USC Trojans, still has the shiny clubs (thanks to the leftover recruits Sarkisian and Holt and even Kiffin brought in), but now he doesn’t have Woods to hand them over to.  One can only hope that the new coordinators at least know how to swing the clubs because if you put Carroll in charge, he’s likely to hit the ball on the wrong fairway using his putter.

You shouldn’t be surprised at the sudden success the Huskies will find next season.  Perhaps not at first, since they do have to play teams from real conferences.  But they should have little trouble winning the PAC-10.  They open PAC-10 play against USC.  Perhaps they’ll only win by a couple of scores out of “respect” for their former employer.  But more likely they’ll run up the score to let out the frustration of having their brilliant work sullied by losses year after year.

So go ahead and book your tickets for the Holiday Bowl, Trojan fans.  That is, if you really want to be there firsthand to witness Carroll getting worked by a Big 12 team once again.

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Permalink | January 7th, 2009

One Response to “Par For The Course”

  1. a fans notes Says:
    January 12th, 2009 at 2:22 pm

    right on. the whole playing the offense ‘close to the vest” thing is nonesense. but was it really pete interfering with the offense or sark’s own play calling that made the offense look like a herky-jerky frankenstein? this was the year to win it all with the championship defense. never before has 12-1 felt so hollow.

    given the weakness of the defense in 2009, sc will probably lose a game or two in conference play and miss out on a shot at the national title game.

    given the weakness of the pac, sc should make it back to the rose bowl to play ohio state for the third time in in 18 months.

    yawn…….

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