Pete’s on the Hot Seat

Utah finished second in the Associated Press Poll and fourth in the Coaches’ Poll.  I’m not sure which is more of a joke.  I can understand the press succumbing to peer pressure, but the coaches should know better than to rank such an undeserving team so high.

The title is in no way an attack on Joe Paterno, a coach that deserves the utmost respect.  Unlike Pete Carroll, he has changed his coaching style over the years, and he allows his great coordinators to do as much of the work as possible.

Sure, he’s 82 years old, but that makes him a whippersnapper compared to the Rose Bowl, which was first held 106 years ago.  It’s the oldest bowl game, and it’s definitely showing its age.  If it were a human, odds say it would be dead.  Which it is.  This year’s Rose Bowl is as lifeless as can be.

“Nothing special.”

That’s how the Boyish One described USC’s performance last Saturday in our over-hyped matchup with Ohio State. For once Pete and I couldn’t agree more.

For those of us who demand excellence from Mr. $4.4 million there was nothing special about the Men of Troy hanging less than 40 points on a defense missing TWO starters from last year’s team, at home, on national television. ‘Special’ isn’t a word I would use to describe a punchless running attack that never found paydirt, only averaged a little over five yards a carry, and did nothing to resolve the Trojans’ crippling running back controversy (more on this in a later post).

This game represented an unprecedented opportunity for Coach Carroll to tell an indifferent nation that USC was back, and that after three frustrating years in the cellar of the Bowl Championship Series, we deserve another chance in the big show, a chance to play for the ADT Security Services National Championship Trophy rather than have to settle for another^[1] irrelevant engraving on an ancient trophy from yesteryear’s formerly prestigious Rose Bowl game.