Pete’s on the Hot Seat

Apparently Pete Carroll has already given up on the #1 ranked tailback recruit, Bryce Brown.  Well, USC has said that “they are no longer interested.”  Sort of like how I said I was no longer interested in Angelina Jolie once she got with Brad Pitt.

We’ve been inactive for quite awhile.  Some might have taken that as a sign that we were content with the job Pete Carroll was doing.  Far from it, as the season is about to come to an end in just the way we predicted, with USC lined up to play in its fourth consecutive Rose Bowl, against a pushover Big 10 team, this particular one being led by a man who’s likely to coach from home.

So no, we’re not happy.  We’ve just been biding our time watching the coaching carousel spin round and round, hoping the administration would be smart enough to tell Carroll his ride is over instead of allowing him to continue reaching for that elusive brass ring that he will never grasp.

Not that I expected any different, but the SEC continues to be a cannibalized feeding frenzy, mercilessly ravaging each other even early in the season, leaving little hope that one will emerge unscathed.  If only everyone would recognize, like I have, that a two-loss SEC season is better than an undefeated season anywhere else, probably even the NFL.

The SEC is just too talented from the top all the way to the very, very bottom.  How else can you explain the Ole Miss Rebels beating #4 Florida, which was lead by a Heisman-winning quarterback?  It just proves that no team in the SEC is a pushover, no matter how long it’s been since that team has won a game in conference.

While over on this end of the country, the PAC-10 continues to prove its sub-mediocrity.  If the only ranked team from the conference losing to an unranked team from the conference doesn’t prove to you how bad the conference is, I don’t know what will.

Unfortunately for Florida, the road doesn’t get any easier.  There’s no time to heal bruises in the SEC.  Instead, the Gators have to turn right around and play Arkansas on the road.  The same Arkansas team that currently has two rookie NFL running backs running all over the place.

Meanwhile USC gets the equivalent of a bye week while hosting the Oregon Ducks at the Coliseum.  The lowly Ducks are only ranked #23 and have already lost a game as well, despite having such great back-up quarterbacks.

But let’s take a deeper look at last week’s losses.

*Florida lost at home, where the crowd was on their side.  That knowledge lulled them into giving up a 10 point halftime lead.

But USC, playing in a hostile road environment at a venue that had caused them problems two years before, should have known what to expect and been ready for it.

*Florida was a blocked PAT away from sending the game to overtime, where they surely would have found the grit and resolve to put away the team that produced last year’s Super Bowl MVP.

Meanwhile, USC lost by SIX points to an Oregon State team whose most well-known NFL players are on teams that haven’t even won a game this season.  (Unless you count the 1-win Cleveland Browns.  But no one had even HEARD of Derek Anderson until last year.)

*Again, Ole Miss had the element of surprise in their favor, as they hadn’t beaten a ranked team since 2003.  Knowing that Oregon State had accomplished this five times in the same time span, USC should have been better prepared.

It’s clear that one of these losses was much, much worse than the others.

Well here we are, a day away from another dreaded PAC-10 opener.  Pardon me if I avert my eyes from the screen.  I don’t expect this to be pretty.  Not because the competition is tough (actually, just calling it ‘competition’ makes me chuckle), but because Pete Carroll has shown a clear disdain for opening the PAC-10 season with a win.

I for one am tired of Carroll’s blind adherence to his bankrupt ideology “finish strong.”  How about starting strong?  Or better yet, playing strong the entire season?

The spread on this game is 24 points.  Boi From Troy says to take the points.  Coaches Hot Seat goes a step further and predicts that the Trojans will lose this game.

I couldn’t agree more.  Under Pete Carroll, USC has lost FIVE times in September, causing the Trojans to slip in the polls during the early weeks of the season when first impressions are made and forcing the players to rally in the later half of the season in order to get USC back onto the radar.

In ‘honor’ of those five losses, I present five reasons we will likely lose tomorrow night.