Pete Carroll's Departure

Well, it is finally happening. It has long been expected that Pete Carroll would leave USC for an NFL job, and that day finally came. He is off to the Pacific Northwest to coach the Seahawks in the same city where his former assistant, Steve Sarkisian, coaches the University of Washington football team. As frustrating as he was to see beating my team, I appreciated that he was a great coach and did some amazing things at USC. He took a team that was in the doldrums and turned it into a perennial power that was almost guaranteed to be a national title contender every year. Every year, he put together a collection of talent that was second to none, he put assistants into all manner of head coaching positions, and he looked like he was having fun doing all of it. He really looked like he was a great guy to play for.

Prior to this year, I never understood why Pete Carroll would want to leave USC. I knew there were always rumors swirling around him, but the evanescent nature of them made them hard to take seriously, even as their consistent appearance made them impossible to ignore. While I understand that Pete Carroll might like the challenge of the NFL, I always thought he would be insane to leave USC.

When you coach in the NFL, success is its own problem. The better you do, the lower you draft, and the less likely you are to get great players. Then the success of your team means that the better players will want bigger contracts, which creates salary cap problems. If you are running up against the salary cap, you will either have trouble keeping your best players, or the pretty good players that make the rest of the team work. Then you have to hope that you don't get too many players injured before the playoffs, because that will screw your chances in the playoffs. Then, even if you win a couple of Super Bowls, age catches up with your older players, they don't play as well as they once did, you get a few more injuries during the year, your draft position in the last few years has left you without much young talent, then you start losing games, people say the game has passed you by, and you get fired.

In college however, you can recruit tons of good players, the ones who don't pan out will probably transfer out, and you then have more scholarships to offer. And as you become more successful, you will lure better talent to your team. Yes, you will get some grumbling alumni no matter what you do, and a bad season will put you on the hot seat, but a successful coach can turn a college football team into a machine that can almost run itself.

Besides, how many iconic NFL coaches do you know? Does Tom Landry's hat hold the same sway as Bear Bryant's? Who sells more bobbleheads: Woody Hayes or Chuck Noll? Do you know where Bobby Bowden field is? What about Don Shula Stadium?

Pete Carroll's machine was running very, very well. Admittedly, he hit some speedbumps this year, but I don't think anybody had him on the hot seat. Especially not with a freshman quarterback and an almost entirely new defense. And he beat Notre Dame and UCLA, and he won his bowl game, so it is not as though he didn't take care of most of his business... including a thrilling win against Ohio State in Columbus. Let's face it, things were still sunny and beautiful in L.A.

In previous years, I would have pointed these out and said that, whether Pete Carroll left of not, he would be crazy to do so. However, some events this year have me thinking that now is exactly the time for Pete Carroll to pull up stakes and head out of town.

Let's recap the situation right now. The NCAA is coming into town to take a look at Joe McKnight's SUV. This is an SUV that belongs to an agent. It was ostensibly given to Joe McKnight's girlfriend. Yet Joe McKnight was seen driving it around. Which would be an NCAA violation that would lead to some sort of sanctions. Honestly, these might not be anything serious, if it were an isolated incident. However, it is not.

One SUV for Joe McKnight would make waves, but there is a hurricane blowing offshore that is heading right for USC. That hurricane is popularly known as the Reggie Bush affair. That, of course, has to do with the fact that Reggie Bush and his family are alleged to have received at least a very expensive lease on a large house in the L.A. area from a sports marketing company that was trying to recruit Reggie Bush to be one of their clients.

And that is saying nothing of the investigation into the O.J. Mayo violations, which have been combined with the Reggie Bush investigation, which means that things are looking bad.

If this is proved true, then this would probably be a very serious NCAA violation. It would probably mean a reduction in scholarships and, possibly, the forfeiture of several games, quite possibly including one BCS National Championship. Losing the national championship would sting, because that was a momentous event that would be erased from the record books. The loss of scholarships would put a serious dent in USC's ability to bring in talent by their usual bucketload, meaning that they would be likely to start losing games. Needless to say, coaches who don't win don't stick around very long. And coaches who were in charge when the NCAA violations occurred don't get much forgiveness when those violations cause future losses.

Previously, there wasn't too much trouble with the Reggie Bush affair... at least not as far as USC was concerned. Reggie is in the NFL and is out of the reach of the NCAA. The NCAA can't force him to comply with the investigation, because he is outside their jurisdiction. Reggie Bush knew there was nothing they could do to him, so he refused to play ball. Much to the frustration of the anti-USC portions of the country, the NCAA was powerless.

However, there was the little matter of the sports marketing company that gave all the stuff to Reggie Bush's family. They want their money back. And they have sued Reggie Bush to retrieve their funds. Reggie Bush submitted a motion to force confidential arbitration. The motion was denied. The case is going to court. Court records are public. All the sworn testimony that is given in that courtroom will be available to the NCAA and its investigators. Everything that the NCAA learns can and will be held against Reggie Bush and USC.

If Reggie Bush and the sports marketing company come to a negotiated settlement, then they can keep the information from the NCAA. However, I somehow doubt that Reggie Bush would pay the entire sum just to avoid trial. It is even more doubtful that the sports marketing company would accept anything less than the entire sum, since they know they have Bush over a barrel. Whatever happened between Bush, his family, and the sports marketing company, USC's football program is hanging in the balance.

Meanwhile, Pete Carroll's career is pretty much hanging in the balance too. The Bush situation alone would be bad enough. Spicing it up with the McKnight situation means systemic problems. And who knows what else the NCAA might uncover once they start digging. Whether or not Pete knows what's going on, he's on the hook for all of it. And if Pete didn't know what was going on, that's all the more reason he should get the heck out of town—the known can be prepared for, the unknown (in this case) is fraught with nothing but dangerous possibilities.

Whatever Pete Carroll knew and whenever he knew it, this is clearly the time to skedaddle. The team is not up to its old level, NCAA sanctions may be on the horizon, and he really just didn't look like his old, fun-loving self this year, starting in the late stages of the Washington game. It's a shame, because college football is losing a possible legend. And Pete Carroll is losing his chance to become one.