Sports Radio Interviews

The NCAA Investigation of USC Was A Factor In Carroll’s Decision

This past season was the last for Pete Carroll coaching at USC before he decided to press his luck and bolt for the NFL to coach the Seattle Seahawks.  During his nine-year tenure as football coach in southern California, Carroll won seven Pac-10 titles, two national championships, and a heck of a lot of games. So why would he leave a Division-I powerhouse like USC for a mediocre job in Seattle?

I would say that money was a big part of the decision process as he will now be making somewhere in the ballpark of $7 million a season over the next five seasons.  Secondly, prior to USC Carroll had been coaching in the NFL for the previous sixteen season spending time as a defensive backs coach, defensive coordinator and head coach, where he didn’t fare too bad.  As a head coach in the NFL, Carroll ended up with a 33-31 record after coaching the New York Jets for one season and the New England Patriots for two.  Carroll longed to return to the NFL and thought his days were over.  Then word came out the NCAA was investigating the USC football and basketball programs for improper benefits received by OJ Mayo and Reggie Bush while they were attending USC.  Carroll knew that the investigation would take a few years to complete and that his days in southern California were numbered.  So in a move that shocked Trojan Nation just months before the NCAA released their findings, Carroll bolted for the NFL.  Carroll has been consistent in saying that the challenge, not problems at USC, drove him back to the NFL.  He knew all along that something bad was about to happen at USC so he skipped town.  Coincidence?  I think not.

Pete Carroll joined WEEI in Boston to talk about whether he always has the same answer when people ask him whether he left USC because of what is happening, whether he knew that Reggie Bush was always pushing the envelope and whether he thought that a day might come when there would be ramifications, and whether he blames Reggie Bush.

Whether Matt Hasselbeck is the #1 quarterback:

“We’re really fortunate to have him.  Coming into this job it was one the aspects of it that I was checking out.  We have a quarterback that’s played the game, that’s been there, that’s won a lot.  He has been banged up the last couple years, but I challenged Matt to have the best offseason of his life and even put the heat on him by going out and getting Charlie Whitehurst to push him right from day one.  We sent a really strong message to our football team about how serious we are about competition and how that is. Being the sensible thing, I went right to the first guy and pushed him, and it forced Matt to step up and have a great offseason and also gave Charlie the chance to come in here for the first time in his young career and get after the first position.  But Matt had a great offseason, and he did everything we could have asked of him.  He led us through everything we were doing, and it was cool seeing him take the reins and not back down in any way.  He just went after it.  So as we head into camp, by far he’s in charge of this thing, and we’re going to support him.  What we’re going to do is we need to protect him.  He got pounded the last couple years.  Shoot, anybody’s going to get hurt when you get hit as much as he did.”

Whether he always has the same answer when people ask him whether he left USC because of what is happening:

“Well, it’s the truth, John.  Of course, there’s a standard answer because it’s what happened.  I got a phone call out of nowhere from…, saying he was representing by Paul Allen, and in an effort they wanted to change the program, they wanted me to bring everything that I do and everything that I believe in to their club.  And they wanted me do everything I could to support that happening.  The way that the conversation started and their direction on how they envision changing was just perfectly in line with a great opportunity in the way I was thinking it would always have to be.  I had kind of given up on the thought that the NFL thing was ever going to be a factor because I didn’t see any organization making the statement that they would let you come in and do all the stuff that it takes I think.  When they did and I did my homework on it, this is a tremendous following they have.  It’s a great stadium atmosphere they have.  This is the loudest stadium in the NFL.  They’ve packed it in, and they haven’t won any games.  The fans are ready for it.  The facilities are brand new.  It’s an extraordinary place.  We have an experienced quarterback with the division that could be up for grabs with the quarterback leaving the Cardinals.  That gave us an opening and on and on. All of the things I looked at just fit just right.  Being a competitor, knowing that there was a chance to compete on this level with all of those elements in line, I couldn’t have been more excited about it.  So I couldn’t turn it down.  I made the shift, and it was a hard transition because I had so much fun at SC as you guys know.  It was just an awesome time, and that transition of cutting the ties to go was really the most difficult.”

Whether he knew that Reggie Bush was always pushing the envelope and whether he thought that a day might come when there would be ramifications:

“Well, we went through the thing for so many years.  Honestly, knowing the truth and what the facts were, none of us could ever imagine that this could be taken to this level of severity in terms of the NCAA.  I was caught off-guard by that stuff.  It really wasn’t on the top of my mind.  If you can imagine, we did all the homework for this thing and the investigation and all the interviews happened years ago.  So it wasn’t even a factor in thinking about what was happening so that’s the first thing.  It’s a difficult situation. When you put so much into something and you put so much pride into it and you accomplish so much and so many people were involved, you have to deal with it now.  It’s very difficult.  What I’ve been doing is standing up for the school and standing up for the program and trying to get in this effort and it gives me an opportunity.  I look at it differently than you might.  It gives me an opportunity to tell people what the program was all about, what the background of it is and even the fact that the book itself is a statement about what we were trying to do, the standards that we set and expectations to do things better than it’s ever been done before and everything we were doing, and that included the way our kids handled themselves on and off the field.  It included compliance.  It included academics and graduation rates and our wins and losses were all tied together with the same approach.  So it looks like a difficult time, but this was the time we had scheduled.  When I look at it, it’s an opportunity to really send the message what we’re all about.”

Whether he blames Reggie Bush:

“Well, I’ll start with this thought: One guy in a community, well away from the university, decided to try and take advantage of a young man’s good fortune while he’s going to college if he could.  He found his way in, got some conversations going and relationships with Reggie and somehow put us in a situation where now the player is involved, the family’s involved.  In a very distant sense, one guy really took down a university.  I think it’s worth everybody understanding that cares about college football that we can’t let that happen. You can’t let it affect a university setting.  There were mistakes made.  There were decisions that were wrong.  I wish would have known what was going on.  It just happened behind closed doors and underneath the table and in dark in shadows, that kind of stuff.  They kept it from us, and we didn’t know it until after the fact when it got released, when the guy thought he was going to lose out on his chance and he took it to the media.  So it’s really unfortunate.  But Lane Kiffin is jacked up about it.  He’s had preparation.  They’ve really drawn the line in the sand.  They’re not going to back off.  They’re going to keep pushing and go for it.  They’re going to turn, and they have a very good team coming back so they’re going to go for it again and see if they can get this thing put in the rearview mirror and make headway towards the future for them so I’m going to help them in any way that I can.”

Pete Carroll on WEEI in Boston with Dennis and Callahan

Tags: bolted USC for NFL, National Championship season wiped from books, NCAA investigation, OJ Mayo, PAC 10 Conference, Pac 10 Football, Pete Carroll, Reggie Bush, Seahawks Head Coach, USC Trojans, USC Trojans football