Pete Carroll running from NCAA?

[latrans]

WOW! Christmas is really early this.

 

[EastLosRandy]

Carroll is fleeing a sinking ship. Basketball sanctions. Football investigations. First Bush then McKnight. Their defense took a big step back this year. Carroll is probably formally "innocent" of any involvement in the cheating, but was certainly happy to be ignorant of whatever was going on behind the curtain. Good news: it's gonna be a big karma sandwich for u$c the next couple of years.

 

[silvanthalas]

NCAA probe of USC complete
http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/footba...rYF?slug=ys-uscprobe01110&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

The NCAA has finally ****** away what little credibility they had left with the timing of this.

 

[DeanMarshall]

This kind of reminds me of what happened to Miami about 15 years ago. Dennis Erickson got out before they were hit with NCAA sanctions.

Well, much more recent examples are John Calipari at Memphis St and Roy Williams running from Kansas to UNC, when the NCAA was sniffing around at KU.

Ridiculous.

 

[hawkeyebob62]

So far it appears all the violations have been at the hands of boosters or "friends of the program". I haven't seen anything that indicates Pete had a hand in, or had knowledge of anything going on. This analogy of Calapari seems to be a good fit. Whether he was a ware or not the violations occured on his watch and he's going to be a scapegoat. If he stays he gets fired for cause and would have a hard time getting another gig. If he leaves now gets millions in the NFL and gets to avoid being stained by whatever is comming.

While I agree that the buck stops here, i.e., with Pete Carroll, and "friends of the program" or not, he IS on the hook, I must say Pete Carroll impressed me this season.

They say true character comes out in the "worst" of times, and he has shown a good measure of his character. When the slobbering heads (calling them "talking" heads implies an intelligence not present among that particular set of sycophants) were lobbing him softballs after the Washington and Oregon losses, he basically admonished them for their idiocy. The post-Oregon press conference, in particular, showed him to be gracious in defeat, and he all but said "STFU" when given an "out" of youth/injury/bad calls/etc. He basically said, "Give credit to Chip Kelly and the Oregon staff and team. They came with a game plan, they executed that game plan perfectly and imposed it on us. Nothing more, nothing less".

Which brings me to the "speculation". Could he be leaving because of impending NCAA issues? Quite likely it is a part of it. But I also think this season has shown Pete Carroll a side of college football that, on balance, makes it no more appealing than the NFL, at least from a coaching standpoint.

Sure, there is player turnover, but when it happens, the front offfice/ownership can't usually saddle the coach with it. College? Every recruit you DON'T get, every youthful player mistake, every injury, every off-field "issue"...is "your" baby at schools like USC, UF and The U. The OSUs, PSUs, even Oklahomas, have fanbases that stick with their coaches, for the most part. Sure, you hear the grumblings, but if JoePa asked for a one-week moratorium on tailgating--for whatever reason--you'd have damn near a 100% sober fanbase showing up come the next Saturday.

At USC? I can't really believe Pete Carroll "liked" the idea of Snoop Dogg and OJ Simpson roaming the sidelines and hanging out at practices. But in that culture, how can he stop it consistently? The answer is, he can't. And that fanbase is as fair-weather as it gets, easily as bad as The U. So when you lose four games, two of them by embarrassing margins, you don't make any friends at USC. As in ZERO. NONE. At least we have message boards that hum, ESPECIALLY after losses. Out there? Nothing. The "fans" just go "clubbing".

It took exactly ONE season for some of their "fans" and their "loyal" alumni to start SERIOUS grumbling. Even Charlie Weis got some slack. Pete Carroll got virtually NO slack, especially from "local" media morons.

I don't blame him for going. Not one bit. But...IF there turn out to be "findings" from the NCAA, any return to college football for Mr. Carroll should definitely be met with some skepticism. And in light of Calipari and others, it might be be high time the NCAA starts imposing some "sanctions" on coaches across the board rather than the highly selective basis currently used.

 

[DeanMarshall]

Isn't it just a shame that the 'partee' is over for the SC zombie fans?

I'm just all broken up about it.