What a busy seven days for college football! Many players have recently declared for the NFL draft, including Alabama LB Rolando McClain and Georgia Tech RB Jonathan Dwyer. Last week, three of the 5 BCS Bowl games were played, including the Boise State upset over TCU and Texas's Colt McCoy going down with an injury early in the BCS Championship Game. Now, after firing Jim Mora, the Seattle Seahawks have hired the now-former USC football coach Pete Carroll.
This might actually be my first post that has more than one label/category, and that is because it is a big transition. For all my life, I have known Pete Carroll as the great USC football coach who brought them seven Pac-10 championships, two national championships and three Heisman Trophy winners. All I know about Carroll in the pros is that he was just 33-31 in four seasons as an NFL coach, going just 1-2 in the playoffs. His first attempt in the pros was not successful. Will this one be just as mediocre? I'm not too convinced he's going to be incredible in the NFL, not yet at least.
Nonetheless, Carroll put up unbelievable numbers at USC. Without Pete Carroll, USC would just be an average Pac-10 school instead of a prestigious National Championship contender as they were throughout the decade. USC was one of the worst schools in the Pac-10 in the 90's, but the arrival of Carroll brought fame and glory to the Trojans. Other than his first and last season in LA, he won more than 11 games and the Pac-10 title each year while going 7-2 in his career in bowl games.
Carroll will be coaching a few of the players he coached at USC, including 3-time Pro Bowler MLB Lofa Totupu and DE Lawrence Jackson. But again, I still don't know if he will be a big-time NFL coach. As much as I would like to see him take the Seahawks deep in the playoffs, I think they have a lot of work to do with no prolific running back like they used to have in Shaun Alexander and with a 35-year-old quarterback. Also, look at it this way: while Pete Carroll produced three Heisman winners, Carson Palmer is the only one who has been somewhat successful in the NFL.
Take Reggie Bush as an example. Bush racked up 2,648 rushing yards in two years at USC. In four seasons with the Saints, he hasn't even reached the 2,000 yard mark. Matt Leinart won the Heisman in 2004 and had an incredible college career. Now, Leinart is the backup for a team that made the Super Bowl last year and has just a 72.2 career QB rating in the time he has played. My point is that Pete Carroll is an incredible college football coach, not NFL coach. The NFL is different from college football in so many ways no one would even think of. Who knows, maybe he will go on to be a Super Bowl champion. It's just that right now, I don't see him succeeding with Seattle after so much domination in SoCal. If anything, it will take him a few years to develop as a professional coach.
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