Pete Carroll’s style of coaching is needed in college football. Diving over the pile himself on goal-line drills. Practice pranks. Open locker room. In a sport that seems too corporate, Southern California players are the only ones who have ever told me they have — gasp! — fun in practice.
Now I’m wondering if the Trojans, every so often, just plain tune him out.
For the fourth consecutive year, USC developed a Malibu mentality against a Pac-10 stiff. In 2006, ranked second, the Tr0jans lost 13-9 to UCLA. In 2007, again ranked second, they lost to Stanford 24-23. Last year, top-ranked USC lost at Oregon State 27-21.
UCLA and Oregon State, however, went to bowl games. Saturday’s 16-13 loss was to a Washington team that ended a 15-game losing streak the week before and had a rebuilding project similar to cleaning the bottom of Puget Sound.
“It goes right to me,” Carroll told the media after the game. “I’m not doing a good enough job making points on how we win.”
Carroll started trumpeting the dual-threat ability of Washington quarterback Jake Locker eight days ago, but the Trojans were still basking in the glory of winning at Ohio State. Only one problem.
“We’re not real good right now,” Carroll said. “We weren’t really good last week, either, to tell you the truth.”
It didn’t help that Matt Barkley, the wunderkind quarterback who led the Ohio State win, was out with a sprained shoulder. Redshirt freshman Aaron Corp, who had won the job in the spring, was awful. He was 13-of-22 for 110 yards, and the Trojans were 0-for-10 on third down against a team that had the worst defense in school history a year ago.
But it also didn’t help that Corp didn’t even know he would start until he was told to take the field. It wasn’t just Corp’s fault.
And Corp hasn’t been around the last seven years, a time period in which six of USC’s eight Pac-10 losses have come against unranked teams.
Fight on, Sarkisian.
The architects of the upset were UW’s first-year coach Steve Sarkisian, Carroll’s offensive coordinator last year; and defensive coordinator Nick Holt, Carroll’s former D-coordinator. Besides the heroics of Locker, who missed the last eight games last year with a broken thumb, defense won the game.
The Huskies inserted true freshman Talia Crichton and sophomore Everrette Thompson, two of their fastest linemen. The 262-pound Thompson replaced 348-pound Alameda Ta’amu and Corp never settled in. The 110 passing yards were the lowest in Carroll’s nine years at USC.
Meanwhile, Locker improvised on a third-and-15 21-yard pass to Jermaine Kearse to help set up the winning field goal. The play wasn’t even in the playbook.
“(Sarkisian) is not shy about changing things,” Locker said.
Chinks in Florida.
Another former Carroll assistant, Tennessee coach Lane Kiffin, didn’t fare as well at Florida. But his father, defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin, showed where the Gators are vulnerable in Florida’s 23-13 win.
The Volunteers’ defense harassed quarterback Tim Tebow all day, sacking him three times. They clearly won the battle up front. But Tennessee is about as deep as Kiffin’s friendship with Florida coach Urban Meyer.
“It takes its toll on you,” Kiffin said afterward, “because every time they get to third-and-3 and less, they’re going to make it almost every time because they’re going to snap it and No. 15 is going to run straight ahead.”
Hot seat of the week.
Ralph Friedgen, Maryland. In his ninth year, Friedgen’s Terps lost to Middle Tennessee State for the second consecutive year. That comes on the heels of an overtime win over FCS member James Madison and a 52-13 loss to California.
Short stuff.
Air Force is tied for second nationally in turnover margin at plus-2.33. It’s tied with Colorado State and Auburn. . . . Can TCU, at No. 15, catch eighth-ranked Boise State for BCS buster rights? Frogs visit Clemson on Saturday and visit No. 19 BYU on Oct. 24. Boise State’s best chance to lose is Oct. 14 at Tulsa. . . . Cal’s Jahvid Best, the new Heisman favorite, is third in rushing at 137.33 yards per game, at 7.8 a pop.
