Sports
Next Season Could Be A Test For Carroll, Trojans
By Todd A. Mayes
Dec 28, 2008 - 11:57:04 AM

As the University of Southern California Trojans prepare for yet another Rose Bowl and the chance to destroy another Big Ten team’s hopes of winning in Pasadena, Coach Pete Carroll may be embarking on his biggest challenge at USC since he took over eight years ago.
   Are the Trojans suddenly without a top-flight recruiting class?  No.  Are they losing most of their key contributors to graduation and/or the NFL draft?  Possibly, but more importantly, the best coach in college football has been slowly losing pieces of his coaching staff over the past few years and now has basically turned over his entire staff on both sides of the ball in the last three years.  Of course this wasn’t Carroll’s choice and actually is a sign of much success —to have so many of your assistants highly coveted is the highest sign of respect —but combine that with a few key starters departing, and the success that USC has enjoyed as of late may not come quite as easily.
   The latest in a long line of migrations from USC is newly named Washington head coach, Steve Sarkisian.  Before him, it was DeWayne Walker, who joined Rick Neuheisel across town at UCLA before the season.  And before that it was Lane Kiffin and Norm Chow.  Why do I bring this up now?  Because continuity is the key —especially at the collegiate level —to long- term success.  Having continuity in your program starts with the head coach but the everyday, hands-on duty is that of the assistant coaches.  No coach is more hands-on than Carroll, but trying to teach specific fundamentals and techniques to roughly a hundred 19 and 20-year-olds is about as difficult as keeping track of their mobile phone minutes.  It’s not tough, it’s impossible.  And that’s why you need loyal assistants who can deliver the message you want delivered and never waver from it.
   Head coaches lose assistants all the time, so what Carroll is going through hardly registers a blip on the crisis-meter but it does warn of possibly more turbulent times ahead.  With USC, that may mean two losses instead of one or none next season.  Or, dare I say, three losses?  I know the Pac-10 doesn’t scare many people right now, but there is enough talent in California alone to fill all 10 teams in the league.  And USC could look a little different next year if certain players get favorable reviews from NFL draft experts.
   Suppose, for example, that quarterback Mark Sanchez leaves school for this April’s NFL Draft.  Next year’s starter will then be current red-shirt freshman Aaron Corp, third-year sophomore Mitch Mustain or true freshman Matt Barkley.  Not a problem, right?  The Trojans are so good at developing quarterbacks that there’s one playing right now in the NFL who never started a game at USC.  Which is true, but who do you think helped develop the Patriots Matt Cassell?  Besides the Patriots themselves, that would be among others, Sarkisian.
   Replacing Sarkisian will be Carl Smith, who coached the USC quarterbacks in 2004 when Sarkisian was the offensive coordinator for the Oakland Raiders.  But the loss of team MVP Ray Maualuga, linebacker Brian Cushing and defensive end Clay Matthews among others, and possibly linebackers coach Ken Norton, could make 2009 a tough season for the Trojans to win the Pac-10, let alone the national title.
   The Pac-10 has upgraded the level of their coaches in the last few years with few ‘cupcakes’ left in the conference.  Oregon is always good, Mike Riley has a good thing going at Oregon State and the same can be said for Mike Stoops at Arizona.  Now with Sarkisian taking over in Seattle and Neuheisel with a year under his belt across town, the landscape of the Pac-10 is changing.  And so is USC’s, but will it be for the better?
   The Prediction Game
   Other than big games, I’m not one for making predictions, especially three years down the road and here’s why:  in sports (and life) one rarely knows what will happen next week, let alone a year or two down the road.  That is the joy of life —it can be one wild ride.  That brings me to what occurred last week in Foxborough, MA, but first, let’s go back almost three years to the day.
   In late December of 2005, USC was preparing for what turned out to be the Game of the Century (up until that date).  It was Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush against Vince Young and the Texas Longhorns at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.  And riding the pine again for the Trojans was Chatsworth’s Matt Cassell.  Fast-forward three years to last week in Foxborough and it was Cassell leading the Patriots to their 10th win in 15 tries in 2008, and Leinart providing mop-up duty in a 47-7 thrashing at the hands of his former understudy, Cassell.  That’s the beauty of sports and life —you never know what will happen next.
   Time is now for Dodgers, Ramirez
   As this went to print, Mark Texiera had just inked an eight-year deal with the Yankees after all other suitors backed away from the negotiating table.  The same seems to be happening in the Manny Ramirez sweepstakes —baseball clubs with seemingly endless supplies of cash to throw at free-agent ballplayers are suddenly becoming fiscally responsible.  That is why the time is now for Dodgers GM Ned Colletti to act.  I wrote last week how his patience has been smart and effective in this off-season but with Ramirez still out there, the Dodgers and Ramirez’s agent, Scott Boras, should be able to come to a compromise that makes both the club and player happy.  I know I just used “compromise” and “ Boras” in the same sentence, but after seeing that the market is quite cooler than anyone thought for all free-agents, both sides must realize that L.A. is the place for Ramirez.

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