Pete Carroll is Leaving USC for the NFL

Is Pete Carroll the John Calipari of College Football? Cause if anyone really believes that he is leaving sunny skies for rainy days then you are nutts!!! He is getting out before the door shuts tight. AKA: Reggie Bush!



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It was surreally quiet around Heritage Hall on Friday afternoon.
The students were still on winter break, so the campus didn't have its usual bustle. Most of the coaches had the day off. A lot of the players were still back in their hometowns with their families.
The quiet and the winter shadows gave the old glass-and-brick building a funereal feel.
That may be perfectly appropriate for a program that could soon be in mourning if Pete Carroll chooses to take another run at the NFL. And while rumors of Carroll's departure are a yearly rite around here, this one felt different from when the Arizona Cardinals, Miami Dolphins, San Francisco 49ers and Atlanta Falcons were courting Carroll in years past.
Even athletic director Mike Garrett's no-comment had a different feel. When the Dolphins were after Carroll two years ago, Garrett professed to no concern whatsoever.
On Friday, Garrett sounded as if he was still in fact-gathering mode. It was apparent he hadn't talked to Carroll since word leaked to ESPN's Chris Mortensen that the Seattle Seahawks were hot on his trail.
"We're just trying to figure out what's what," Garrett said.
Something clearly is going on, and you've got to wonder if the stresses of this season might have convinced Carroll he didn't, in fact, have football's greatest job. I think back to a conversation with Carroll a few weeks ago in San Francisco as his team prepared for the Emerald Bowl against Boston College.
Carroll was having a bad week imagewise. The local papers were taking him to task for not monitoring his players' activities more closely. The latest bombshell was news that junior running back Joe McKnight had been driving an SUV owned by a Santa Monica businessman. Three more players were ruled academically ineligible for the game.
Carroll called it a "great challenge," keeping track of so many players' off-field activities. If you have teenage sons, you might have a feel for how hard it is to pry into their personal lives. Now imagine you have 85 of them.
"The issue is there are so many factors of the monitoring. You think about what one person does," Carroll said. "It's the whole mechanism of it. It's most challenging because there are a lot of moving parts. It's not tiresome so much, but it's a big job."
In the NFL, nobody will care what his players are driving as long as their blood-alcohol levels are inside legal limits. Not that the NFL isn't with its own set of headaches. Just ask Jim Mora.

Carroll Ready to Sign Contract with Seattle
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The official, who requested anonymity because the team isn't detailing the search, said Sunday night the charismatic coach of Southern California has "not signed but [is] very close."
The official told the Associated Press that the Seahawks expect to finish the deal for the eighth coach in their 34-year history Monday morning, and that all that was left was to "dot the I's and cross the T's." The official said that barring last-minute hang-ups, the Seahawks are likely to introduce Carroll on Tuesday or Wednesday.
Seahawks chief executive Tod Leiweke spent Sunday in Los Angeles meeting with Carroll.
The Los Angeles Times reported that Carroll decided Sunday night to resign from USC and take the job with the Seahawks. The school's players and coaches were informed of the moved through a text message from an assistant, according a story posted on the newspaper's website.
Carroll and several Trojans players did not respond to text messages and phone calls left by the AP. The coach's agent, Gary Uberstine, did not respond to calls and e-mails left on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
A Seahawks spokesman declined comment when asked about the report that Carroll had resigned. He also said the Seahawks had nothing to report on their coaching search Sunday night.
USC spokesman Tim Tessalone said he also had nothing to report on Carroll, who has spent nine mostly glorious years with the Trojans.
The Seahawks fired coach Jim Mora on Friday following just one season, even though he had three years and about $12 million remaining on his contract. General manager and president Tim Ruskell was forced to resign last month, leaving Seattle without a coach, general manager or president less than four years after the team reached the Super Bowl.
Carroll went 6-10 with the Jets in 1994 and 27-21 while twice reaching the playoffs from '97-99 with the Patriots -- before he restored a dynasty at USC beginning in 2001.
Seattle is 9-23 since its run of four consecutive NFC West titles ended in the 2007 season. Team owner Paul Allen, the Microsoft Corp. tycoon, proved money is of little concern by firing Mora after Leiweke had said he expected the coach to stay.
The Seahawks are hoping the splashy, marquee addition of Carroll will ignite a notoriously rabid fan base that turned on its team this season with constant calls for mass firings.
The opportunity is unique for Carroll. The Seahawks do not have a GM in place, so he could have authority over football matters like he had at USC, and far more than he would have had filling any of the NFL coaching openings to which he's been connected in recent winters. The league source, however, said the only official title Carroll will have is "coach."
This is also perhaps the best time to leave USC since he arrived in 2001.
Its string of seven consecutive Pac-10 titles ended with four losses in the just-completed season. And the school has been under several years of NCAA scrutiny for alleged improprieties in both Carroll's team and athletic director Mike Garrett's beleaguered department.
When receiver Damian Williams announced he's entering the NFL a year early, the news release of his departure Friday night didn't include a quote from Carroll, who often lavishes praise on early entry candidates.
University of Washington coach Steve Sarkisian, who left his friend Carroll and the Trojans 12 months ago for his first head coaching job, chuckled when asked if he'd like to be a head man in the same city as his mentor.
"That would be kind of fun," Sarkisian said. "He would do great. He's a great coach."
Carroll's departure comes at a bad time for USC recruits, who are now caught between whether to honor their commitments or re-enter the college recruiting derby late in the process.
Carroll had already planned a team meeting for Monday afternoon, on the day the Trojans return to class following the holiday break. Tessalone said that meeting is still scheduled.



USC Top Recruits Reconsidering their Options
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SAN ANTONIO, Texas -- For the past few years, Dillon Baxter had a plan. The nation's top-rated all-purpose back would play in a major all-star game, then return home to San Diego to finish his last few high school tests. Then, in mid-January, he would enroll at USC. He even knew that Hillside, Ill., receiver Kyle Prater, a fellow early enrollee, would be his roommate.
That plan imploded as rumors that Trojans coach Pete Carroll would leave for the Seattle Seahawks inched ever closer to becoming reality. Saturday afternoon, Baxter stood on the Alamodome field after the U.S. Army All-American Bowl with no idea what his next move should be. Baxter, who was named the U.S. Army player of the year after breaking the California record for rushing and passing touchdowns in a season (76) as a senior at Mission Bay High, sounded hurt as he described a meeting between his family and Carroll at Baxter's home about a month ago. "I asked him if he was going to stay," Baxter said. "He looked at me in the eyes and said he was. I guess it's business, if that's what you want to call it."
Now, Baxter will listen to all suitors. "I'm wide open," he said. "I'll talk to any college."
Prater, the nation's top-rated receiver prospect, stood a few yards away from Baxter. He explained that he had planned to fly to Los Angeles from San Antonio to enroll at USC. Now, he'll fly home to suburban Chicago and reassess his options. "All I heard is [Carroll] is gone," Prater said. "I can't go out there now not knowing anything, so I'm going to go home and get with my family and go from there."
Neither the Seahawks nor USC has made an official announcement concerning Carroll's future, and most recruits said they couldn't reach USC coaches. "Their phones were shut off," said Robert Woods, a Gardena, Calif., receiver who is committed to USC. "I'm sure they're getting a lot of calls."
One player did hear from a USC coach. Corona, Calif., defensive back Demetrius Wright committed to the Trojans during the game, and he said he received a voicemail from USC recruiting coordinator Brennan Carroll at halftime. Brennan Carroll is Pete Carroll's son. "He said the rumor is true that he got an offer from there -- Seattle. He's talking to them," Wright said. "He's going to announce it to us on Sunday." Wright said he would attend USC no matter what Pete Carroll decides. "I've always been with SC since I was little. That's my dream school," Wright said. "Pete Carroll wasn't there when it was my dream school, so it really doesn't matter ... if he's there. I would love it if he's still there, but if he goes, that's his decision."
Tailback D.J. Morgan, a USC recruit from Woodland Hills, Calif., said he didn't know what to think. He said USC would remain No. 1 on his list, but if Carroll leaves, he plans to re-evaluate after he learns the identity of the Trojans' new coach. "There's a lot to think about now," Morgan said. "I've got to talk to my family."
Of the 10 players who announced commitments during the game, only one besides Wright had USC as a finalist. Ronald Powell, a defensive end from Moreno Valley, Calif., picked Florida instead of the Trojans. Powell had been scheduled to announce his intention to attend Florida on ESPN late week, but he canceled that announcement after Gators coach Urban Meyer's resignation and subsequent announcement that he would return but take an indefinite leave of absence. By Saturday, Florida's coaching situation, tenuous as it may be, was more stable than USC's.
The most intriguing case is Baxter, who had no contact with any schools other than USC and Michigan. Baxter took an unofficial visit to Ann Arbor, but he never seriously considered the Wolverines. In fact, he said, he committed to USC so early to avoid the precise situation he finds himself in now. Baxter said he must finish a few tests, but then he plans to examine other schools. He said he still plans to enroll at his chosen school for the spring term.
Monday begins a four-day NCAA recruiting dead period that coincides with the American Football Coaches Association Convention, but coaches can begin hosting prospects on campus again beginning Friday. Coaches can begin visiting players' homes again Jan. 17.
By then, Baxter may already be a college student. There remains a chance that school could be USC, but Baxter hinted that if Carroll is gone, so is he. "My whole thing was Pete Carroll and SC," Baxter said. "He turned that whole program around. I really wanted to play under him."