Category: College Football (Page 116 of 296)

      Report: Pete Carroll resigns at USC

      January 11, 2010 /

      According to ESPN.com, Pete Carroll resigned as the head coach of the USC Trojans on Sunday so he can take over the same position for the Seattle Seahawks. ESPN.com is also reporting that Carroll will take offensive coordinator Jeremy Bates with him to Seattle.

      A source said Bates was tempted to be reunited with Bears quarterback Jay Cutler, but the long-term security with Carroll was a major factor in his decision to join the Seahawks rather than the Bears. Bates was Cutler’s offensive coordinator with the Broncos in 2008.

      Current Trojans said they had not heard the decision yet from Carroll, but heard about the Daily News report.

      “Wow. Well, I’m not surprised,” junior running back Marc Tyler said to ESPNLosAngeles.com’s Ramona Shelburne. “I think by now most guys wanted it to hurry up and happen so we can see who is going to coach us next.”

      Sophomore defensive end Malik Jackson said while he was a little surprised, he understands why Carroll is leaving.

      “Wow, I can’t believe we’re one of those teams looking for a new coach,” Jackson told Shelburne. “I’d heard about it all weekend, but I’m still kind of surprised.

      “I don’t blame him though. We all have to make decisions in our lives. If I could’ve said something that’d make him come back, I would’ve. But I’m not mad at him. He has to do what he thinks is best for himself. Everybody does.”

      It must be rather jarring for USC players and those associated with the program that Carroll is leaving. He’s been a mainstay there since 2001 and I’m sure that people grew accustomed to him shooting down offers to re-join the NFL and figured he would never leave.


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      College Football, NFL

      Vitale: Pete Carroll “beat the posse”

      January 9, 2010 /

      During the broadcast of the Georgetown/UConn game on ESPN, Dick Vitale commented on the report that Pete Carroll has signed a deal to coach the Seattle Seahawks.

      “Well, you know, to me, he beat the posse. Posse coming after him down there, the NCAA. He takes the money, the program gets hurt in the future. I really have a problem with that. These guys go on, they leave the program, take their cash and run. Because, you know, the NCAA is still investigating them for Reggie Bush. And I just feel that he beat the posse, got his cash, and off he went.”

      — Dick Vitale, during Georgetown/UConn broadcast (1/9/10)

      College Basketball, College Football, Rumors & Gossip

      Report: Seahawks hire Pete Carroll

      January 9, 2010 /

      Adam Schefter of ESPN.com reports that Pete Carroll has reached an agreement to become the next head coach of the Seattle Seahawks.

      Carroll was fully expected to be introduced by the Seahawks as early as Monday, assuming they comply with the Rooney Rule this weekend.

      The hangup could be locating a candidate to interview that would put the Seahawks in compliance with the rule, which requires teams to interview a minority candidate for head-coaching hires.

      But the bottom line is, Carroll’s agreement with Seattle is “100 percent done,” one NFL source close to the situation said.

      In a text message to ESPN’s Chris Mortensen on Friday, Carroll said, “You know I haven’t responded to a NFL question in two years.”
      But a league source told Mortensen that Carroll was trying to persuade USC offensive coordinator Jeremy Bates to join him in Seattle — as opposed to Bates pursuing the same position with the Chicago Bears.

      First and foremost, I don’t think Dan Rooney had this situation in mind when he and the league established the “Rooney Rule.” It’s crap that a minority will be brought in to interview for a position that he has zero chance of getting and therefore, the Seahawks should be fined just like the Lions were in 2003 when they hired Steve Mariucci without complying with the rule.

      As far as Carroll goes, we can speculate all we want about why he chose now to leave USC and pursue the NFL again. Maybe it was money, maybe it was the perfect situation, or maybe he’s running from something. Either way, he’s going to be on the Seahawks sidelines next year and if I were a fan, I’d have mixed feelings about the deal.

      There’s no doubt that Carroll is an outstanding college coach, but he’s already failed twice at the pro level. That’s not to say that the third time won’t be a charm, but I would have my doubts if I were a player or a fan, because his methods haven’t worked before. Granted, he ran a pro style system while at USC so in terms of game planning, he should be fine. But his ra-ra approach didn’t work with the Jets or Patriots, so it stands to reason that it won’t work in Seattle.

      There’s already a rumor making its way around the net that Carroll might target Matt Leinart to be his quarterback. But as of right now, that makes little to no sense. First of all, the Cardinals aren’t going to trade within the division and secondly, Kurt Warner is nearing the end of his career and Arizona probably still has some hope that Leinart can be “the guy.” The rumor makes little sense, but we’ll see how this whole thing transpires.


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      College Football, NFL

      Why did the Boise State Broncos finish #4?

      January 8, 2010 /

      One Bronco Nation Under God put together an interesting breakdown of the final AP vote for the 2009-10 college football season.

      Why is it interesting? Well, Alabama finished #1, as they should. But it was Texas, not Florida, that finished #2. The Gators finished third and the Broncos finished at #4. The site points out a couple of voters who actually had the Broncos ranked lower than #4:

      [Craig] James was far and away the most anti-Boise AP voter of the bunch. Voting Boise State at No. 7 is inexcusable. Voting TCU at No. 14 is just as bad.

      The worst part is that the Broncos only finished four points behind Florida in the AP poll. Hmm, where might you find four extra points? If Craig James had voted like a rational human being, the Broncos could have at least got three more points (if James put them at No. 4).

      James had Ohio State, Penn State and Iowa ahead of the Broncos. I guess he’s a big fan of the Big Ten.

      Then there’s the case of the only other writer in the country to put the Broncos lower than #4 — Kirk Bohls, of Austin, Texas.

      He dropped the Broncos below … wait for it … THE Ohio State University. We’ll laugh about this later. I swear we will. Bohls and James were the only ones with OSU in front of BSU. Had Bohls swapped the Broncos and the Buckeyes, Boise State would have picked up an extra AP point and been tied with Florida for No. 3.

      In addition to James’ #7 ranking and Bohls’ #5 ranking, 22 voters had the Broncos at #2, six ranked them #3 and 30 voters had Boise State at #4, so it appears that the voters are split into two camps: 1) those that believe that the Broncos belong (ranking them #2 or #3), 2) and those that still don’t think they are as good as one-loss BCS teams like Texas and Florida (ranking them #4 or lower).

      The bottom line is that nothing has changed. A Colt McCoy-less Texas squad looked good enough against Alabama to stay at #2, while Florida thrashed a head coach-less Cincy squad in the Sugar Bowl. Boise State played TCU in the Fiesta Bowl, which made for a “fun” (i.e. non-BCS) matchup, but neither team got the opportunity to play against the big boys.

      And that’s exactly the way the BCS wanted it. If Boise State and TCU got matchups with BCS schools this bowl seasons and won (or at least made it a game), it would add more fuel to the we-need-a-playoff fire.


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      College Football

      South Florida fires head coach Jim Leavitt

      January 8, 2010 /

      South Florida has decided to fire head coach Jim Leavitt after he allegedly struck a player and subsequently lied to investigators.

      From Fanhouse.com:

      USF fired the only coach the Bulls have had in the program’s 13-year history following an investigation initiated after a FanHouse report that stated Leavitt grabbed sophomore Joel Miller by the throat and hit the walk-on twice in the face Nov. 21 at halftime of the Louisville game.

      FanHouse first reported details of the incident Dec. 14. Five witnesses, USF players and staff members, said that Leavitt was upset by a mistake Miller made on special teams during the first half against Louisville, and subsequently struck Miller twice.

      “You do something like that [on the street], you put them in jail,” Paul Miller, Joel’s father and a former Tampa police officer, told FanHouse at the time. “Somewhere [Leavitt] crossed the line.”

      Wednesday, wide receiver Colby Erskin, who was not present in the locker room at the time, told FanHouse that Miller told him about the incident and asked for his advice on what he should do, a few days after the Nov. 21 incident.

      Erskin also said Leavitt cleaned out his locker and threw his personal effects into a trash bin. Erskin said he believed that Leavitt suspected him of leaking the story to the media.

      As the article notes, Leavitt was 95-47 during his tenure at South Florida. He essentially built that program from nothing and deserves credit for making USF relevant in college football.

      That said, there’s zero excuse to hit a kid. There’s a difference between being a hard ass and hitting players because they screw up. If the report is true and Leavitt did strike Miller multiple times, then he deserves to be fired. Many of these college coaches have massive egos and think they can say and do whatever they want to players because they’re above them.

      Leavitt found out the hard way that universities are stepping in to ensure that these types of situations don’t continue and won’t be tolerated.


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      College Football

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