Saintman2884
Hall-of-Famer
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2003
- Messages
- 17,403
- Reaction score
- 5,070
Offline
Its ironic that some NCAAF fans today view those Carroll-coached USC teams, especially the Reggie Bush/Matt Lienart 2003-05 dynasty "era" as sort of being tainted now due to Bush's recruiting controversy to USC in regards to a school booster buying Bush's parents that home IIRC, in L.A. that won or co-won USC 2 consecutive BSCCGs (with the sole 2004 BCS trophy officially vacant historically), was mostly responsible for what attracted Seahawks to hire Carroll in the first place back in 2010.
Honestly, this is just my opinion because I can't definitively prove it only that in hindsight, the optics seem suspicious but I've always believed Carroll knew one day the Bush recruiting controversy/scandal would come back to haunt and hurt USC long-term's success, recruiting, etc. I think he knew about the secret NCAAF committee investigations swirling around in 2009 and he saw the suddenly vacant Seahawks HC as his ticket out of town with maybe some time to spare until the committee released its findings and he could safely act incredulously from afar and not have it affect his career, hard-won reputation, and credentials. His departure from USC in late 2009 was very similar to Ron Meyer leaving a talented, but secretly corrupt, scandal-plagued SMU program after their successful 1981 season for vacant NE Patriots job. Carroll likely.knew about or suspected, in advance the terrible sheetstorm that would one day hit and seriously damage USC's reputation, in SMU's case, their football program was permanently destroyed due to NCAA giving them the "death penalty" in 1987.
I think, once Carroll's career is finished and being held up to scrutiny, his biggest success will be with in building Seattle's LOB defense from 2012-15, and he'll be seen as a great HC, but other contemporary HCs of the past 10-15 years might've be viewed maybe a tad more favorably, like Tomlin, likely Sean Payton too because perhaps they achieved more. Carroll had a NCAAF dynasty at USC from 2003-05, but it eventually got wittled down and broken up, taken away. He rebuilt, re-consolidated the 21st century's version of the 85 Bears in the Legion of Boom, but like Ditka's Bears, bad, terrible critical-game decisions cost him (and Seattle) multiple SBs.
And yes, probably somewhere in Oakland, CA Marshawn Lynch still rightfully murmurs bitterly: "Why didnt Coach give me the damn ball on the 1 and a half-yard line"? And very few sports fans, much less NFL ones, will be able to answer his question honestly without somehow casting serious doubt on the intelligence and wisdom of that dumbarse, stupid play and not wonder themselves should they defend such a questionable call?
