For Pete’s sake
Has the California sun baked Pete Carroll’s brain?
Watch my latest video commentary or read below:
Pete Carroll has it made at Southern Cal.
He wins games by the dozen. He holds La La Land by the tail. And he lives in a place where it’s always sunny and 78.
Why would he want to leave?
That’s the question I’ve been asking myself after news surfaced last week that Carroll was talking seriously with the Atlanta Falcons. These are the same Falcons, by the way, who have lost their starting quarterback to the federal pen in Leavenworth and lost their first-year coach to Arkansas. These are the worst of times in Atlanta.
And still, Carroll wants to leave the best of situations for the Falcons.
Heck, this is a guy who’s big-time in Hollywood. How many people can honestly say that?
So, what gives with Carroll wanting to bolt from USC? I suppose it could be that he wants the challenge of coaching in the NFL again. He had decent success in the league before, but why the Falcons? Why now?
Carroll has entertained other overtures from teams. It’s difficult to believe that if he really wanted to coach in the NFL again that he couldn’t do better than the Falcons. Right now, Miami is in better shape than Atlanta, and the Dolphins won all of one game this season.
Perhaps Carroll is intrigued by the chance to be the coach and the director of player personnel. Falcons owner Arthur Blank has dangled that carrot in front of Carroll. Being able to control roster moves is a perk many NFL coaches want but few receive.
Still, that seems a shaky reason to go back to the NFL.
All that leads to one question: what’s different now compared to times when the NFL temped Carroll before?
The biggest thing that comes to mind: possible NCAA sanctions hanging over his program’s head. I wrote a bit Saturday about the allegations swirling around Reggie Bush, which are detailed in the new book, “Tarnished Heisman.” The former Trojan star may have taken as much as $300,000 in illegal benefits during his final year at USC. It’s a story that’s made headlines but flown largely under the radar, considering the seriousness of the violation.
Carroll’s interest in the Falcons, though, may signal that this is a bigger deal than most folks think. He might want to get out before things get bad.
Leaving USC seems silly, but leaving USC for Atlanta seems down right crazy. Just maybe, though, a situation that’s been so very good for Carroll is about to turn so very bad.
College football savior?
Not to give a mere mortal too much credit, but there’s a university president who might be the agent of change in college football.
Have you heard about Michael Adams?
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Michael Adams became my favorite sports figure earlier this week.
Perhaps his name doesn’t ring a bell. Perhaps it shouldn’t. Adams is the president at the University of Georgia, and on Tuesday, he announced that he’s in favor of an eight-team playoff in college football.
Be still, my beating heart.
Mind you, Big Mike hasn’t actually done anything just yet to put his proposal into action, other than releasing a statement and holding a couple press conferences. And yet, this tells you how absolutely, positively screwed up college football’s postseason is. Hearts skipped a beat when a university president simply admitted what millions of college football fans have known for years.
Adams said, “This year’s experience with the BCS forces me to the conclusion that the current system has lost public confidence and simply does not work.”
Is it any coincidence that Big Mike realized the error of the BCS’s ways the day after his school finished second in the final AP poll?
Thing is, this is the scenario I’ve been waiting for, hoping for even, for years. I figured it was going to take some president’s school being on the outside looking in to stir change. I figured it would take one of them being mad and frustrated before they’d speak up.
I’m just not sure why it didn’t happen sooner. Miami had an argument to be in the BCS title game in 2000. Ditto for Oregon in 2001, USC in 2003 and Auburn in 2004.
Sure, those schools complained, but none of their higher-ups ever stepped forward and said, This needs to change, and here’s what I propose.
Michael Adams has.
Maybe this was meant to be. Big Mike, after all, can do more than just talk about change. He can actually affect it. He is the chair of the NCAA Executive Committee, power that he’s going to need to wage a battle that’s never come close to being won before. Words and actions are two totally different things, but never before have we heard these words about college football from a college president.
“I believe there is a time in a lot of events where there is a tipping point,” Adams said earlier this week, “and this year may have been the tipping point.”
Hey, Big Mike, there’s a lot of us here ready to help you push.
Big Easy? Anything but
News out of New Orleans today that the Hornets will stay there through 2014.
But with several conditions.
One of them is this: average attendance at the end of the 2008-2009 season must be 14,735. If that number isn’t reached, the Hornets can opt out of the contract.
What’s that I hear? The sound of moving trucks rolling toward the Big Easy?
No way the Hornets attendance will reach that number. The team is having one of the best seasons in the league this year, and it has averaged less than 12,000 through its first 15 home games. If New Orleans can’t get excited now about Chris Paul, Tyson Chandler and Co., the city never will.
By the way, the Saints had a less-than-stellar season despite the greatness that was predicted in the preseason. Despite that, people still weren’t turned on to the winner across the street at New Orleans Arena.
The Hornets figured out a way to get the 2008-09 attendance benchmark in the new lease extension, and bully for them that they did. (Did anyone in New Orleans actually read the new terms? How could they have thought a benchmark like this was really a good idea?)
This sounds more like a lease shortening than a lease extension.
Geauxing, Geauxing, Gone
Perhaps this is sacrilege to say in our fair state, but what the heck, I’ll say it anyway.
I’m happy for Les Miles.
The former Oklahoma State football coach snagged himself a national championship on Monday night. His current squad, the LSU Tigers, took it to Ohio State in the BCS championship game and won going away, 38-24. The coach who Sooner fans came to loathe and Cowboy fan came to loathe worse is riding high today.
Watching LSU is always a bit weird for me. Seeing Miles all decked out in purple and gold, not orange and black. Catching occasional glimpses other familiar faces on the sidelines.
Josh Henson, the tight ends coach, is a Tuttle native and an OSU alum. Running backs coach Larry Porter was on Miles’ staff in Stillwater. Ditto for defensive backs coach Doug Mallory and assistant athletic director for football administration Mack Butler.
Defensive coordinator Bo Pelini is familiar in these parts, too. About to take over as the head coach at Nebraska, Pelini spent time on the staff at Oklahoma.
Maybe all that means I’m not just happy for Miles but also for all of those guys. They were always good folks to deal with, and when good things happen to good folks, it’s easy to feel good for them.
QUICK HITS
* Roger Clemens is all in. If he did what the Mitchell Report said he did, he is absolutely going to bust. His denials about steroid use and his lawsuit against his former trainer are like a poker player going all in. Is the pitching great holding aces? Or is he bluffing? The answer will either restore Clemens or leave him broken.
* Keep those nominations for unsung heroes in sports coming. E-mail me at jcarlson@oklahoman.com.
* Two years ago today, I went on my first date with an amazing man named Ryan. Now, he is my fiance. But please, don’t ask when the big day is. We haven’t got that part figured out just yet. We’re thinking perhaps the first or second Saturday in October or the Saturday after Thanksgiving.
(Just kidding, boss!)
Heroes in sports?
There are heroes in sports.
Just not always where a spotlight shines.
Watch my latest video commentary or read below:
The word “hero” is thrown around often in sports.
A quarterback leads a late-game drive, and he’s called a hero. A guard knocks down a last-second shot, and she’s called a hero.
But really, a hero is so much more. It is someone who shows courage amid danger or adversity. It is someone who displays self-sacrifice. It is someone who is looking out for the greater good. Because of those definitions, there are plenty of folks who believe there are no heroes in sports.
I’ll say that a game-winning touchdown or a goal-line stand does not a hero make. But that doesn’t mean sports is without its heroes.
Sports has heroes.
Plenty of them.
Many of them, though, are unsung. Their work is celebrated by the people closest to them, but beyond that, they are largely unknown. Perhaps they coach little league but are as concerned about the rules of life as the rules of the game. Perhaps they officiate rec league with a smile. Perhaps they encourage folks to join the Tuesday night bowling league.
Heroes in sports come from all walks. There are up-and-comers and weekend warriors, coaches and teachers, officials and referees, fans and encouragers. Others work in the concession stands and take the tickets and run the chain gangs and prepare the fields.
So, do you know a hero in sports? Maybe it’s the golf course starter who always has a kind word for your son. Maybe it’s the coach who is always willing to bring your daughter home after practice. Maybe it’s that person you know changed your life through sports.
If you know an unsung hero in sports, I want to know about them, too. Soon, we will begin telling the stories of unsung heroes in our sports section. E-mail me about your sports hero at jcarlson@oklahoman.com.
Make no mistake, there are heroes in sports. Let’s just make sure the real ones are unsung no more.
Tired of hearing about Oklahoma’s Fiesta Bowl loss?
You might want to look elsewhere, then.
If you can’t get enough about the Sooners, watch my latest video commentary or read below:
Oklahoma needed DeMarcus Granger.
And Reggie Smith.
And Lendy Holmes.
The Sooners needed all of them Wednesday night with the 11 other defenders already playing in the Fiesta Bowl. Give OU 14 guys against West Virginia. Maybe then, the Sooners could’ve tackled someone.
The Sooners’ night in the desert was a total disaster. The Mountaineers were supposed to be the team in disarray, the program in peril. Instead, the Sooners were the ones who looked discombobulated.
Another big game for the Sooners.
Another big loss.
Granted, OU has needed to win its share of big games just to make it to six BCS bowls in the past eight seasons. But after winning in their first two BCS appearances — the 2000 Orange and 2002 Rose – the Sooners have lost four consecutive BCS bowls. They’ve lost them by an average of 16 points, too.
Not good.
Not good at all.
Before the Fiesta Bowl, some thought Oklahoma had a legitimate argument that it should’ve played in the national championship game. After the way the Mountaineers stuck it to the Sooners, though, it looked more like West Virginia was the one with the should-been-in-the-title-game argument.
This game continues the tarnishing of the Sooner shine.
Used to be, pundits and prognosticators thought OU was one of the four or five elite teams in the country. Now, the Sooners are bound to be lumped in with a much bigger group of teams that are still very good but aren’t those chosen few. That perception change matters as long as humans are involved with the BCS formula.
Look at Ohio State. The computers liked the Buckeyes this season, but the thing that propelled them to the BCS championship game were the humans. Ohio State finished third in the computer rankings but was first in both of the human polls.
If OU’s in a similar situation next season, will the voters be as generous? It’s impossible to know, of course, but continuing to lose BCS games signals at least in part to the voters that you have a soft regular-season schedule, that you struggle to keep up with elite teams, that maybe you don’t belong.
Not good for the Sooners.
Not good at all.
