Always Compete: An Inside Look at Pete Carroll and the USC Football Juggernaut

by Steve Bisheff

Overview

Always Compete is both a revealing look at the tactics and personality of one of college football's best coaches, Pete Carroll, and a thrilling chronicle of the 2008 USC Trojans' quest for another championship, culminating in their victory over Penn State in the Rose Bowl.

Just when USC football was in the midst of a horrific slump, when skeptics began to say the scholarship limits had conspired to make it impossible to recapture its old glory, Coach Pete Carroll arrived to transform and invigorate the program with his own bristling energy and style. He quickly reestablished the Trojans not only as the dominant college football team in the Pac-10 but as the preeminent program in the country, and the most entertaining team in the sport.

During his tenure, Carroll captured two National Championships, made an NCAA-record seven BCS bowl appearances, and produced three Heisman Trophy winners as well as more than thirty NFL draft picks, including seven in round number one.

For the first time ever, author Steve Bisheff has been given exclusive access to coaches and players, their meetings, practices, and locker room, as well as one-on-one interviews with Coach Carroll himself.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781429962261
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	09/01/2009
Sold by:	Macmillan
Format:	eBook
Pages:	272
File size:	289 KB

About the Author

STEVE BISHEFF has covered USC football longer and more extensively than any other journalist in Southern California. He is a USC graduate, an award-winning journalist, and the author of several books, including Fight On! The Colorful History of USC Football. He lives in Irvine, California.
Steve Bisheff has covered USC football longer and more extensively than any other journalist in Southern California. He is a USC graduate, an award-winning journalist, and the author of books including Fight On! The Colorful History of USC Football. He lives in Irvine, California.

Read an Excerpt

Always Compete

An Inside Look at Pete Carroll and the USC Football Juggernaut

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By Steve Bisheff

St. Martin's Press

Copyright © 2009 Steve Bisheff
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4299-6226-1

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CHAPTER 1

Excitement Amid a Fragile Spring

It is one of those almost-too-good-to-believe, 75-degree Los Angeles afternoons in late March, and the usual large, cardinal and gold–clad crowd spills through the sun-splashed gates at Howard Jones Field for the first day of USC spring football practice. The veterans among the spectators are dressed comfortably but are carrying Windbreakers or sweaters, well aware that the brisk spring winds will come rattling in about the same time the early evening shadows creep onto the manicured lawn before practice is over.

The head coach doesn't seem concerned with any of that. Pete Carroll, wearing a thin, white, form-fitting, long-sleeved shirt and khaki pants, sprints onto the field, clapping and chirping, flashing a smile as wide as the L.A. Coliseum tunnel. Carroll, with his face seemingly more tan than ever and his gray hair blowing in the breeze, looks like a kid who can't wait to open his new, giftwrapped PlayStation 3. His bouncy enthusiasm is infectious, and several of the players look up and grin at him as they begin their calisthenics.

Thanks to Carroll, USC football is an institution again in L.A., the happy, winning substitute for the nation's No. 2 market that is still incredulously without an NFL franchise. Instead of Rams or Raiders merchandise, everyone can now be seen wearing USC gear at the malls and theaters and casual restaurants around this sprawling megalopolis. The Trojans have become the city's biggest winners, more consistent than the Lakers, more successful than the Dodgers, and clearly overshadowing the basketball exploits across town at UCLA.

It is not just all the winning, it is the style and caliber of players he has developed at USC. In his first seven years on the job, Carroll produced thirty All Americans and eleven first-round NFL draft picks, including four in the 2008 draft. It is a remarkable record, and the steady stream of victories has created a rare comfort zone for Carroll, who seems to tease the USC faithful every off-season by listening to an assortment of NFL head coaching offers. Few, if any, college coaches have less job pressures than he does. Still, you can sense a rustle of discontent from some boosters and alumni who have been spoiled by all the Trojans have achieved. They point out it's been four years since they won their second of two national titles under Carroll and three years since they've been back to the BCS Championship Game. They're hungry to wave those large cardinal colored foam fingers in the air and proclaim "We're No. 1" again.

Last season ended much like the one in 2006, with USC semi-grudgingly accepting a bid to the game that once was its ultimate goal, the Rose Bowl, where it systematically whipped yet another overmatched Big Ten opponent, this time Illinois. Back-to-back, 11-2 bowl-winning seasons would be cause for celebrations at most universities, but not here, where the bar has been raised to a whole different level. Maybe that's why there is an undercurrent of uneasiness about the start of this spring practice. Or maybe it's just the fact that, for the first time since a tall, left-handed kid named Matt Leinart squeezed out the job at the end of spring, the Trojans aren't sure who their quarterback will be in the opener at Virginia on August 30.

Once Leinart took control as a sophomore, he held onto the position for three glory-filled years, going 37-2, leading the team to those two national titles and winning the Heisman Trophy along the way. When he left for the NFL, everyone knew that John David Booty, who'd been waiting patiently, would take over. Booty quarterbacked the team for two seasons, and although he never matched Leinart, he had a nice, two-year run, losing only three games he started and directing the team to consecutive Rose Bowl victories.

Now, at least publicly, Carroll and his coaches are saying the job is open. "We want to take our time, and hopefully get a real sense of someone we can count on at the position," Carroll tells me in our first real one-on-one interview of the season. "We want to do it right. We're not necessarily going to go for the biggest, strongest arm. We'll go for the quarterback we think will help us win."

Still, those who've been around the program the longest quietly believe the choice has all but been made already. They have come to trust Carroll and his instincts. They should. He picked Leinart over Matt Cassel, the backup to Tom Brady who eventually took over when Brady was injured with the New England Patriots, even when the two quarterbacks were basically even coming out of spring practice. He said he sensed something special in Leinart. Whether he senses the same thing in Mark Sanchez is difficult to know, but one thing is clear: Carroll has never had a quarterback controversy in his previous seven years at USC, and he certainly isn't looking for one now. So the sense is that Carroll wants Sanchez, the fourth-year junior who's been around the program for three seasons, to win the job, despite the challenge he knows is coming from flashy Mitch Mustain, the much-hyped transfer from Arkansas.

Around the rest of the country, on ESPN and in most L.A. area newspapers, this has been proclaimed as the hottest spring quarterback duel in college football. These are, after all, two kids who were national prep players of the year their senior seasons in high school. Most of the ardent boosters and alums think this is about which of the two quarterbacks proves to be a better leader and more accurate, mistake-free passer. In the quiet reality of the USC coaching chambers, however, it's about more than that. It is about a philosophy and some off-the-field politics that are understood but never openly discussed, even in the staff's private meetings in Heritage Hall.

Carroll values experience more than anything else, and Sanchez has spent much more time learning the offense than Mustain, who was the scout team quarterback, running opponents' offenses, not USC's, in his first year after transferring from Arkansas. Then there is the potential recruiting fallout involved. Sanchez is from the same rich Orange County pipeline that produced Leinart and Carson Palmer, another Carroll-coached Heisman Trophy winner. Already, the next highly decorated Orange County quarterback, Mater Dei's Matt Barkley, the national prep player of the year as a junior, has committed to USC. Carroll has to be careful not to do anything that would besmirch his reputation among future SoCal quarterback prospects, like maybe choosing a transfer from Arkansas over a highly regarded local kid who had been waiting three years for his chance.

So, although Carroll keeps insisting the position is wide open, it's clear early on in the spring that it is Sanchez's job to lose. The only way he wouldn't be named the starter at the end of spring practice was if, one, he completely screwed up, or, two, Mustain was so spectacular that he thoroughly outplayed him. Both of those options were long shots, especially since the plan was for Sanchez to take 80 percent of the practice snaps with the first-team offense, while Mustain and Aaron Corp, still another Orange County hotshot, would split time taking the majority of their snaps with the second team.

Steve Sarkisian, Carroll's bright, young offensive coordinator, smiles and talks about how much he likes all the quarterbacks, but when you press him, he shrugs and admits what most already know. "Yeah, I'd have to say Mark is ahead going into this," he says, "but we're excited to see what they can all do." What makes this quarterback choice more intriguing is that it's the first time Carroll and Sarkisian have had to make a decision of this magnitude since Norm Chow, the former offensive coordinator, left to accept the same job with the Tennessee Titans. Widely regarded as an offensive genius, at least at the collegiate level, Chow molded both Palmer and Leinart into Heisman winners and did the same for Ty Detmer at BYU. He left USC under a smoggy cloud of controversy when Carroll wanted to move him, or, as Chow's friends contend, "demote him," to quarterbacks coach, taking away his cherished role as a play caller.

The Trojans's program under Carroll seemed at its pinnacle when the head coach was directing the defense and the creative Chow was calling the plays on offense, although the presence of Leinart and Reggie Bush, still another Heisman winner, obviously had something to do with it. Chow had a strong voice and he wasn't afraid to use it, even if he disagreed with Carroll or others on the staff. Some felt it was the kind of creative tension that made everything work on offense. Others weren't so sure. Whatever was going on, the tenseness had begun to grow on the coaching staff. What happened from there still remains somewhat fuzzy. Some felt Chow started receiving what fellow staff members felt was a little too much credit in the media for the offense. At the same time, the role of Lane Kiffin, a young, ambitious assistant and son of Carroll's best friend, Tampa Bay defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin, started to magnify. Carroll wanted the thirty-something Kiffin, who starts this season as the Oakland Raiders head coach, to have more input in the offense, and Chow quietly, or not so quietly, resented it.

Before this season, and this book, is finished, I intend to get Chow and Carroll to corroborate what really happened, what led to Chow departing for the NFL Tennessee Titans, and Carroll moving Kiffin up and hiring Sarkisian, naming them co-offensive coordinators, putting his own stamp on the offense and limiting Chow to work in some other capacity. When that occurred, the writing was on the locker room wall. Everyone knew Chow would accept the first good offer to come along.

When it happened, when Chow was named offensive coordinator of the Titans, Carroll was effusive in his praise of Norm in comments to the media, and Chow talked glowingly of how much he enjoyed his time with Carroll and the Trojans. Those who had been close to the situation, however, understood that it had not been an amicable separation, even if no one would talk about it publicly. For weeks afterward, you could still feel the bitterness lingering in Chow's old office on the second floor of Heritage Hall, not to mention the anger from some Trojans alums, many of whom still believe USC never would have lost that BCS title game shoot-out with Texas the following year if Chow had been calling the plays.

Three years later, in a bittersweet twist of irony, Chow, who had been relieved of his duties in Tennessee, accepted the offensive coordinator's job at UCLA, USC's intense crosstown rival. He'll now be working with a fiery new boss, former Bruins quarterback hero Rick Neuheisel, in Westwood, where UCLA fans are quick to remind their Trojan friends that they haven't been to the national championship game since Chow left.

So now the shadow of Chow is hovering even closer, as Carroll and Sarkisian go about picking the quarterback they hope will help them win when they have to play Chow and the Bruins in what is sure to be an emotionally charged game in December. For Sarkisian, maybe more than Carroll, the stakes are huge. He has evolved into one of America's high-profile assistants, and it was clear after he turned down the Raiders' head coaching job, which eventually went to Kiffin, that his goal was to be a head coach at a major university. First, though, he has to prove he can help the Trojans win a national title without Chow, who, interestingly enough, was his original mentor at BYU.

To do it, Sarkisian and Carroll have to make the right choice at quarterback and then make sure whoever they choose plays within their framework. That becomes more and more evident as the practices progress on Howard Jones Field. As the spring days float by, it is almost as if Sanchez, an energized, enthusiastic, gunslinger type in the Brett Favre mold, is being kept under wraps. Equipped with the strongest arm on campus since Palmer's, he is spending much of his time throwing short, safe passes in practice, a quick slant here, a dump off to a running back there. The emphasis is not on making big plays, but on avoiding mistakes. The plan must be working, because the coaches are smiling and patting him on the back and praising him in the media sessions afterward.

In the meantime, a strange thing is happening. Mustain, who senses he is the underdog in the competition, seems to be going out of his way to take chances. He is a pure passer, and he is consistently completing more balls downfield, particularly to Damian Williams, the exciting wideout who transferred from Arkansas with him. It's apparent the two of them already have a strong on-field rapport, but if the duel seems to be heating up, the coaches are quick to tone it down. Both quarterbacks have been carefully counseled to say the right things to reporters.

"I think this is my job now, and I feel things are going well," says Sanchez, whose dark hair and swarthy features have had fans mistake him for Leinart in the past. "I'm just concentrating on making the right decisions." Mustain rubs a hand through his sandy hair and admits Sanchez is the frontrunner. "I'm just out here trying to learn and get better every day," he says. But every once in a while, in his attempt to be politically correct, he slips and lets the competitive fire show through. "I didn't come here to be a backup," he says at one point, then glances around nervously to make sure there aren't any coaches nearby.

Although the quarterback battle is the focal point of the spring, Carroll has plenty of other things on his mind as March turns into April. Thanks to three years of extraordinary recruiting, his overall talent pool is as deep as ever, especially on defense, but he has to find a replacement for Sedrick Ellis, the All-American nose tackle who was his best football player in 2007, and he must address an offensive line that has only one starter returning. Then there is the always intriguing situation at tailback, where no less than six flashy candidates, almost all high school All Americans, will be competing for carries with another highly regarded addition due in the fall.

None of this is anything new. There is always turnover to deal with in college football. Nevertheless, this particular spring has a sense of urgency attached to it, because the USC schedule, for the first time since Carroll arrived, is highlighted by a monumental early-season matchup. Usually, the biggest games Carroll's Trojans play are in November or early December. Not this time, though. This time, Ohio State will come to the L.A. Coliseum on September 13, in an intersectional that will have obvious BCS bowl implications, with the winner likely to be anointed No. 1 in all the early-season polls.

"We won't treat things any different because of that game," Carroll says. "Our routine will stay the same." Maybe, but the Trojans want to be sure they have their best player starting in Ellis's old spot at nose tackle, and they certainly want to identify the starters in the offensive line well before the week of the Buckeyes' game.

If tailback is a problem, it is a nice one to have. Any one of the six Trojans runners would probably start for crosstown rival UCLA and most of the schools in the Pac-10. They are that good. So Carroll is using the spring to get extended looks at some of his less experienced tailbacks, kids such as Allen Bradford, Marc Tyler, and Broderick Green. The likely fall starter, Stafon Johnson, is being used sparingly, while Joe McKnight, the most exciting of all the runners, is forced to miss the final couple weeks of spring practice for academic reasons, although no one expects that to be an issue come fall.

For any of the tailbacks to have success, first the holes must be there. That's where offensive line coach Pat Ruel comes in. A ruddy-faced veteran of thirty-three years coaching in college and the NFL, Ruel is the prototype football lifer, with a thick moustache and a gravelly voice that some of his linemen must still be hearing when they go to sleep at night. With only one starter back from a year ago in All-American candidate Jeff Byers, Ruel's challenge would seem immense, especially at a school where the pressure is as thick as the often smoggy air. But Carroll never goes into a season caught short at any one position, and he and Ruel are comforted by the fact that several of his linemen not only played extensively but extremely well when injuries hit the line like an unsuspected tsunami a year ago. Kristofer O'Dowd, now a sophomore, was stunningly effective early, subbing for the veteran Matt Spanos at center. Quietly, Carroll and Ruel believe he will be a star. At the other spots, kids like Charles Brown, Butch Lewis, Zack Heberer, Alex Parsons, and Nick Howell all have a chance to be solid college players. Then there's Thomas Herring, the 340-pound monster with quick feet who isn't as mature as the others but has more potential than any of them. "If that kid could ever get it together, he could be unbelievable," Carroll says to a couple of cronies on the sideline one day. "Yeah," admits Ruel, when asked about Herring, "his ceiling is pretty much unlimited. But he's got a ways to go yet. He's not as advanced as some of our other guys."

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from Always Compete by Steve Bisheff. Copyright © 2009 Steve Bisheff. Excerpted by permission of St. Martin's Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Contents

Title Page,
Introduction,
I - Excitement Amid a Fragile Spring,
II - Fall Camp: Going into Crisis Mode Early,
III - Game One: A Healthy Roster and a Quick Identity Test,
IV - Game Two: Finally, It's Time to Play the Buckeyes,
V - Game Three: Always Be Wary of an Old Nemesis,
VI - Game Four: Setting the Tone for the Rest of the Season,
VII - Game Five: A New Star Grapples with a Wounded Knee,
VIII - Game Six: Penalties-R-Us? Say It Ain't So, Yogi,
IX - Game Seven: Raising Arizona and Keeping an Eye on the BCS,
X - Game Eight: "Slu" Is on the Job, but Defense Steals the Spotlight,
XI - Game Nine: A Presidential Vote, a BCS Rant, and a New Challenge from Cal,
XII - Game Ten: The Defection of a Tailback and a Nightmare Revisited,
XIII - Game Eleven: A Great, Historic Rivalry or an Annual Mismatch?,
XIV - Game Twelve: Chow Returns, but Carroll's Defense Rules,
XV - Bowl Game: A Staff Shake-up and a Classic Coaching Duel,
XVI - The Future: A Quarterback Leaves, but the One Constant Remains,
Also by Steve Bisheff,
Acknowledgments,
Copyright Page,