Games of Knowledge | Sports and Exercise

Posted By Games Guy on July 30, 2010

 

Trojan football has been a part with the NCAA since 1888, with the University of Southern California group having consistently been one of the teams to beat. With 11 national titles to the program’s credit, the Trojans have spent much of their history dominating the Pacific 10 Conference in which they compete, although also routinely threatening the national championship picture. Over the last decade, USC has spent a great deal of their time ranked within the extremely top tier from the vote tabulations that have counted: the Associated Press (AP) and Bowl Championship Series (BCS) polls. Over the course of that decade, the Trojans were led by Coach Pete Carroll, who made a name for both himself and his group having a fast-paced style of offense and hard-nosed defense.

Not the 1st choice

Proving that hindsight is indeed 20/20, Carroll’s initial selection in 2000 as the coach with the USC team was an unwelcome 1 from the perspective of both fans and alumni alike. Coming as he did from the coaching ranks with the NFL – and not having coached from the college game for far more than a decade and a half – there were quite a few who believed that he was merely not the man for the work. On the other hand, after 1st attempting to lure Oregon State’s coach to the group, and then following that up with a failed attempt to acquire the coach from Oregon and an unsuccessful overture to Mike Riley on the San Diego Chargers organization, USC’s athletic department eventually settled for Carroll. To his credit, Pete had never backed away from openly campaigning for the career, which he saw as perfect fit for him and his family. The truly odd thing about the reluctance to hire him is the fact that USC had in truth tried to hire him three years before, but he was unable to leave his employment using the Patriots.

A bumpy start

From the beginning of Carroll’s time at USC it appeared as though he along with the group have been providing his critics more than their fair share of ammunition. The 2001 campaign began about as badly as it could have, with the Trojans limping out to a 2 win and 5-loss beginning towards the season. Immediately, the sports media began calling Carroll’s hiring a mistake, declaring that the mighty Trojans had been now doomed to fade even farther into mediocrity.

Instead, Carroll’s system started to see the results he knew it would, plus the USC Trojans roared back to life. Inside the procedure, they amassed a record of 67 victories with only 7 defeats, whilst winning a pair of national titles and once again cementing USC’s position as a dominant football program. His teams also managed to win every single Pac-10 conference championship title between 2003 and 2008. Within a few short seasons of his hiring, of course, the media consensus had changed its tune, and now held that he had not been a mistake at all, but had rather been one of the finest hires in college football history.

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Category: games of sport
Tags: Associated Press, Bowl Championship Series, Coach Pete Carroll, College Game, Hindsight, Initial Selection, Last Decade, Mike Riley, National Championship, National Titles, Paced Style, Perfect Fit, Reluctance, San Diego Chargers, southern Cal, Southern Cal Trojans, Southern California Group, Trojan Football, Trojans, University Of Southern California, Usc Team, Vote Tabulations