Pete Carroll Pulls a Harbaugh

by aramnath on Nov 30, 2009 5:40 PM EST Comment 2 comments

Carroll's USC Trojans capped off their season with a 28-7 victory over rival UCLA. Carroll decided to throw a deep pass, that resulted in a touchdown with 52 seconds remaining with the Trojans already up 21-7 and in total control of the game. This resulted in the entire USC sideline erupting in celebrations like they had just won the national championship with Carroll joining in the fun. UCLA wanted to brawl, but officials and coaches stepped in to prevent any possibility of this happening.

After the game Big Balls Pete said he thought it wasn't a big deal because UCLA head coach Rick Neuheisel had called a timeout on the play before, indicating to him the game was not over. He then tried to convince the media that he had no problem with Stanford coach, Jim Harbaugh, going for a two-point conversion last week with Stanford already leading 48-21, which we all know is bullshit.

I'm all for teams trying to utterly destroy their rivals. If Michigan was up 38-0 against Ohio State (currently impossible) I would love if we put in another touchdown, went for two, planted a Michigan flag in the endzone and invited Lloyd Carr back to the sidelines so he could burn a replica Jim Tressel sweater vest.

I don't care that Carroll went for an emphatic F-U touchdown against UCLA, USC's biggest rival, but if you bitch and whine about a team running up the score on you after a decade of you doing the same to every team in your conference, don't go out the next week and do the same thing to somebody else.

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Get your facts straight

Carroll didn’t “bitch and whine” about Harbaugh. If he did, post some links because I must have missed it.
Harbaugh’s 2-pt conversion wasn’t “running up the score.” What difference does one point make? What it was was unnecessary and classless. In the history of football, who has ever tried a 2-pt conversion with a 27-pt lead? What’s next, an onside kick?
Carroll has won a lot of games, but he’s never run up the score. If he has, post some links because I must have missed it.
You forgot to mention that USC took a knee on the play before the last touchdown. That’s when UCLA called timeout to indicate they wanted to play on.

by PE on Dec 1, 2009 4:59 PM EST reply actions

1. http://www.sportsbybrooks.com/carroll-to-jim-harbaugh-im-not-forgetting-it-27051
http://dailytrojan.com/2009/11/16/carroll-wonders-what-harbaugh%E2%80%99s-deal-is/

2. You’re right that it’s not running up and I should have called it classless for what it was.

3. If you don’t think Carroll runs up the score than check out what he did to Stanford last year. They are up 38-17 and have the ball with under 2 left. Sure he could just kneel it out but instead he goes for another touchdown to make it 45-17 with his starters in the game. Stanford scored a TD after that to make the final 45-23. I guess Harbaugh got his revenge this year.

Notre Dame last year. 31-3 USC with 10 minutes left in the 4th and ND hasn’t done anything all day. Carroll leaves his first team in the game to add a touchdown and insult to the Irish’s injuries.

Against UCLA last year, up 28-7 late in the fourth, Carroll leaves in his starters throughout the fourth quarter still trying to make plays down the field.

4. Even if UCLA calls timeouts you don’t need to throw a bomb down the field. Run some intermediate routes or run the ball. There was under a minute left and UCLA hadn’t done much of anything all game. I doubt they are going to score a touchdown, recover an onside kick and score a touchdown all with no timeouts which Neuheisel would have burned by that point.

Even after the touchdown Carroll was running and celebrating with his players as if they had just won another national championship. Echoing some of the classlessness showed by Harbaugh a week earlier.

by aramnath on Dec 1, 2009 6:17 PM EST up reply actions