The Simple Truth on USC: They were "Begging for Trouble"
by markusr2007 on Jun 11, 2010 11:36 AM CDT
in College Football
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Former USC head coach Pete Carroll and USC Athletic Director Mike Garrett (AP Photo, Reed Saxon)
While USC athletic director, Mike Garrett, former head coach Pete Carroll, and even current Trojan head coach Lane Kiffin all remain defiant and unashamed following the NCAA's announcement of harsh penalties against the Trojan football program , members of the local sports media have turned in some interesting responses.
"How could we have known?"
Yeah, like seriously, how in the world could they have known?
While listening to ESPN 710 yesterday, the host of the program quoted a very telling comment on Twitter from San Jose Mercury News sports columnist Tim Kawakami:
"Covered a few USC games in that era--Locker room after games was crammed with hangers-on & other parasites. Begging for trouble."
Aside from winning lots of college football games, Pete Carroll did indeed do some tremendous things for USC and the Los Angeles community. I think he's a good person who genuinely cares about his players and loves to coach and have fun. However, as great as Pete Carroll was, his USC legacy is going to be forever changed by this disgrace. "Yeah, but USC cheated!", they will say from now until eternity.
Reggie Bush and Pete Carroll are now in the NFL earning millions of dollars in entirely new endeavors, but following this devastating hammer blow from the NCAA, the question must now be asked:
Was it worth it?
Was it really worth it? There's a lots of ways to break NCAA rules by improper recruiting methods, not accounting for coaches and player practice hours, gambling on events, or just taking money. But to audaciously break NCAA rules by allow sports agent access, cash "playments", plane tickets and real estate benefits from sports agents to players and family, and then many other illegal gifts all while feigning eligibility, well, that's just plain dumb.
More importantly, the actions by Reggie Bush, Pete Carroll and Mike Garrett now unfairly punish an entire roster of young USC recruits who were mostly freshman and sophomores in high school when all of this brazen stupidity occurred. They had absolutely nothing to do with Reggie Bush and sports agent shenanigans.
The NCAA penalties will seriously affect USC's football program in the coming years. There can be no doubt about that. It's not SMU's penalty, but come 2012-2013 USC's symptoms may appear very similar. As for USC football players and USC fans, apparently it's just a little too much to ask cocky Mike Garrett, Pete Carroll and Reggie Bush to take it like men, fess up to their ineptitude and greed and just apologize. They don't get it. They set a poor example which has been publicly exposed, and the slaps in the face keep coming as they act "shocked", lack shame and evade responsibility.
What should worry us more is whether young athletes today can look at what has happened at USC with Pete Carroll and Reggie Bush (who may lose his Heisman Trophy because he was ineligible) and how it registers with them. What lessons are being learned by all of this? The message I'm getting from the USC AD, former head coach, and former star player is that they are being treated unfairly and that they did nothing wrong.
When you act in improperly, get caught and things start to go wrong, deny it, and blame it on someone else. Or someone else's envy.
Maybe it's just me, but I think this is a horrible lesson to teach the next generation.
What's badly needed now is for someone in the former USC regime to finally accept responsibility and issue a formal apology. That would be the right and honorable thing to do not only for themselves but for the tens of thousands of fans who love college football.
Unfortunately, given what we've observed over the last several months from the likes of Garrett, Carroll and Bush, USC fans - and all college football fans nationwide - are highly unlikely to ever receive anything of the kind.
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U-M needs to grab some of these guys...
I need to see Rich Rod all over this, especially with the loss of Dorsey, its a great opportunity to swoop in and pick up 2 guys who can come over and contribute right away. I think it almost HAS to happen. I admittedly dont know who might fit the schemes or who might be willing to transfer, but I see a nice opportunity here.
What are the chances?
So…do you really think UM, another major program currently under the NCAA magnifying glass, has a shot at recruiting disgruntled/disillusioned players from USC? Remember, very few people believed that USC would receive much in the way of sanctions. I hear the same from the Michigan blogosphere. (a la “We’ll just get a hand-slap.” )
by Pompano Buckeye on Jun 11, 2010 2:03 PM CDT reply actions
It's time for
backchannels. This is where an assistant calls an high school coach who calls a friend who calls a players’ family.
Less memorable than Sam Okey's Hawkeye career.
by Kyle McCann't on Jun 11, 2010 2:23 PM CDT up reply actions
My take is that USC and Michigan's
circumstances are very different. Yes, both are high profile programs and both are under the NCAA microscope, but Michigan is unlikely to get major scholarship reductions and bowl bans. Unlike USC, and namely Reggie Bush, Michigan fully cooperated with the NCAA, immortalizing it’s organizational ineptitude for all to see, and fully acknowledged (agreed with) 4 out of the 5 allegations (except the one about Rodriguez and the “atmosphere of compliance”).
Sure, the NCAA could respond to Michigan in August by saying “no-no, you gotta pay for that one” and limit practice hours or even take away a number of scholarships. That’s possible. Someone compared UM’s transgressions to SD State from a few years ago. I don’t know that they lost any scholarships. If we look at the facts of Michigan’s case, it’s way less egregious. There’s no improper recruiting methods, improper gifts from agents or boosters, nor players getting paid for jobs not performed, etc. I don’t think bowl bans (what bowl games? : ) ) would fit Michigan’s crime here.
As far as convincing USC players to jump ship and consider Midwest schools, I think some will definitely consider their options. Actually all teams not named USC stand a chance to gain from USC troubles for the next 4 years, including presumably Ohio State, who lost out on Seantrel Henderson by the width of a butthair. Michigan did better under Lloyd Carr in California recruiting, so we’ll see if Rodriguez/G. Robinson (UCLA connections) get out to the Golden State more often.
Also, watch out for Nebraska in the future. It’s weird, but hey’ve done extremely well in recruiting good athletes from the clutches of USC and UCLA historically.
Go Blue!
Dear DFWtrojan and conquest chronicles
HA
Sincerely,
Everyone
GO BLUE! http://www.maizenbrew.com/
by SCM on Jun 11, 2010 3:45 PM CDT via mobile reply actions
i have had my run-ins with the commenter you mention
and many of his ilk on conquest chronicles. but i still think it is a good website and paragon and dc trojan do a good job. i don’t have much desire to participate on the site ever again due to the hue and cry of the rabble in the comments but the entries themselves are well worth your time to check out.
Roll 'Bama Roll: The Champagne of 'Bama Blogs.
I'm not sure all of them are being unfairly punished.
Hear me out. The USC situation is not new. It’s not something that’s been hushed up or quietly discussed, it’s been front page news for years. If you were a hotly recruited 18 year old, being told by the media, other players, and the USC culture that you could go there and be treated like a rock star, wouldn’t you? Wouldn’t you want to be where the actors hung out? And maybe you could get a little something extra. That’s the way it works there, and there are never any consequences. Coach says there aren’t any problems, and nothing bad happens to the school, so wouldn’t you take that?
This isn’t to say that there aren’t plenty of hard working, squeaky clean kids there. But I have to believe that some of them went there for the glory.
We’ll see how many of this years class asks to get out of their LOI, because they will feel they were lied to. And how many upperclassmen flee.
It never gets to be easy
it seems a lot of the trojan nation...
is equating admitting responsibility with the appeals process. the sentiment out of heritage hall is “we did nothing wrong” not “we erred but feel the punishment should fit the crime.” and that’s not just wrong – it’s precisely the kind of attitude that makes it almost a certainty the situation will occur once again. the lesson here is one we alabama fans know intimately.
Roll 'Bama Roll: The Champagne of 'Bama Blogs.
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