PETE CARROLL WANTS TO GROOVE WITH YOU
Pete Carroll’s Facebook status as of 8:22 a.m. EST was:
Pete doesn’t strike me as a “Who’s That Lady” guy; that guy was my dad, who’d roll the windows down, light up a Vantage cigarette, and put down the Ray-Bans and let the Izod and the newly-washed Chevy Caprice do the talking for him. Nor does he seem like an “It’s Your Thing” guy, either, since that’s too East Coast-sounding and a bit too close to Motown for his tastes.
Let’s see: West Coast smooth production values, just enough funk, redeeming message of social justice, hand claps (you know a Pete Carroll song has to have hand claps)…ah, there it is.
It has to be “Harvest for the World.”
OOOOOOOhhhhh Pete’s TALKING ‘BOUT THE CHIL-REN! Attempting to watch USC football ever again without seeing Pete Carroll clapping along with Ronald Isley talking about the children will be difficult to do, especially since you know he’s probably got a game of Wii tennis going while simultaneously calling a particularly promising 11 year old linebacker out in a middle school in Glenwood.
Filed under: Coaches, the BCS, scandals, arrests, and other eccentri, College football, Pacific 10 Conference by Orson Swindle
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Johnnie, we greatly appreciate your patronage, and your enthusiasm. However, we feel compelled to point out a few basic things that happen in comment threads:
1. Quick insults of your school.
2. Quick insults of another school.
3. Compliments or insults to the writer of the piece.
4. Sodomy/Drug jokes.
Lengthy discourses on your view of society are fine and good. They also don’t belong on this website—that’s what political websites are for, and they’re more than happy to digest eight paragraph theses on the fallacies of altruism and the tragedy of the commons.
With that: you’re yellow carded.
Comment by Orson Swindle — April 19, 2008 @ 12:33 pm
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Oh, that’s it, Samsson. Go ahead and personally insult me, because an SC fan who works the mean streets couldn’t possibly have legitimate reasons to dislike Pete Carroll’s warm and bubbly personality. When other SC students graduate, they move away. I went right into the heart of the problem to work with it. I see shit on a daily basis that would break your heart–shit that, unless you’ve seen it, you wouldn’t believe exists in America–so don’t expect me to fall in love with an overly easy-going man like Pete Carroll or his program.
Most of the mentoring programs and friendly, “I’m here to listen” style initiatives enable the very behavior/problems they’re trying to help. This is a fact. Just like the welfare system. People don’t see that, though because these programs were started with good intentions, because the policy-makers assumed the common person was responsible enough not to abuse the system. Unfortunately, the average person abuses the system.
Supporters of these programs (who would say I’m angry, a disenfranchised black man) stand back from a distance, make a lone appearance every once in a while, and think, this is working. They think it’s making a difference. But if you’re there every day, you see the problem up close and you recognize it beyond whatever excuses are made. So when someone like Pete Carroll thinks he can make a difference, it’s insulting to those of us who are/have been working to fix the problem. We fail not because we are incapable and not because we don’t know how to fix the problem, but because the very people who welcome Pete Carroll don’t listen to us when we tell them what needs to be done. They don’t listen because we tell them the truth, and the truth is unpleasant. They don’t want to hear that, so they want us to rally behind Pete Carroll and be nicer. Play basketball with drug dealers, don’t harass known gangmembers or obvious perps, etc.
Listen, I’ve put in my time. I sacrificed enough for a society that doesn’t seem to care, that wants to keep avoiding the truth because some know-it-all with a positive message thinks he can leave his ivory tower and fix the very problems people like him created. I’ve put my life into helping. But the middle class is disappearing. The ghetto is getting bigger. You can hate on me now, call me crazy, ignore what I’m saying, but more than fifty-percent of kids born to the lowest socio-economic classes are dropping out of high school. When your city, neighborhood, block, whatever, is ruined or is surrounded by ruin, don’t say, “What happened?” Don’t wonder what went wrong.
Comment by Johnnie Cochring — April 19, 2008 @ 12:25 pm
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Where did it say that PC was using the ’same techniques’ he uses in coaching to try and change the area around USC’s campus? Much was made of him going into the neighborhood in that article but that’s only a small part of this. He has started a foundation that is at least trying to help…
In answer to the now 6 year old OJ at practice story, he showed up uninvited to an Orange Bowl practice and it would have been much worse to stop the practice and make a scene running him off. He was told he was no longer welcome at USC practices so that ended that…
JC is just another disenfrachised grad or a posuer…
Comment by samsson — April 18, 2008 @ 10:40 pm
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Johnnie Cochring:
@ 36 - that’s a very valid argument. It’s equally possible that as a figurehead, he might open the door for people listening to the messages you’re espousing. But if teachers, preachers, and cops aren’t getting the message across, it may be a reach to think that Carroll can. Plus, the delivery you’re looking for is so completely at odds with his usual persona, it would be dismissed as hypocrisy from the get-go. Damned either way, I suppose.
@ 37. RE: your concerns. 1) Agreed. 2) Don’t care, don’t see that making me part of the problem. It’s a business, and having celebrities alongside is a revenue raising tactic like selling passes to high-roller alumni. 3) See comments above.
If you don’t want to support SC because you think Pete Carroll’s charitable activities aren’t up to snuff, that’s certainly your prerogative. I suspect that he’s doing more than Larry Smith, John Robinson, and Paul Hackett ever did, and they are - or were, in Smith’s case - good men, as coaches go.
Comment by DC Trojan — April 18, 2008 @ 12:14 am
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As a SC alum, here is where Pete Carroll lost points with me:
1) Letting OJ Simpson talk to the team before the Orange Bowl: This was bullshit, plain and simple. Whether you believe OJ is innocent or guilty, he’s too controversial to be allowed to speak to the team. In fact, he’s a total piece of shit. Carroll should have shown some integrity (balls) and barred OJ from speaking to the team.
2) Allowing Snoop Dogg and other celebrities (almost all of whom did not graduate from SC) on the sideline: If you don’t understand what’s wrong with this, you’re part of the problem
3) Starting the “A Better LA” program but doing it with an utterly vague/weak stance on crime/gangs, discipline, and responsibility.
Because of these three things, I will not root for USC, despite graduating from there, while Pete Carroll is the coach
Comment by Johnnie Cochring — April 17, 2008 @ 11:12 pm
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I don’t blame Carroll for LA’s problems, but the point I was trying to make is that his approach to coaching is not an applicable solution to the community. Carroll makes attempts to improve inner-city LA, admirable as that may be, and working in that environment, I don’t agree with his approach because it is “THE LAST THING inner-city kids need. They don’t need to be given anything because society has already given a great deal and it is ignored. Talk to a teacher or tutor in South Central, Pico-Union, or East Los ANgeles. Ask them about their turnout to FREE tutoring. Ask about the plethora of programs provided that these kids don’t even take advantage of. Obviously, as someone who works in this area, it’s a little unnerving when Pete Carroll strolls in like a hotshot, walks up to the very kids teachers and probation officers have been working with for years, and gives them something, or listens to their excuses, or talks about how he’s going to present opportunities to them, when others have been presenting opportunities, help, and sympathy for years to no avail.
It is admirable that Carroll cares, but his methods–which are, as you, I, and everyone else who pays attention know to be successful for the Trojans–are not what inner-city youth need. The players he coaches have unusual talent. Using the same approach with dropouts, delinquents,
If Carroll would tell kids to get their ass out of bed, quit making excuses, reject the losers in their communities who convince them to join gangs and sling dope, stop abandoning pregnant girlfriends, etc. I’d have a greater appreciation for him. He could do this and should do this, but he doesn’t. He feeds the problem, IMO, because he doesn’t condemn certain behaviors that need to be condemned. There is nothing cool about gangs. Nothing good. Nothing. Men like Pete Carroll–if they want to be involved, which he does–must clearly speak out against these violent, criminal groups. Because, as hopeless as it may sound, there will never be any improvement in Los Angeles’ inner-city communities until a great majority of people in those communities reject the practice of tagging, reject gang membership, make education a priority, and decide to do whatever they can do to help improve society. There are people in those communities now who think like this, but there are not enough. Pete Carroll, in his outreach efforts, could help. He needs to change his message and delivery. If he can’t do that, then he needs to step out of the way.
Again, Carroll can’t fix this, but I’d like to hear him–since he is a pretty powerful voice–clearly condemn certain behaviors which are clearly proven to be detrimental to Los Angeles and society in general.
Comment by Johnnie Cochring — April 17, 2008 @ 10:05 pm
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Johnnie Cochring @ various: I haven’t lived in LA since I graduated from SC, which was a while ago, so I won’t comment about your general misanthropy. My last memories of campus involved going past the National Guard to get beer at the 3-2 market before graduation and the smell of burnt buildings in the air; I’m not one to romanticize the surrounding area.
However, conflating your anger about social policy with your animus towards Pete Carroll has led you to make an argument that is complete balls. Utter tripe.
Go and take a look at the level of effort put in by the coaching staff at SC. Go and take a look at the level of effort put in by the players in practice, on the field. There’s hard work and personal discipline there, in spades. That program is the epitome of the old phrase, “The harder I work, the luckier I get.”
Is it easier to build a winning program with good players? Sure. But Miami and FSU haven’t been short on talented players lately and it hasn’t done them much good - someone has to get them pointed in the right direction and come up with a plan more complicated than “throw further, run faster, hit harder.”
Just because the tone of coaching at USC is not “sir yes sir!” doesn’t mean it’s a bad approach. I can shut up and work and get plenty done when the condition suck, but I do even better work when we approach shit conditions with a positive tone.
The success is what counts, not being miserable on the way there. And as a Scot steeped in cultural calvinism, I know from being miserable along the way.
Plainly you’ve got some problems with the way things are in Los Angeles, but trying to make a football coach as emblematic of the causes of generations of social dysfunction is to make a strawman of epic proportions. You might as well blame Pete Carroll for the increased price of oil because he drives a Range Rover.
Comment by DC Trojan — April 17, 2008 @ 9:32 pm
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Johnie C.
You may have come up with your own solution, albeit inadvertantly. Perhaps a change of venue for you would ease your mind…and I might suggest the very place you seem to have taken a shot at: Miami of Ohio.
Oxford is a very bucolic setting; simply a gorgeous campus in a friendly small town, abutting a scenic state park. You won’t ever have to worry about the safety of walking the streets at any time of day or night, and your car and/or bike won’t be hassled. True, there is no ocean/beach to be had, but if you like being able to be outdoors, amid lots of mature, mixed deciduous trees and red brick, Georgian architecture you could do a lot worse.
The school is extremely highly regarded academically and is, if I remember correctly, the oldest university west of the Appalachian Mountains. It was, literally, a university when Florida still belonged to Spain.
The MAC may not be the PAC-10 athletically, but if you truyly enjoy real coaching, the football team has consistently offered it, which is why it is known as “The Cradle Of Coaches.” Weeb Eubank, Woody Hayes, Ara Parseghian, Bo Schembechler and Randy Walker, among others, all coached there.
Just a thought. Student or not, it is a nice place to be.
Comment by StageCoach — April 17, 2008 @ 6:42 pm
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It probably is creepy. But it’s what happens to a sane person when he works too long in the heart of Los Angeles’ gangland. In my career, I encounter hopelessness on a daily basis. I don’t want to discuss what I specifically do because I work for the government, but as Socalbryan indicated, those of us who live or work in downtown LA (especially those who work in law enforcement, education, and social work) are tired of watching this city decay while the powers that be throw us under the bus every chance they get. I don’t believe Pete Carroll’s approach is the right way, nor do I think lowering educational standards to improve the abysmal graduation rates in LA is the answer. His heart is good, though. He’s just unaware of the severity of problems in the inner-city and thinks it’s a much easier fix than it actually is.
Obviously, Knox, there’s more to it than just star ratings, but since there’s been such a thing as star ratings, it’s fairly well-documented that the last six or seven (how ever long they’ve kept records) national champions (including Texas a few years back) have averaged top fifteen or better recruiting classes in the years prior to their victory.
I know there are plenty of arguments for and against these ratings, which I don’t care to argue, because with or without them, Pete Carroll has a superfluous amount of talent, more than any team he faces. I don’t see how anyone could argue that he is more of a coach than he is just a recruiter. He’s a lot like Bobby Bowden. Heck, he’s a lot like most of these guys. Personally, I’ve always been one to think it’s more impressive coaching when a coach goes 8-4 with a moderately talented team than it is to go 13-0 with a supremely talented team.
Comment by Johnnie Cochring — April 17, 2008 @ 4:34 pm
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Johnnie Cochring, you definitely have to work on being a little more concise in your hate. Rambling on for sentence after sentence definitely doesn’t help your cause.
If we’re talking about superior talent alone being enough to succeed in college football, I would expect Notre Dame to do a heck of a lot better than they have been doing. You could probably add Oklahoma to that mix too, and Bob Stoops is considered a better than average coach.
As for strategies being more effective when you have superior talent, let’s just say that’s pretty darn obvious.
You claim that his strategies would fail if he didn’t have superior talent. Well, first of all, I’m not sure if that’s true, we’d have to see him use the same strategies with lesser player. More importantly, you develop strategies based on the players you have. If your qb is completely immobile, the spread is probably not a good offense to run.
Without more evidence for your claims, I find your arguments unconvincing.
Comment by Jeff from LA — April 17, 2008 @ 4:29 pm
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30, i was agreeing with Johnnie’s critique of los angeles.
i would agree with you that recruiting isnt everything and that to be successful you’ve got to have good coaching.
Comment by socalbryan — April 17, 2008 @ 4:15 pm
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so the reason why SC is so good is because of average recruit stars? Oh that explains why Texas has gone to 6 straight NC Title games. Check the average star rating of ND’s O-line last year. yeah… ok, no coaching needed at all.
Comment by Knox — April 17, 2008 @ 3:29 pm
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As a trojan alumni and a life-long resident of the greater los angeles area (Orange County) I can say that I 100% concur with “Johnnie.” I can honestly say that the scariest semester of my life occurred when I lived 4 blocks from USC… in the right direction (if there is one). Campus is an oasis in a cesspool of racial hatered (between blacks and Mexicans, who are actually Mexican citizens and not Mexican-Americans) and crime. The only thing that’s going to save USC is the incredible amount of investment taking place two miles north in downtown LA. If we give gentrification a chance, it just might save LA and USC.
As for me, I’m tired of seeing this city go downhill. In fact, I’m so fed up I’m moving because I’m not sure it will get better. Those of you in NY, I’ll see you at the bar exam in July; I’m done being a lawya in dees parts.
Comment by socalbryan — April 17, 2008 @ 3:24 pm
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Barrack Obama’s bitter comment was directed at the wrong disenfranchised group! His comments were obviously meant for the frustrated, self-righteous, urban-fearing, pansy litigators of this country.
Seriously, Johnnie, your hate for Pete Carroll (and USC real estate for that matter) is a little creepy. He just wants to win forever, that’s all.
Comment by CrazyPi — April 17, 2008 @ 3:13 pm
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BTW, if you do move here, might have to look into changing that name.
Just sayin’.
Comment by hunglikehussain — April 17, 2008 @ 2:46 pm
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@21
Johnnie, move to THE south(not Atlanta, Miami,etc). You’ll be elected to the office of your choice in no time.
I mean it, I’d vote for ya.
Comment by hunglikehussain — April 17, 2008 @ 2:40 pm