College Archive

What is Pete Carroll thinking? I'll tell you. He's trying to get good rest.

This is a bad thing for Pete Carroll and a bad thing for major college football.

Besides going back to an otherwise unsuccessful venture in the NFL (Carroll is 33-31 in four NFL seasons), he’s leaving what could possibly be a dynasty as one of America’s proudest institutions of college football — despite allegations of wrongdoing in the Reggie Bush era. His team, his name and the Trojan symbol are all synonymous with college football success.

Carroll made that happen.

More importantly, year in and year out, he brings the Pac-10 — the west coast — legitimacy in major college football. Losing him is a blow to other Pac-10 teams who continually fail to reach major bowls, thus missing out on all of the money that is split between the universities.

Seattle on the other hand, is a lost cause. Stuck with a quarterback who they think is franchise-worthy (Matt Hasselbeck), burdened by a lack of dominant running options (Julius Jones, Justin Forsett), and a defense that ranked 24th in overall in the NFL, they are a project in the making.

This is going to require an overhaul. Is Pete up for that? Apparently so. Is it a smart decision. I don’t think so.

This is what I’ll call a “what-if” decision. I’m sure Pete, who has won national championships and is at the top of the college football echelon, wakes up in the middle of the night every offseason or so and thinks to himself, “Could I be this good in the NFL? What if I stuck it out?”

Every man wants to test the waters and be successful at the highest levels of his profession. It’s what makes the good guys (and gals) tick. The problem is, folks like Pete don’t realize how they’ve already proven to all onlookers that they’re the best at what they do, and that a new job at a higher level, isn’t going to change that perception.

He will always be one of the greatest coaches in football history. That’s cemented.

But here’s the trick: Pete, and other coaches and players like him, are never proving anything to us. It’s about those burning questions that keep them up at night. Right now, he’s working on proving to himself whether or not he can do it. All we can do is watch in amusement, in what could be a train wreck for a dynasty.

Two teams, two colleges and two states I don’t give two …. well you get the picture.

This is not like USC-Texas in 2005, when I was openly celebrating a California-Texas rivalry — even though I don’t care for Southern California much. It doesn’t have the allure of that hype.

Yes, it’s the national championship, so the fervor is always there. But the fandom is lacking. These BCS games don’t feel like real championships. And as long they’re decided by some computer and a subjective voting process, they’ll always feel questionable.

So I really could care less who wins. But with that being stated, I do hope that Alabama pulls it out and smashes the Longhorns. Nothing against Colt McCoy, but I hate Texas. There’s something weird about that state. I used to joke with a college professor of mine that everything weird happens in either Texas or Florida. I wasn’t that far off from being right.

Tune in, 8 p.m. EDT (5 p.m. PDT) on ABC to see who wins between Texas and Alabama in the BCS “National Championship.” I’ll be live tweeting the game from home. Follow me at @addisports.

And here I thought everyone loved “A Few Good Men.”

Too bad Mike Leach would be a terrible Col. Jessep. He’d have no compelling speech (even though his lawyers intend to craft one) in which to base his silly hazing on receiver Adam James, who was punished for getting a concussion apparently.

Lies in Leach’s eyes. Hysteria for the sports world.

He actually told James to stand in a small, dark room and not leave or he would be kicked off the team (if you believe James). If that’s not a special kind of crazy, I don’t know what is.