A Glutton for Punishment

As much as I want Petey to leave USC to make the PAC a little more competitive for the rest of us (look at the turnaround he gave that program if you don’t believe me) I have to ask Arthur Blank what the hell he is thinking.

What is the most appealing thing about Carroll? It could be any number of things his record of fair play, his 76-14 record at Southern Cal, the one and a half National Championships he brought SC, his offensive wisdom, or great recruiting. Wait… Fair play? National Championships? Recruiting? Those are things that make a great college coach. Those are things to look for when searching for a college coach. Despite Atlanta’s performance this past season, aren’t they a PRO Team.


33-31 as an NFL head coach. More than twice as many losses and less than half of the wins. He wasn’t bad, he was over .500 and even won the AFC East in his first year in New England. Pete Carroll might deserve a second chance as an NFL coach. It’s every coaches dream to be successful on the next level. But there are more than a few reasons to reconsider this.


Let’s look at the teams that entered the playoffs this season:

Belichick – NFL assistant/Coordinator for 16 years before his first NFL Head Coaching gig
Gibbs – NFL Asst. 7 years before his first NFL Head Coaching gig
Coughlin – NFL Asst. 7 years before coaching in college (BC for 2 years) then first NFL Head Coaching gig
Phillips – NFL Asst. 16 years before first NFL Head Coaching gig
Holmgren – NFL Asst. 5 years before first NFL Head Coaching gig
McCarthy – NFL Asst. 12 years before first NFL Head Coaching gig
Gruden – NFL Asst. 7 years before first NFL Head Coaching gig
Del Rio – NFL Asst. 6 years before first NFL Head Coaching gig
Tomlin – NFL Asst. 6 years before first NFL Head Coaching gig
Turner – NFL Asst. 7 years before first NFL Head Coaching gig
Fisher – NFL Asst. 10 years before first NFL Head Coaching gig
Dungy – NFL Asst. 15 years before first NFL Head Coaching gig

Then there’s these reasons why not to hire Carroll, the coaches with less then 5 years in the NFL before becoming Head Coaches:

Lane Kiffin – (4-12) in his first season with Oakland
Brad Childress – (14-18) in his first 2 seasons with Minnesota
Cam Cameron – (1-15) in only season with Dolphins
Scott Linehan – (11-21) in 2 seasons in St. Louis


And of course remember Bobby Petrino – (3-10) before deserting the Falcons this year


And these aren’t the only college coaches who failed on the next level, just the ones of recent memory. You need to be in and around the NFL in a low stress/low focus position for a few years, 5 at least, in order to learn the NFL game and be successful. It’s a lot different and not just because the clock stops on 1st downs and one foot in bounds is all you need for a completion. It’s a vastly different game. Blank do both you and Carroll a favor go after an NFL assistant, a coordinator, preferably one in the game for awhile looking for an opportunity. And as a side note look out for Norm Chow to take the reigns at an NFL program in about 3 years and become one of the better NFL coaches. If he can wait the requisite 5 years to take a shot.