Maybe I’m just unreasonably suspicious, but I hope someone is loking into these couple paragraphs:

Not only did Carroll help the university at the hearing, he also helped when it came to securing USC’s stellar recruiting class, which was rated by some recruiting services as the best in the country. He admitted he assured players on the fence that they were in good hands with Kiffin as well as Carroll’s mentor, Monte Kiffin, Lane’s father and USC’s new defensive coordinator.

“I tried to help [Kiffin] along the way and make sure [this recruiting class] happened,” Carroll said. “All those kids we worked so hard to get, we wanted to support him and give him any insight that he needed, and they did a fine job of finishing up and hitting on a couple of other kids we weren’t on. He really made it a great class.”

If Pete Carroll was no longer the coach for Southern Cal, to my understanding, he shouldn’t have been allowed to contact recruits. I would be interested in knowing how he was able to tell every one of his recruits that they were “in good hands with Kiffin” and his staff if Kiffin wasn’t confirmed as coach until well after Carroll himself had already left. (If this had been a case of Kiffin being an obvious successor before Carroll’s departure and Carroll endorsed him before leaving, that would be one thing, but Garrett flailed around and settled on Kiffin well after Carroll was gone.)

Given their history of bringing in extra on-field coaches and calling them “advisors” (or whatever the term was, if I’m wrong on the sham title they used) trying to skirt the NCAA limits, this seems like more of the same, to me, at least.