I am sure everyone here has their own memorable moments from last Saturday's game. I had a bunch of them. And one of my favorite was this:
Thanks again goes out to snipestreet dot com for that priceless screen cap.
Yes that's the deer-in-the-headlights-I-am-a-poser-headcoach look I used to see almost every Sunday when I lived in Bean town from 96 to 99. That's the look I used to see in the Globe and the Herald's sports sections on Mondays after the usual pathetic performances from a Pete Carroll "coached" Patriots.
You see most of the Southern Cal bandwagoning tools don't know this. Pom Pom was never exactly a great leader as a football coach. He was basically a reject, a toolshed NFL head coach, who was a pretty good defensive coordinator (I thought he did a good job with the Niners as a DC for year), but he was quiet possibly one of the worst head coaches ever to work in the NFL. Here is Bill Simmons, ESPN's Sportsguy calling, Pom Pom out as Steve Lavin of the NFL:
I STILL can't shake the feeling that Pete Carroll sucks as a coach. I know, I know ... he's great in college. It's indisputable. He gives his team a certain level of confidence that other teams just don't have, and they never stop pushing the envelope. Still, watching him stomp around on the sidelines as the game was seemingly slipping away, I was talking on the phone to my father, and Dad was giggling and saying, "Look at Pete, we've seen that deer-in-the-headlights routine before, haven't we?" And we both started laughing. Keep in mind, the guy has won like 28 straight games in college. Then, when Pete was "pretending" to call for the fake spike on the last play -- and the NBC announcers believed him, even though it seemed like his acting coach was Andrew Shue -- I just couldn't handle it. HOW IS THIS GUY A GREAT COLLEGE COACH???? What's happening here? He's the EXACT SAME GUY as he was in New England?
Simmons jotted down that bit while watching the Irish-Trojan game from 2005. Pom Pom won that day riding the talents of Ball Room dancer and Reggie "House" Bush. But Simmons was still on the money on Pom Pom being one of the worst coaches ever to work in the NFL.Simply put Pom Pom's New England's teams were a joke. They were disorganized, undisciplined, and always played without much focus or interest. And keep in mind Pom Pom didn't take over exactly a mediocre NFL team. He took over a team, which Bill Parcells had built into a Super Bowl team, losing to Green Bay in the 1997 Super Bowl. Yet in 3 years Pom Pom drove that organization into a ditch (before being built up by Bellichik and Brady) which led to him getting fired for the second time in as many opportunities he got as an NFL head coach. In his first opportunity he got fired as the head coach of the New York Jets, just after one season.
Yes Carroll was nothing short of a joke as the New York Jets head coach, as his team imploded down the stretch losing 4 games in a row, after starting the season 6-5. From the Wiki:
Optimism was high for the 1994 season when the Jets started the season 6-5 and played Miami on November 27. The Jets won a number of dramatic games, including a thrilling home overtime win against the Denver Broncos. However, the season was defined by the game against the Dolphins, and specifically a play from Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino. After the Jets had dominated the Dolphins for much of the afternoon, Marino fooled Jet defender Aaron Glenn into thinking that he would spike the ball to stop the clock, then threw the winning touchdown to Mark Ingram with less than a minute left for an improbable victory. The play came to be known as "The Fake Spike," and ultimately would prove an unrecoverable blow to the Jets' momentum. The Jets would lose their last four games, finishing the season 6-10, last place in the AFC East. Carroll was fired after only one season and replaced by former Philadelphia Eagles coach Rich Kotite.
I remember that play by Marino really well. Remember watching it from the pizza joint at Cooperage (if it is still there). But anyways Carroll turned out to be a joke and I think from there on he went on to be the DC for the Niners and did a decent job, which led him to getting a second chance in New England.And once again I will let Bill Simmons tell you exactly how the Pats felt about Pom Pom, who Simmons tagged as "Coach Fredo" (emphasis mine):
Once upon a time, back when I was still living in Boston, Pete Carroll did a terrible job coaching the New England Patriots. Eventually, they fired him. But not before I gave him the nickname "Coach Fredo" on my old Web site.
Deep down, I always felt bad about it. Pete seemed like a good guy. Of course, that was the problem -- there wasn't anything coach-like about him. His teams consistently screwed up and did dumb things. His players consistently walked all over him and found trouble off the field. Even in his press conferences, beat writers found ways to undermine him and make him look bad. Poor Pete carried himself like a giddy substitute teacher for an inner-city high school, the high-energy dude who strolls in hoping to change everyone for the better and ends up getting duct-taped to his desk and covered with gobs of whiteout. That was Pete Carroll in New England.
That was from a LIVEBLOG following last year's Rose Bowl. You can read the whole entry by going here. Wonder if Simmons will follow up following Coach Fredo's latest debacle at the Rose Bowl.Deep down, I always felt bad about it. Pete seemed like a good guy. Of course, that was the problem -- there wasn't anything coach-like about him. His teams consistently screwed up and did dumb things. His players consistently walked all over him and found trouble off the field. Even in his press conferences, beat writers found ways to undermine him and make him look bad. Poor Pete carried himself like a giddy substitute teacher for an inner-city high school, the high-energy dude who strolls in hoping to change everyone for the better and ends up getting duct-taped to his desk and covered with gobs of whiteout. That was Pete Carroll in New England.
Anyways thankfully after all these years the real Pete Carroll is getting exposed in Los Angeles, which of course is currently owned by the UCLA football program.
We have already shown how Pom Pom's "student athletes" have turned Southern Cal into Miami of the West. They have become a joke of a college program making a mockery of the concept of "student-athletes."
And now after departures of the Ball Room Dancer and Reggie - Free House - Bush Carroll once again is getting exposed as nothing short of a glorified substitute teacher, who can coach a little defense (although apparently he is not as good as our DeWayne Walker).
Pom Pom's offense is clearly missing Chow. They have been getting away most of the year overpowering lesser talented teams because they just come at you with 5 star recruits at every position. But when they get punched in the mouth, they get exposed as nothing short a Dorrell like offense which is boring and predictable. And I got news for those delusional Trojan fans. It ain't gonna be a quick fix by firing your OC. You still have Pom Pom in charge.
Meanwhile, rumors are heating up about Pom Pom looking for an escape route from South Central. Stories are brewing about how the academic types (yes there are some of those over at Southern Cal) who are getting sick and tired of Carroll's on campus goons.
Up until now Pom Pom has been thriving with unquestioned support from the Southern Cal boosters, who really care about nothing except for their semi-professional football program. But now that Pom Pom is on the verge of a different kind of "3-Pete" at the Rose Bowl, he may be losing the core of his support around Southern Cal.
Plus you still have the ongoing investigations around Bush. We haven't heard the final resolutions around those issues. So no wonder rumors are heating up Pom Pom leaving Southern Cal at the end of season or sometime soon.
So all this will set up for some interesting theater during this upcoming Rose Bowl. Watch for that deer-in-the-headlight look again coming from giddy substitute teacher leading his group of campus goons from Southern Cal.
GO BRUINS and GO BLUE.