Yesterday we noted that the rare (and kind of too little too late) LA Times (the official house organ of Southern Cal Trogans in Tinseltown's traditional media landscape) special report on Cheatey Pete Carroll getting exposed as a liar, featured prominent on the record quotes from a Trojan alumnus specializing in sports law. Then we learned about the details of Cheatey Petey's Seinfeldesque HBO interview which turned him into a "frikin' lame" joke across the nation.
It looks like the fallout from this interview has been pretty severe. Now more Trogans including a very prominent one is coming out and blasting Petey for being in denial. Garry Paskwietz, who runs the most prominent Trojan fansite online - WeAreSC.com - is no longer buying any of the weak spin about Carroll couldn't have known everything. Gary yesterday blasted Pete Carroll for playing dumb (emphasis added):
I understand the point [...] that PC shouldn't be responsible for EVERYTHING. But, he did micromanage and make himself aware of details in every aspect of his program as well as any coach I can remember seeing. He was on top of things and he asked a lot of questions. Early on in his tenure he called me into his office because he wanted to know details on how the internet sites worked in relation to his program and from a technical standpoint. There were many times when we would write a story and the next day at practice he would make a comment on something that had been written, I knew he didn't read the site himself but he had a way of finding out about it. I once wrote an article for the WeAreSC magazine which called him the CEO of Trojan football because I thought he ran the program with that kind of approach. He had a way of knowing as much of what was going on as possible and I don't think that's a bad thing at all.
I always got a chuckle out of the way he pretended not to understand the BCS "don't bother me with that, I don't understand the system". You're damn right he knew the system, he knew it well enough to talk us into a share of the national title in 2004, still one of the greatest PR acts I've ever seen. The BCS system was clearly in place yet PC knew the exact argument to make to get public opinion on our side, and it worked. That's why, in regards to the consultant issue, I'm not agreeing with his stance that he didn't check with compliance because he didn't think he had to. No, he knew the rules and he knew it was a close call and he made the choice not to check. Turned out to be a choice that came back to bite him as part of the ruling.
Those are pretty stunning grafs. Gary was not the only Trojan dismissing Petey's FAILED PR act this time around.
His meassage board is filled with reflective comments like this where some intellectually honest Trojans are no longer accepting the BS spin:
CPC may not have "known" anything and it may not have occurred to CPC that Reggie and his parents couldn't have afforded a new "chevy" - but he's the head coach and he admits that he's aware that as head coach he's ultimately responsible for all compliance matters involving the team - but he doesn't follow up to make sure that the compliance dept checks into and clears Bush's car purchase?
It's almost worse that he admits that he knew that the compliance staff was understaffed at the time - Carroll tries to defend his failure to follow up by saying "They (Compliance) took care of that. There's a process that the school has to go through to meet compliance standards. And they did that. They did it."
So perhaps it's dawning on few Trojans that it is time to face the music. The game is up.
It will be interesting to see how those guys can remain unified if Hello Kiffin, who is basically a less than mediocre version of Cheatey Petey cannot keep up with the unreal expectations around that program. Hilariously Kiffin instead of managing expectations have been building it up for the sake of recruiting (and because of his dumb Trogan arrogance). Yet it is becoming clear that there are clear fault lines emerging in Troy, which very well could explode into a bitter civil war. Fight on Trogans.
GO BRUINS.