Pete Carroll continues to face the music on USC debacle
In order to promote his new book, Win Forever, Pete Carroll is going to have to hit the interview circuit.
In doing that, the new Seattle Seahawks coach is going to have to face questions, lots of them, about his previous coaching gig at USC and how the Trojans football program is now mired in deep, deep trouble with the NCAA for vast improprieties that occurred under his watch.
Carroll gets into some of it tonight in an interview on HBO’s “Real Sports.” The show will air at 9 p.m. (Eastern) and Carroll says he “never dreamed” that USC would be in such a jam, according to USA Today. Well, you don’t dream those kinds of problems. They come to you in the form of what are known as nightmares.
Carroll admits “something happened” while he was running the show, but is adamant that he wasn’t involved. Does that make it worse? Not knowing that your program is running amuck? Under new coach Lane Kiffin, USC will be prohibited from playing in a bowl game for two years and will lose 30 scholarships as part of the investigation that began with the enormous gifts received by former running back Reggie Bush.
Charles Robinson of Yahoo! Sports has seen an early copy of the interview and he reports that Carroll is asked directly about Bush and how he feels about him.
“"I feel about it like he's my kid,” Carroll said. “How do you feel about it when your kid makes an error?”
Carroll is adamant that he didn’t know of the wrongdoing and he didn’t bolt USC just before the hammer fell on the program because he was attempting to wiggle out.
“I'd been living with (the investigation) for five years. It was all about the competitive draw of (a return to the NFL)," Carroll said. "The part about the investigation--never, ever entered in. You have to understand, I never thought it would ever happen like this. I never even dreamed it could go to this point."
It did. Now those remaining at USC are paying the price.
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