Will Kiffin Fail? Many Predicted Carroll Would Collapse

Lane Kiffin’s selection to replace Pete Carroll as USC’s head football coach has sparked a tinder box of controversy.

Many who have stated opinions seem convinced to varying degrees that Kiffin will fall flat on his face. They believe that the Trojans have had their current run and that Carroll knew just the opportune moment to leave and take the Seattle Seahawks post.

Let us turn back the clock to Carroll’s selection. This was deemed to be the last gambit for athletic director Mike Garrett, himself the first USC Heisman Trophy recipient.

The doubters of that period proclaimed that this time, Garrett had given himself the rope from which to symbolically hang himself. They pointed out that he had earlier tapped John Robinson for a second Trojan tour of duty. Troy sustained five straight losses against crosstown rival UCLA, helping to assure Robinson’s dismissal, if not cause it outright.

Then there was Garrett’s next choice. At least Robinson had delivered Rose Bowl and Cotton Bowl victories, along with two wins in a row against Notre Dame at the end of his tenure. His successor, Paul Hackett, was at the throttle when USC finished in the humiliating and unfamiliar cellar spot in the Pac 10 in 2000, resulting in his termination.

His critics presented Carroll as a modern day Robert Preston from the major Broadway musical and subsequent film hit “The Music Man.” Preston brilliantly portrayed a snake oil salesman who had a cure for all ills, moving into town after town and delivering the same pitch.

Preston popularized the jingle, “There’s trouble right here in River City!” Pete Carroll was put by many in the same class.

“He failed in the NFL with the Jets and Patriots and he’ll take USC down too,” they insisted. Since his contract was of the seven figure variety, the critics credited Carroll with pulling off a snow job on Garrett.

After the Trojans looked anything but impressive in losing to Ty Willingham’s Stanford team at the Coliseum in Carroll’s initial 2001 campaign, the critics laughed louder than ever, beaming an “I told you so” message.

When interviewed on the field following that disappointing loss, however, Carroll sounded a note of sober concern mixed with determination, asserting, “This kind of thing can’t happen.”

He rolled up his sleeves and went to work, imploring his charges ever harder, toughening them up through hard work, and infusing a message of optimism. After all, the team had finished last in the conference the preceding season. The Trojans had to be convinced to believe in themselves, which became Carroll’s Lesson No. 1.

Carroll’s Trojans took two trips to the Pacific Northwest to face an Oregon team, led by red hot quarterback Joey Harrington, and a Washington squad, enjoying success under Rick Neuheisel.

Both games were character builders. They both ended in tight losses, but reminded Trojan faithfuls of the old “Cardiac Kids” days of John McKay, when so many games went right down to the wire. Troy was not supposed to win either game and almost pulled off a double.

By the end of the season Carroll had the Trojans believing in themselves. One of his major coaching victories at Troy came in the final game of the regular season with an impressive 27-0 shutout of UCLA.

By the following season the Carroll dynasty had been launched with a Heisman Trophy quarterback in Carson Palmer and crushing routs at the close of the season against UCLA, Notre Dame, and a highly regarded Iowa team in the Orange Bowl.

The Trojans were back and Carroll would silence his critics, proving he was worth every penny Mike Garrett was willing to pay him.