It’s fun to watch Pete Carroll and see the head games that he employs. Remember when he got pissed that Mark Sanchez declared for the pros early and he said Sanchez wasn’t ready? Not only does he look bad for that especially now that Sanchez looks really good, but he also realized how wrong he was and he started backtracking. He then explained his behavior saying he was “testing” Sanchez. I’m not sure who bought that because it was Carroll clearly trying to cover his tracks. Well Carroll used a similar tactic this week after suffering the upset loss to Washington (now you know why he was so pissed Sanchez was leaving). He tried to diminish the achievement by Washington by pumping them (specifically Jake Locker) up:
“I’m not saying [Locker] played the greatest game ever against us,” Carroll said chuckling. “I think the guy from Texas did. But I just think he’s one of the really, really fine complete athletes. I don’t know why I’m blowing him up all the time, but I just really like the guy.”
“I think this guy is the best quarterback we’ve played against,” Carroll said. “I thought Vince played the best game I’ve ever seen anybody ever play.”
Well to answer what Carroll’s thinking, here’s the logic: pump up Locker and Washington and then the loss no longer seems as bad. His goal is to get everyone to repeat his logic. Now don’t get me wrong here — Locker is a fine quarterback who is a huge part of Washington’s success, but to call him the best guy they’ve played against? Aside from the talented Kellen Clemens and Dennis Dixons they’ve faced, Aaron Rodgers to me would easily be the best quarterback they’ve played against. From what I remember, Rodgers led Cal to an upset win over USC and the next year took them down to the wire at the Coliseum, completing 20-something straight passes in the game. Like I said, he must have a short memory.
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This entry was posted on Saturday, September 26th, 2009 and is filed under College Football. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
Carroll was pissed about Sanchez leaving because Aaron Corp and Mitch Mustain haven’t progressed to taking over the quarterbacking duties and Matt Barkley is, well, a freshman.
For us history buffs, in the 2003 game, Rodgers was replaced by R. Robertson after Rodgers’ pick to Lofa Tatupu (another guy Pete said wasn’t ready for the NFL when he left after junior year) was taken to the house to tie the game at 21-21.
In fairness to Carroll, a lot of his players didn’t stay for another year and washed out of the NFL. Mike Williams, anyone?
Another few years at USC, Carroll will have more “what I really meant to says” than Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama (there, I was fair to both sides).
I’m not one of these stat junkies but I wonder what is the overall combined record of Pete’s opponents since 2002.
His 70+ wins and .844 % is great.