Look, I don’t know exactly what Pete Carroll’s doing here or what sort of motivation he has. All I know is that he wants to wear his red jerseys against UCLA on Saturday while the Bruins wear the blue. It’s something the teams did back in ‘82 when they shared the Coliseum as a home, and I have no problem if they relaunch the tradition. People have been suggesting that this is a cocky move on Carroll’s part, as if he’s saying he can beat UCLA without needing his timeouts. Whatever. I’m not sure if that’s exactly what he’s saying, but that’s possible. No big deal to me. At some point something will backfire if that’s the underlying message, even if it’s not UCLA causing the move to backfire. I mean how much can you really expect out of a team whose quarterback has thrown more touchdowns to defensive players than his own team this year?
I really think this is a moot point and moot argument because the I’m guessing the NCAA will allow them to do this for the rivalry game without facing a penalty. Perhaps it’s just much ado about nothing. If not, Neuheisel should just burn the timeouts himself to make it even with Carroll. I’m all about pride and don’t like getting shown up, so that will level things out. Of course it will still be a 40+ point blowout, but at least Neuheisel can go down without losing his dignity in the process. Otherwise it would be a slap in the face to the school to say they got beat by a team willing to give up its timeouts. Why don’t they just spot us 40 points to begin with? Or maybe Carroll’s just trying to give USC fans a nice sendoff before he takes the San Diego Chargers soon-to-be-vacant head coaching/GM job …
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For decades both teams wore their ‘home’ dark unis unless it was too conflicting such as USC vs Stanford or UCLA vs Cal. Then with the advent of television in the 1950’s the visiting team started wearing white so viewers watching on their black and whites could tell the players apart.
USC and UCLA both wore home unis at the Coliseum until 1983 when the NCAA mandated the road team wear white. Carroll has worked with UCLA at getting both teams to wear home unis to return to what the late
Chris Schenkel termed ‘the color and pageantry of college football.’
Will a first half time out cost? There’s a lot of ways to create a clock stoppage, see the finish of the 2005 USC-Notre Dame game when Matt Leinart’s fumble out of bounds set up the Bush Push.
Now that I think of it, cross town rivals rekindling a tradition (UCLA is wearing home uniforms at the Coliseum next year) is one thing. If all you do is forfeit a TO, Pete should clad the boys in home Cardinal at South Bend next October. I would love to see the look on Charlie’s face (if he’s still there).
I don’t know whether Carroll really tried hard to initiate this in years past or just made a token effort. However, this year he has no risk, what with USC deservedly being a 30 point favorite. It may be that Dorrell was not amenable to the idea, or that Pete didn’t really push it when advised by the NCAA that a penalty would not be waived. In any event, the penalty turned out to be one timeout, and Neuheisel said that UCLA will call time out right after the opening kickoff to even things out.
I always loved the idea of both teams wearing home jerseys, but I think that it will be temporary this time. I am sure that other traditional rivals will try doing the same thing and that the NCAA will ban it unless the teams do indeed share their home field. In fact, Oregon State already attempted to do so, but the NCAA committee at that time told them that they would be penalized two timeouts.
The LA Times is reporting that Neuheisel will be burning a timeout to start the game.
http://www.latimes.com/sports/printedition/la-sp-plaschke3-2008dec03,0,2681382.column
Wow a timeout lost? That’s tough. Carroll could give each of his players a free house on live
television and the NCAA will refuse to punish them.
Carroll also said the NCAA will penalize them a timeout only in the first half, not second, so all seems to be fine.
Neuheisel giving up a timeout in Saturday’s sc game is an abomination. The Bruins are out-maned, out-talented, and likely out-coached, and all of Bruindom is angry enough over this situation. We do not need our coach ceding one small advantage back to the brain surgeons; an unexpected advantage handed Neuheisel and the Bruins on a silver platter, by carroll as a bi-product of his egotism in desiring to flaunt his cardinal and yellow brain surgeon colors in the Bruin’s house.
I’ve defended Neuheisel despite the horrible season the Bruins have had, and stand by his coaching abilities and the bright future of the football program I see under his tutelage. But, this gift to the brain surgeons is a slap in the face to Bruin fans, alumni, and players.