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 …
