The gospel of championship pigskin performance according to St. Pete Carroll

During a few hits on ESPN's "SportsCenter" on Wednesday, guest analyst Pete Carroll joined the "GameDay" crew on the set inside the Rose Bowl -- complete with an earpiece and a drive-through microphone. The USC football coach had this to say about this, that and the other things concerning tonight's BCS championship game between Alabama and Texas, without going Corso and putting a pair of Longhorns on his head as he opined:

== On what the coaches can do to keep their teams relaxed:
"The most important thing is you want your team to be confident and trust in the preparation and be prepared ... so you want to convey that in your actions and your body language ... you want them to be comfortable and be ready to go."

== On how these are coaches with experience in title games, and how it helps them:
"Probably Mack's message all along has been, 'we've been here before, we know what it takes, we know what it's like' ... and try to convey that everyone can be comfortable. It's not something too big for them. I'm sure Nick is doing the same thing."

== With veteran players, should that be a factor?
"Still, (confidence) can get shattered if you make a mistake - coach gets out of wack, or the players kinda lose it. It can knock them off that normal mindset that you want them in."

==On what will be the deciding factor:
"These teams are so close and they're so together it's going to come down to the team that avoids the big error, and I think it'll come in the form of turning the football over. I've always bent that way. If they can get through clean without giving that football up, scoring and field position, that team is going to have the best chance to win."

After host Chris Fowler points out that USC is 53-0 under Carroll when his team wins the turnover battle (he's 97-19 overall, so that must also imply that the Trojans aren't bad when they don't win the turnover margin, either), Carroll also said:

"They are great football teams, evenly matched, I'll always think it'll come down to who takes care of the ball best. And we're talking about turnovers. You've got an Alabama team that just doesn't give it up. So Texas is really going to have to be on it to do a good job and at least match up. We've got tremendous success in the year's past in winning games with the plus-turnover ratio. So which ever team does that is going to win the game."

For the record: In the 2006 Rose Bowl, Texas had the turnover margin over USC, 2-1, in winning 41-38. In the 2005 Orange Bowl, USC won the turnover margin against Oklahoma, 5-0, in a 55-19 win. In the 2004 Rose Bowl, when USC defeated Michigan 28-14, each had one turnover.

==On the defensive mindset preparation:
"They're different defenses now. Alabama plays much differently than Texas does. Texas is more of a base defense ... Alabama's gonna take a lot more shots at things and come after then in a number of different ways, mix their coverages and make it more difficult and rely on scheme maybe moreso than on the athletes."

== On the familiarity of Alabama head coach Nick Saban and defensive coordinator Kirby Smart on Alabama with Will Muschamp, the Texas defensive coordinator who worked with both of them back at LSU ... Can it help Alabama prepare? Do you see anything there? Is it similar to when you go up against Nick Holt at Washington?
"No, you're going have conversations that go a little deeper than normal, because you know how a guy thinks and why he does what he does, and you have to guess more at times with an opponent you don't know as well, so there'll be some inside stuff, but that stuff, in my opinion, kinda gets washed out. You think it's going to make a difference, it does give you some confidence in your preparation, but it's not necessarily going to be the deciding factor."

After Corso chimes in with: "There's so much paralysis through analysis. You spend all this time talking about it... just let 'em play," Carroll added:
"That's probably why they stay in the 'spring football' mode as long as they can, you don't get too much gameplan going until it's time, to keep it fresh and sharp."

Expect more Carroll comments on ESPN's 3 p.m. "SportsCenter," leading into "College GameDay" from 4-to-5 p.m. ABC Channel 7 has a BCS preview show from 5 to 5:30 p.m. leading into kickoff at about 5:38 p.m. on Channel 7.