Caesar Watch
Guess what, he was in Atlanta today, so I guess I'm prophetic. But relax everybody, he was just recruiting. But isn't it weird of all the places in the country to be today, that's where he was. Hopefully no Falcons fan got their hopes up if they saw him. Hail Caesar!
Atlanta wouldn't be a good fit for Caesar. For one, at halftime of a close game, he couldn't tell the hot little sideline reporter chick that "it's a dog fight out there".
Let me get this straight. Pete Carroll has led SC to a top-5 finish 6 straight years (assuming they beat Illinois), and arguably the top team in the nation those 6-years.
He is considered the best college coach, or at least among the best.
He has total control over personnel decisions and how to run the team.
He is loaded with enough talent for at least 4 more years to make a run at a top-10 finish, at least.
Every year since 2002 his teams have been in the running at the end of the year for a national championship.
The Trojan football team is probably the No. 1 sports franchise in Los Angeles.
He makes enough money to be quite satisfied.
In the pros it is highly unlikely he would ever win a Super Bowl; he would be just another faceless coach.
So why worry about him leaving? He could, of course, but I think it would be foolish.
I doubt Carroll would go to Atlanta or any other NFL team for that matter.
The NFL is a grind. To win a superbowl, a team has to play a minimum of 23 games (4 pre-season, 16 regular season, divisional playoff, conference championship, Superbowl). 24 games if you have to play the wildcard.
On the other hand, with no conference championship game, USC has to play 12 regular season games and the bowl game.
In the NFL, you build your team via the draft and free agency, but are limited by the salary cap. At USC, you can recruit your guts out and theoretically have an All-American at every position.
In the NFL, teams travel coast-to-coast. Outside of the ND game, USC generally plays on the West Coast.
College coaches are making an insane amount of money these days. Even Paul Johnson, ex-Navy coach, made over $1M last season. That is 600K more than his boss, commander-in-chief President George Bush makes. With the contracts given to the likes of Saban, Miles, Petrino, etc., expect Carroll to continue to command top dollar as long as he's at USC.
Agree that PC isn't going anywhere anytime soon. And, I think that games like the Stanford loss spark his competitive drive to keep him focused. If USC went undefeated for 3 years in a row, then I think PC would take the NFL bait. And, if he does ever take the bait, let's be clear as to why....MONEY. He makes $3 million per year now, I believe, but the top NFL coaches are in the $10-15 million range. Shanahan at $12 million per year, Bellichick rumored to be above that. Now, if you made $3 million and the NFL came along and offered you $10 million, wouldn't you at least consider it? How about $7 million? He's not leaving in the next few years, but eventually, it is likely. Of course, nothing lasts forever, so let's savor our time together now.
Didn't I say that Scott would be the first writer to subtly mention PC's name with the Falcon's job? It's to easy an non-story for Scott to not cover it.
I doubt that ANY NFL coach makes more than $10M a year. Mike Holmgren (former Trojan) is rumored to make $8M a year, and that probably makes him the highest paid.