Caesar Blunders
One of the soft spots in recruiting with Caesar was his lust for big-name recruits and disdain for those who did not fit the profile he wanted at certain positions.
The prime example is Stanford tailback Toby Gerhart. USC's baseball coaches begged Carroll to recruit Gerhart. But he was not from the cookie-cutter mold of tailback that Carroll wanted (such as Joe McKnight).
Then there was Oregon tailback LaMichael James. USC's track coaches recruited James but Caesar did not show any interest despite the obvious speed of the tailback. He was only 5-9 (probably shorter) and plus he had the audacity to run track. Much like Gerhart had the temerity to also play baseball.
And that meant, no interest.
Yes, just what SC would have needed, 2 more tailbacks muddling up the rotation.
Toby Gerhart would've taken USC to a national championship while Booty or Sanchez was at QB.
Yes?
Did Kiffin have any two-sport athletes at Tenn?
Also, I'm pretty sure a student that participates in both football and track is only allowed to have a football scholarship -- i.e., you can't circumvent football scholarhip limits by handing out track scholarships.
What about baseball and football?
Why are you so obsessed with Pete Carroll?
1) He now coaches for the Seattle Seahawks, no one would miss you if you moved to Seattle to be with your secret love.
2) At the time, of recruiting those guys, USC was already overloaded at tailback, which YOU complained about.
Get a life Scotty.
MCkay loved it that they played bAseball/track.
Those two guys far superior to any USC backs.
PC recruited in end like he re-staffed.
What a joke it is to take a shot at PC's recruiting prowess. During his tenure, we were consistently ranked top 5 in nation in recruiting and either the number 1 or 2 team nationally on the field. To single out a few guys who he "missed" is laughable. Who doesn't lust for big name recruits? Isn't the goal to populate the team with the best talent possible while also trying to fill in specific team needs from year to year?
Yeah, Carroll did a terrible job of recruiting. All of the titles prove that. Why don't you knock Les Miles, Urban Meyer or Mack Brown for not recruiting those guys? You can not recruit every player. I am sure everybody knew that those two would pan out.
PaulM
Get off the drugs.
Carroll is the best recruiter USC has ever had and will ever have.
Bar none.
Toby Gerhart was from the high school class of 2006. That year Pete Carroll signed Stafon Johnson, Stanley Havili, Emmanuel Moody, Allen Bradford and CJ Gable.
In 2007, Carroll added Joe McKnight, Broderick Green and Marc Tyler to the "stable."
Admittedly, LaMichael James was class of 2008 when the sole running back added was Curtis McNeal but I don't think running backs were the program's top priority that year. Driving to Venice High to catch McNeal is one thing but flying to Texas for James is another.
So he missed two pretty good guys. Are you going to blame Mack Brown, Bob Stoops, Leach, Patterson, and Sherman for missing on James as well? He was in their backyard, they obviously had a great shot. How about the other California schools for missing Gerhart that year? I know Carroll jilted you and left you behind, but you need to move on and stop revising history because of your petty jealousy.
Interesting point because that's how chinks in the armour happen. For several years USC literally had the best player at each position. And it's never really been about UCLA getting good enough to knock USC off a pedestal. It really takes the whole conference to pull high-performers away.
Where to begin with this one. For starters, we'll ignore all of your posts ripping on SC for having too many running backs on scholarship, because you seem to be suggesting that they should have signed 6 running backs (plus Havili at FB) in the '06 class. In general, I love the premise that Carroll was "soft" for signing guys who were generally regarded by most as being the best at their position and recruiting guys who fit the profile for what they expected for the position. Are you suggesting that the smart move would be to sign no-name recruits who don't fit in with what SC is trying to do? I've often thought that SC could use a few 5'10" option QB's and an undersized receiver who is a good downfield blocker.
As far as guys who don't fit the mold, they also signed Kenny Ashley, from Venice, in '06, who was an exaggerated 5'8" & ran track. Grades derailed him, and that isn't Carroll's fault, but we'll ignore him. Also, there isn't really any other SC back like McKnight, so I don't get how he could be "cookie cutter".
So, for '06 they signed the scrap heap of... S. Johnson, CJ Gable, A. Bradford, E. Moody, K. Ashley & S. Havili at FB. I don't think any coach, who doesn't have the Scott Wolf crystal ball, looks at that class and says "man we signed the best RB class in the country, but \we really missed out on Toby Gerhart". In fact, I don't ever recall you noticing this until a year or so ago. So, then they follow up the '06 debacle with J. McKnight, M. Tyler & B. Green, a great mix of speed, versatility & power. Signing two classes like that back to back is close to impossible.
This is beyond Monday morning quarterbacking. A recruiting class with Stafon Johnson, Allen Bradford & CJ Gable constites a "blunder"... laughable. Just curious which mid level FB recruit will make it to NYC for the Heisman presentation 5 years from now? I'm sure you will let us know 6 years from now.
No way Pete would ever recruit a white running back or receiver. And, I'm sure Lane won't either.
Sincerely,
Jordan Cameron, Blake Ayles and Rhett Ellison.
Secondhand Wolf, Baby Journalist is an armchair moron. How hard is it to knock people after the fact. Let's see the Wolf columns in 2006 raving about Gerhart. I doubt there are any. What kind of loser "journalist" spends his time just being critical of a former coach? Get a life Wolf.
Evil Robot - good post. It will all be lost on Scott, however
BTW, Scott - McKnight was the #1 OVERALL recruit in the country in 2007, but I guess that was a "blunder" to recruit him
McKnight had over 1000 yards this year on about 1/2 the carries that Gerhardt had. McKnight averaged 6.2 YPC (compared to a very respectable 5.5 for Gerhardt)
Not to mention that Bradford, Johnson, Moody and Gable were all more highly sought after than Gerhardt in 2006. I'd bet that if Stanford could have had their pick back then, they would have chosen any of the above over Gerhardt in 2006. But I guess Carroll was supposed to take less sought after recruits to make life easier for the baseball team
If Scott did just 5 minutes of research and displayed a bit more common sense or pride in his work he probably wouldn't post drivel like this
But Scott's formula seems to be to post uneducated, unresearched and frankly, lazy opinions, then have his ever-dwindling population of readers correct him, then repeat.
C.J. Spiller commits to USC.
Sincerely,
Baby Caesar
For the next 3 years, the Ducks should have a posse of running backs that are better than what USC will have
Also, there are a lot of players who won't go to usc because of the depth chart
And... the running backs were NOT responsible for the 2009 trojan lack of defense
Brainiac... I did not include tight ends. Has Cameron ever caught a pass or played any meaningful time in a real game ?
So that's like 2 TE's and 1 receiver who never plays in 10 years.
That PC passed on Gerhart at the time is understandable. I was mad then and am mad now that Gerhart didn't get recruited, but I understood when guys like Stafon, C.J. and Mooday were signed. Again, he went to the Norco-Centennial game and saw what he wanted, Alan Bradford. The thing was he wanted, as have many, for Bradford to be a linebacker. He also wanted Gable to be a cornerback, but neither would budge.
My point is that PC didn't screw up at running back. He screwed up at quarterback. He put it all on Sanchez to stay four years when that was a pipe dream. He had no one ready to go for this season and it cost the program.
Just4sc-
Robby Boyer, Garrett Green, Adam Goodyear, Brandon Hancock, Brad Walker, Greig Carlson, Greg Gunther, Mike Brittingham...
This just in, LaMichael James just arrested for domestic violence. "Blunder"? I think not.
It's funny that two days after Wolf griped about Caesar not recruiting this kid he is chraged with strangling his girlfriend. Maybe Caesar knew about his temper.