LA Times Columnist Bill Plaschke Hates Lane Kiffin Already and the USC AD

[Pell City Tiger]

Same fucking guy.

For Pete's Sake, USC, Why Did You Do It?
BILL PLASCHKE
December 16, 2000|
BILL PLASCHKE
I'm not mad at Pete Carroll, OK? Let's get that straight.

You can't be mad at a guy who dribbles basketballs down office hallways, who runs fastbreaks into players' arms every time they make big tackles.

You can't be mad at a guy who had the misfortune of working in New York and replacing Bill Parcells in the same lifetime.

You can't be mad at someone who is so excited about coming to your town, he was nearly screaming over the cell phone Friday night, clacking like those bugs in the banyan trees, leaving you breathless in some deserted parking lot along a Louisiana bayou.

I'm not mad at Pete Carroll.

I'm mad at USC for hiring him.

I'm mad that, during its most important times, the most enduring football institution in this city sometimes acts as though it discovered the game only last week.

We should give Carroll a chance. He deserves at least the 20 minutes--OK, OK, it was more like 10--that we gave Paul Hackett.

Carroll made the playoffs two of three years as a head coach in New England. Hackett never was an NFL head coach.

Carroll was rushed into the football fraternity as a defensive coordinator, working with the sort of street kids that USC is trying to recruit. Hackett, an offensive guy, sometimes struggled while relating to those kids.

Carroll has never been a college head coach, while Hackett had already failed at Pittsburgh before arriving here.

So stop with that Pete Carroll-is-Paul Hackett argument, OK?

I'm not mad at Pete Carroll.

But as for USC, well, I'm just, well, you know what I said when I heard they were hiring Carroll?

Maybe you said the same thing.

"Oh, no."

Oh, no, the Trojans did it again.

Oh, no, they hired somebody non-traditional to lead a tradition.

Oh, no, they ignored the idea that their new coach might only be as good as the coaching staff he can bring with him.

Oh, no, they again forgot that this was college football.

Oh, yes, it's going to be six more months of winter.

I'm mad at USC for making their publicity people, the best in the country, continually scramble around to justify their odd decisions.

I'm mad at them for turning even their few remaining reasonable alumni into screaming chat-room freaks.

I guess I'm most mad at Mike Garrett, although maybe there's also irritation with President Steven Sample.

http://articles.latimes.com/2000/dec/16/sports/sp-904

[jadennis]

Same phuking guy.

This is exactly why I started my post with the fact that Plaschke is a moron.  I know, I know, it's easy to look back now and see Carroll was a hall of fame college coach, but that doesn't change the fact that Plaschke is a moron.

[AUChizad]

This guy appears to be the minority opinion of the USC media.

I don't know if they're intentionally trying to will their way to a self-fulfilling prophecy or what, but it appears to be working. They're actually getting a surge in recruits rather than a dropoff like UT has had. I don't understand it. You'd think any kid with half a brain would look at Lane's past, and realize that Pete was that school, and also see that they were on their way down not only by the NCAA but just in general, which is why Carroll jumped ship.