I have no horse in this race, but after listening to whining from many (not all) USC fans after Jim Harbaugh went for two on his way to putting up double nickels against Petey, it's clear that Trojan fans and their coach have not learned any lessons about sportsmanship.
Carroll's logic in sticking it to UCLA Saturday night loses all credibility when you watch his reaction after the touchdown. As one person put it, he was "celebrating like a 13 year old at a Miley Cyrus concert." The Trojan players followed the lead of their coach, inciting the Bruins and nearly leading to an all-out brawl between the teams, the likes college football hasn't seen since Florida International and Miami played in 2006.
There's no degree of separation between the decisions by Harbaugh and Carroll. Simply, each was a bush league move.
Updated: Video after the jump shows Barkley taking the knee, Carroll discussing options with offensive coordinator Jeremy Bates, and the touchdown pass.
I agree...pretty classless on Carroll's part and even more so after whining about Harbaugh going for two.
Posted by: Wayne | November 29, 2009 at 02:21 PM
Harbaugh's action was unprovoked.
Carroll was content to kneel it out and end the game until Ricky called timeout. UCLA wanted to keep playing, so Pete obliged.
Posted by: DJK | November 29, 2009 at 02:30 PM
"UCLA wanted to keep playing, so Pete obliged."
Bingo. There's no hypocrisy or classlessness by Carroll on this one; he had every right to do that.
Posted by: P. | November 29, 2009 at 02:50 PM
Actually, there is separation between Carroll and Harbaugh - Carroll's was worse, because he had been whining about this type of thing just a couple weeks ago. So Harbaugh's move was bush league, but Carroll's move was bush league and hypocritical. By the way, I love it when USC fans try to justify it by claiming that Neuheisel started it (which just doesn't make sense). Mom didn't buy that argument when Pete was 8, and the public won't buy it now.
Posted by: chris | November 29, 2009 at 04:15 PM
Pete Carrol is no Tom Osborne... that's for sure.
Posted by: Maury | November 29, 2009 at 09:18 PM
Show me where Carroll whined about Harbaugh's 2-point try. He never said anything negative about it - on the contrary, he said that Harbaugh had every right to do that. It was some USC fans that were whining.
Posted by: Tom | November 30, 2009 at 05:51 AM
Really Wiz, I thought you knew football better. Pete took a knee on first down, he was more than happy to be classy and let the game end. Rick took the TO, thought there was game left to be played so Pete obliged. It's the UCLA D players that thought SC would take a knee or run it into the line that should be embarrassed. Why should USC just give the ball back to UCLA with 40 seconds left? By the way, if Barley connects on that pass at any other point in the game they would celebrate like that and no one would care, but in the last minute they should act glum about a 50 yard bomb?
Posted by: Bruce | November 30, 2009 at 07:19 AM
By the way, which team was at midfield and knocked a ref over and which stayed behind the numbers?
Posted by: Bruce | November 30, 2009 at 07:26 AM
WVU fan here
When your team is down by 14 points with less than a minute to go in the game, and there's practically no chance in hell of winning it...don't call the time out. Not that I'm a big fan of Carroll's or USC, but I would've made the same call to burn them. If they want to be a glutton for punishment, why not oblige?
Carroll did the classy thing initially.
Posted by: Q-tip motha | November 30, 2009 at 08:36 AM