FEDEX ORANGE BOWL: SOUTHERN CAROLINA v OKLAHOMA

January 3, 2005

Pete Carroll

COACH PETE CARROLL: Well, it's been a great buildup to this game. We've had I think a very successful preparation. We've done it in stages that have culminated last night, and the final countdown now is really exciting. Our guys have rallied through this process I'm sure as Oklahoma has. It's a long time to prepare for a game, but we have come together and we've found ourselves pretty healthy at this time and our guys have made it all the way through this work, and we're going to be as healthy as we've been all year. We go into this game with a sense of confidence but yet a concern that Oklahoma is a fantastic football team, and they're going to give us all we could possibly want in a game. We look forward to it and want to have fun with this thing and enjoy the heck out of it. Hopefully the buildup will be matched by the play, and we'll put together a great football game that will be worthy of this kind of billing. We look forward to it and can't wait to get this thing started.

COACH PETE CARROLL: Well, you never know how the games are going to go. I don't have any idea. I know what I want to see happen. That's very clear. But the game hopefully will be evenly matched, and then a play here or there will make the difference. We prepare to play a game without making a mistake and try to play flawlessly every game we go into, but it doesn't happen that way. It's certain that will be some enormous plays that as you look back at the game that will be the difference makers and hopefully they'll be on our side.

COACH PETE CARROLL: I'll be all right. I've been in enough games now that to me this is really fun to be in this setting. The nerves start working you a little bit as you get closer to the stadium and all that, but I'll be all right. I'm not worried about me too much. I like getting excited about it and I like our players to get excited about it. There's a lot of concern that they get too hyped and all that. We've been doing this for a long time and these kids know how the buildup goes and we've had a lot of big games. I want them to feel that we're allowing all of the buildup to make it special, and we've practiced and prepared to play under the conditions that we'll be in. I'm not worried about being too pumped up or our players. I think the more the better for this one.

COACH PETE CARROLL: Yeah, we're in good shape. Both guys finished the last couple of days at full speed and I have no reservations playing either one of those guys.

COACH PETE CARROLL: The lure towards going to the NFL?

COACH PETE CARROLL: Well, I think if you're any kind of a football guy at all, you grow up and as a kid you dream about being part of the NFL, so when the opportunity arises, whether you're a player or a coach, it's a great draw. I think particularly people that have been involved in the NFL that don't know what it's like and haven't been able to experience it are going to be more attracted to it as they're going through their coaching career. There's obviously times have changed and there's a lot of incentive behind going. Guys are getting paid very well, and it's an opportunity to compete on the highest level this sport presents. All the resources that you could ever generate go into the NFL games and seasons and all of the backing and all of the technology and everything that you can find those go it, so it is fun to compete on that level. For any competitor, you like to have been there and had a chance to experience all of that. The NFL does a great job of marketing their product, and it's a draw because it's fun, because of the playoffs and the Super Bowl and the hype and everything that goes on with it, so I think it's pretty natural for football guys.

COACH PETE CARROLL: You know, there's a system intact there that handles all that stuff, and I'm just going to do the best we can with what we have. I don't really know how it could come out that way. I didn't have any problem with what happened last year. We did everything we could with the season that we had and with the finish and all of that, and the system made a statement. Here again, it does it again. Hopefully this just continues to generate energy to try and fix the thing and make the thing as accurate as possible. When you have teams that play great schedules and play great like this, how can you do this unless you keep playing games, and that system isn't intact. This is going to happen again most likely. That's just the way it is. You can't do anything about it.

COACH PETE CARROLL: Well, that needs a long answer to talk about why I fit well here at SC. I'm a California guy. It's the best school in the state of California to represent football in my opinion. Growing up I felt like that, so I very proudly have that opportunity. You know, I think I've found a real comfort in being around the college environment and just the way I like to be and the way I like to operate, and it seems to have fit very well. I feel very free and comfortable in this setting and doing whatever I think is right and have been accepted and all that. I don't know about the past what makes it that way, but I do know that it is that way now. I haven't really tried to put my finger on what makes this fit, but it does, and that's what's important right now, and we're just trying to make the most of it. What was the second part of your question?

COACH PETE CARROLL: I think we obviously see trends in hiring, and people will look and see what's been successful or what looks to be a promising way to go and they're competing to see what's best for them. The fact that there have been some guys that are coming out and doing a nice job at Virginia and just some guys in the league, it sets maybe a clear-cut formula to focus on in how you like to set up the structure of your next job. Whether that's the right way to do it or not, I don't know, but they kind of go in trends. I know when we came in the PAC 10 I was one of the only guys that coached defense with emphasis, and that may be a little story that we had a defensive emphasis in an offensive conference. Things like that catch hold for a while. The next guy that gets a chance better do well to keep that going, so it may last, it may not.

COACH PETE CARROLL: That's kind of a big word for me (laughter).

COACH PETE CARROLL: Why would you think I'd do that (laughter)?

COACH PETE CARROLL: It's just good to have a little chance with you guys (laughter).

COACH PETE CARROLL: Well, I felt that there was an opportunity to come in with a real strong emphasis about team and see if we could capture the players first and then a program with just really fundamental basic principles with putting together a team and the power of collective effort and things like that and not try to be high tech, big NFL type of influence that might center the focus on individuals more than what the team could accomplish. I did that not so much because I thought it needed it but because I thought that was the best way I could present my program and that would be the best way I could get up in front and believe in what I was talking about, and in essence sell a program to a bunch of guys who had had some problems and had struggled. I wouldn't do it in a different manner no matter where I was coaching, that's just the best way I could do it. It happened to come at a time when it was a program that had been hurting. Any of the historical programs, the legendary programs that have struggled are ripe to be restructured. Guys were so hungry to do whatever you could come up with, these guys bought in from the first day, and it was a wonderful synergy of all this coming together and seeing it happen. They were so ready for things to be turned so they could have success before they were done, and so it just seemed to catch on and worked well.

COACH PETE CARROLL: Knowing the background of our program at SC and the great history of winning, our fans never thought anything other than high expectations and expected us to win every game whether we did or not. Coming into the program with that thought, I felt from the beginning that that was the way our expectations were structured and had always been that way. How they've changed, I don't think they've changed at all. I think that people have just enjoyed the fun of being on top and being out front. They've enjoyed it tremendously. But their expectations don't surpass my expectations, so I haven't had any problem with whatever has changed, if it has. I think you can probably sense the expectations and how they're elevated by maybe the concern or frustration in the game when it's kind of close, when you don't get off to a fast start and put a team away in the first quarter or things like that, but I think that's good. I like living in that world. It just makes everything real clear-cut what you're shooting for and what you're after. It doesn't mean that you have to win every game to win a National Championship. That's not the case, but it's the striving for it and the expectations and the standards that you set that draw you closer to your potential, and that's what this program does. This program is structured so that you have got to be at your best and you have got to compete in all phases to accomplish what really is out there for us. It isn't so much that we can't attain it, we just have to keep working at it and see how long we keep it going.

COACH PETE CARROLL: Well, really the process is already underway in that there's information being put out in front of the family and all that and has been for some time now. Matt and I have already talked about it, and with all of our guys that are considering it that I'm aware of, we talk openly and candidly about it. I don't want it to be one of those things that they're afraid to talk about because it takes time to process this information and talk about it. If you just go on the hype, they want to go because they want to get drafted really high and they're going to be famous. That's not the case. So it takes time to process all this information. It takes time to counter kind of the flood that guys get about how good they are and how great it's going to be and all that kind of stuff, when they don't have any idea about the facts and the reality. This process will continue, and it's really an information-gathering process, and it's trying to just about grab them by the ears and look them in the eye and make sure that they're listening to the reality and the truth of it all. We've had some very obvious pictures of the situation, how this thing doesn't go off as guys planned, and as people around them and the agents convince them, this is really -- the coaches wage a battle against the other side of this business, the representation business. It's very difficult because people like to hear what they want to hear. Everybody wants to be told that they're great and they're going to make a bunch of money and all that kind of stuff. It's a very difficult process and all our coaches have to continue to get to the reality about it to make our kids clear-minded on it. At this point our guys are in the middle of their life and it's so difficult to do, and they're anxious to go ahead to the next step, just like kids want to be 18 years old and then they want to be 21 and they think it's the greatest thing in the world and then all of a sudden they're working and then they wish they were 18 or 17 and all that. It's kind of the same way in this thing. The reality of the NFL is very, very different than what they perceive it to be, and we need to work hard to make that clear, and we need everybody's help to do that. So do I talk to convince them? I convince them of the reality of it. I haven't been successful and I need to do a better job of that. I had a really disappointing story with Mike last year. Hopefully I'll do a better job this time around.

COACH PETE CARROLL: I think it's a win-win situation for both programs. This is an incredible opportunity for us to take our fans and our following, but having said that, okay, once it's over, you ain't going to remember who was No. 2, and that is the facts. So if you don't win, you set your sights on doing it again and recreating the opportunity. At this point it's all or nothing. That's what it feels like. You go for it. I'm not going to take any comfort in the fact that we're here other than all this buildup has been wonderful for the programs and the people and the families and all of that, but now it's down to competing time and you've got to go for it. There's only first place right now.

COACH PETE CARROLL: You know, I don't know whether it's a tougher conference. Our conference is really difficult. I didn't play in their conference so I don't know. We'll find out and see how they match up.

COACH PETE CARROLL: No, I think we're a program that's on the move. I think we're coming up and we've got a very young football team and we've got a lot of high hopes for sustaining over a long haul. The big D word, I think you look back and you say I think anybody that makes that statement is like people talking in the third person (laughter).

COACH PETE CARROLL: You know, just the fact of being in the arena of being considered the front runner, No. 1 and all that kind of stuff, and having to deal with whatever that meant. I hadn't been in that situation. So I was anxious to kind of undertake that. Basically it's about the media is what it amounts to, and the impact that the constant questioning and the focus on the fact that you are No. 1 and the whole thing about the target on your back and everybody is taking their best shot at you and all that kind of stuff was fascinating to deal with from a coach's perspective because it was about managing our players' mindsets as we went through that, and we went through maybe the inflated opinion you can have of your program and yourself and your personal ability and all of that. So that was the great challenge that I thought -- as it turned out, it wasn't that significant. You know, I didn't think it was that much. I didn't know if we had the mindset to deal with it, but I found that through the couple of years we've been here, just the way we talk and the way we handle our issues and our seasons and our games and all of that seemed to take hold, and we really just stayed within the boundaries of how we do things. But it was fun to deal with it, and I've liked it. How much better can it get? It was obvious from February on that we were going to have a chance to be the No. 1 team, and if we could hold it, we would be able to deal with this. It's been a nice challenge, and I did look forward to it. But as I look back down, it didn't call for a whole lot more than what we have already established as a philosophy, how to handle situations of being on top. What has occurred, it has become normal for us to be in this situation. That's basically the best way I can explain it to you. We have accepted the fact of where we are and now we have to on a regular day-to-day basis live up to that by the way we prepare and focus and work and treat people and treat ourselves and all of that. So it's been an interesting study, but I feel like we've been well prepared to do this and it wasn't nearly as challenging as I thought it might be.

COACH PETE CARROLL: Yeah. There's been times we think about -- interesting conversation. If you can imagine, this is hard for me to realize that we had our top receiver, Stevie Smith, didn't play for six or seven weeks this year in a position that was brand new, new guys. Nobody had been in a leadership position at all. We needed to throw the football to be successful this season, and then you play without Cary Colbert, who's had a great rookie season, and without Mike Williams, it's a special accomplishment for our offensive side of the ball to pull that together. We have thought and have had fun reflecting what it would be like to have Mike and Dwayne out there and Stevie Smith playing as our starting three receivers at times and it's been fun to think how it could have been, but we wouldn't have won any more games (laughter). I don't know, we feel very fortunate that it came out the way it did.

COACH PETE CARROLL: I do buy into it, yeah. You can't help but see the similarities and the results. The yardage that we put up, the yardage that we don't give up, the points that we get, the points we don't give up, on and on, Heisman Trophy, Heisman Trophy, young running backs, on and on. Has it helped? Well, somewhat. We have been able to practice against ourselves some and we've maximized our opportunity when our ones go against ones and we've basically asked guys to do our own things and not simulate the other team in that there would be enough carryover and we'd try and capture the speed of the competition. It's beeen something in that regard. It's kind of fascinating that it would happen like this, that there are so many similarities. We'll see what that means, I don't know. But it'll be interesting to see how the game turns out.

COACH PETE CARROLL: Well, there were some realities for Mike's situation that were realities from the first day the conversation ever began, and it came true, that there was never going to be the opportunity legally to make it. That's a real defeat in my viewpoint because I couldn't get that across to him, couldn't make sense of it. All the information I had substantiated was that that was what was going to occur, so the whole thing was fruitless from the start. It was based on a hopeful wish, dream type of thing instead of reality. Totally different situation than what we're talking about here. Matt is going to be a terrific NFL quarterback just like most of the guys, the majority of the guys that take some time to get that done. There's a right time and not a right time to get that started. I really know that clearly Matt in his particular situation could use another year of development and strength and all those types of things to maximize his value. This whole thing is about value and where you sit when your opportunity arises. When you have an opportunity to maximize your value, the money comes to you in a deferred sense, if you can create it and increase it. So that's the discussion, and the fact is the Matt has said he's staying because he loves playing college football and he has a ball doing it and fits with his teammates. Emotionally he would love to continue to play at SC. He's said that quite clearly and said it in conversation clearly. The business side of it kicks in here, some discussion of that, and family issues and all those types of things become part of the decision process, as it does for all the kids. Those are all things we have to work through, and our information I think of where he stands and all that is as accurate as it can be, and it will be extraordinary, more accurate than any agent or any representation or any guy that speaks for the draft on behalf of that, whatever it might be. Those are the issues we have to speak to in making the decision.

COACH PETE CARROLL: Well, I think it makes the whole match-up awesome. The fact that it's two storied programs coming together at a time when they're really on the rise, you capture all of the people that ever loved Oklahoma football or ever loved USC football, and they get to come back to this match-up, and it doesn't necessarily mean it's all former players or coaches, it's just anybody who liked the programs or had fun watching us in the past, so you cross a lot of generations. You just capture a lot of interest. I think the more buildup and more hype, the better. It just makes it that much more fun for everybody. That is the case, that it is two programs that generate a bunch of excitement, and it really makes it special, sure.

COACH PETE CARROLL: Well, no. I think it's going to be really important at the line of scrimmage for us defensively. I think we're going to have to do what we normally do. We're going to have to find a way to create problems and keep the running game in order and make it hard on the quarterback. I think for us that's where it's going to -- where we're going to find the focus. If we're unable to do that, then Oklahoma will be able to run their offense as they'd like to, and that makes it very difficult. It doesn't mean we still can't win, but it does make it very difficult. Our impetus of this whole preparation is to make sure we can find our way to that running back and get our hands on him and get him on the ground first and then we've got to get some push on the quarterback and make Jason move around and make it harder on him. He's just had his way all season. I can't imagine getting through a season with seven sacks as much as they like to throw the football. It's a phenomenal number and accomplishment. We've got to try to make that not be the factor in this game.

COACH PETE CARROLL: Appreciate it.