FEDEX ORANGE BOWL: SOUTHERN CAROLINA v OKLAHOMA

January 4, 2005

Pete Carroll

Matt Leinart

COACH PETE CARROLL: Well, this is a great moment for the University of Southern California, for us to be in this opportunity situation and then to take advantage of it and cash in on it. It's just wonderful for our school and for our great following and the players that have played before and followed us all the way through it. It's awesome to give this back to them. For this football team it was a terrific season. It's probably hard for you to imagine, but we took this thing stride by stride, step by step as we went through it. We didn't talk about National Championship very much, the players probably did some. We just continued to play at a really high level, so when we got to this game it really wasn't anything different than that. These guys demonstrated they had belief and trust in everything we did. It didn't matter who they were playing, we just played the way we know how to play, and it was great to get a difficult win tonight. Oklahoma had a fantastic season, a great football team. How it wound up like this, I don't know, but our guys weren't going to let it be any other way. It really felt this way when we talked as a team last night that this could happen in a big way, and I'm ecstatic to see that they get all this joy and all this fun. It was like we could have kept playing all night and had all that fun. We're really fortunate and really grateful. Matt had so much to do with this and had a great season, but he'll be the first to tell you about all the guys. Stevie Smith, great catches by Dominique Byrd, Reggie and LenDale, offensive line was great, defensive line shut down the running game that we thought was the best in years. All in all, it was a great night for us.

MATT LEINART: I'm really kind of speechless, but I think the thing I'm most proud of is the way we answered a lot of questions coming into the season that we were too young and had a lot of question marks, and just battling through a lot of tough times, a lot of tough games that we could have threw in the towel, but we just battled back. We were always a second half team, could never win a game in the first three quarters, always in the last quarter, and just the character that we had as a team, and to get to this point with a lot of doubters and stuff, but the great thing about SC and what Coach Carroll does, is it's all about us and all about our family and the team. We had confidence going into this game, and the game plan was excellent obviously. The whole month we were ready, and I don't know what to say. I'm just proud of the way the guys stepped up tonight. The offense did a fabulous job, defense did a fabulous job, special teams was excellent. It was probably one of the best games as an overall team in all facets of the game. I'm just excited; two time national back-to-back champions, I don't think you can get better than that.

MATT LEINART: We knew we wanted to try to throw on them and get a little play action going. Really I just threw the ball up there and Dominique made a great play. It was one-on-one, and really in our eyes that's like a mismatch. Dominique is like a receiver at tight end. We had a 3rd down catch to keep the drive alive. There were a lot of times where we had 3rd and long and we converted. Dominique made outstanding catches and that gave us momentum because they just kept giving us the ball back and we put it in the end zone.

COACH PETE CARROLL: We wouldn't have thought it would be like that and anticipate being up 38 to whatever. Once it got going, we've been in so many games where we could feel the momentum go in our favor. Geez, it was early in the second quarter and our guys were already taking control of the football game on the sidelines. It was a matter of finishing the game and playing well throughout and putting together a win. You could tell early that we could do what we did. We've been in that situation so much, our guys are familiar with the feeling. Lofa and Grootegood and some of the guys could tell and they had the feeling.

MATT LEINART: I knew that was coming. It's hard not to think about it because so many people are saying this and that, but I keep -- I've stuck true to my word all season. I still plan on coming back. It's going to take a lot for me to leave. I know I have a quick decision to make in the next week or so, but it's just something special that we're a part of, and really to have a chance to do a third National Championship in a row and at the Rose Bowl next year in our backyard and just the guys that we have and the young team and really the chance to be a really, really great team next year with all the guys going back, so I can't answer right now, but like I said, it's going to take a lot for me to leave.

COACH PETE CARROLL: We lost a Heisman Trophy winning quarterback when Carson left, and we've been through a lot of situations like this and we just have an approach and a philosophy. We want to play with Matt next year. We'd love to have him back. It would be an extraordinary opportunity for him in our area and we'll talk about all that stuff as we continue through figuring this thing out. You know, if you get to a point where you're relying on one guy to get it done, then you're not a strong program. You're not the kind of program that we want to be. We've gone through losses and losses and losses, and what that does is it creates opportunities for other guys, and we all know that and understand that. That's the way that we think -- we don't think it, we believe it, and we've proven that it's true. To imagine, we played this football season this year losing our receivers from last year, and Stevie Smith missed seven games this year. We never would have thought it could have happened. It was just an opportunity, and our guys understand that. We love our guys, we're Trojans forever, however the decisions come out, but the program is bigger than any one guy. That's the way we've established it and we can't wait to see who's going to do something special next.

COACH PETE CARROLL: Yeah, we thought this was a great offensive line, the best we had seen and the best running back we had seen and the best quarterback we had seen and the best receiving crew that we had seen. That's what we looked at. You couldn't see it tonight, but the credit goes really to the preparation and this process these guys went through. The coaches took the guys through the first two weeks and then the game plan through Christmas. We were almost perfect all the way throughout. Whatever they did, they were going to have to be so good to beat us tonight, and we knew that going in because we just were prepared to play. As it turned out, Cody and Patterson and those guys up front were doing the things, and Grootegood and Lofa and Dallas were making those plays that they normally make because they were making them in practice for a month and there was no reason not to unless there was some factor we couldn't foresee. It was a great test for us, but it wasn't too much for us to handle obviously, and we were very thrilled about that.

COACH PETE CARROLL: I'm not thinking about it that way. I just want to see if we can do it well. That's not why we do it. We do it to do it well and to do great things. When you look back and somebody says you got a record or you did this or you did that, that's cool, but I'm not chasing anything like that.

COACH PETE CARROLL: There's a lot of stuff we'll talk about. I think I have the best perspective out of anybody he can talk to, and that's what we'll do. I love this guy and I want him to know exactly what he's up against and what the situation is. The one thing that is really important for our guys to understand is this is the time of their life. This is the best times they'll ever have. They'll never get these years back with the Trojan football program, teammates, playing in front of their home crowds. It just isn't like that. The NFL does not feel like this when you play and perform in a program like this. Everybody that's played outside, you talk to Carson Palmer, Troy, all these guys will tell you there's nothing like this. The point is when you know it's that special, why would you want to leave it so soon. For all of our guys, especially Matt, I don't want them to miss this time because when they get out they're going to wish that they had. That's one of the issues it comes down to. It's hard to see that we're in a great run in this program. I have the same vision problem. We get so focused. But that's one of the big issues. Whether Matt wants to chase three National Championships or not, I don't know. To me that's not the reason to do it. You do it because of the people, because of the feeling that you get, because of what you can accomplish with these people you share so much with. It's way more than putting a ring on your finger, that kind of stuff, to me. I don't know about Matt. We'll figure that part out. Anyway, we'll get great information and help him understand where he's going to go in the draft and all of that, and we'll figure it out. His dad and his family, they can trust the heck out of what we're going to tell him and then they've got to make the decision. We'll go through all of that.

COACH PETE CARROLL: You talk about your buddy.

MATT LEINART: Steve was the veteran of the receiving corps and he was only a sophomore coming into the season. We knew he was going to have to step up and be a leader on this team. Unfortunately he got hurt pretty early in the season and really battled back soon and got back in the rhythm and has really been the big play receiver for us. Him and Dwayne are two great receivers, a great tandem, and Steve stepped up his game tonight. It was amazing, three touchdowns, one of the best catches I've ever seen, falling out of bounds, and a bunch of other great matches. I'm proud of the way he's played and he's so young. These guys, myself even, we're so young, and this is supposed to be the biggest game, but like Coach says, it really feels like another game when the whistle blows, and all the hype and the hoopla makes it all a little bit different, but once we get going, we're just doing our plays, nothing special, just executing what we're doing all season. Steve, I'm just proud of him. I can't say enough about him. He really stepped up his game. I'm just proud of the way he played.

MATT LEINART: I did a little chatting during the game with him. I don't think I should be talking about that right now.

COACH PETE CARROLL: That's a good choice. Next question.

COACH PETE CARROLL: We've got a real nice team coming back. We're going to be a really hard team to beat if we continue to do the things we do. It's not about -- we've got to go back to work when the time comes and go back to work. I don't think any of us feel overwhelmed with the accomplishment that this was so great or are we going to come back. I don't think we're worried about that. We're going to put our team back together and have a blast playing together. This is a program that's flying, there's no doubt about it. We need to finish our recruiting season and get some players to come in and add to this thing so we can continue to grow and then go back at it and ride the wave that we're on and have a ball doing it, which really begins with the get-together when we get back to the hotel.

COACH PETE CARROLL: Thanks for the fantastic treatment you guys gave us. It was an awesome week.