It’s not exactly a state secret that Southern Cal head coach Pete Carroll is a tad bit enamored by freshman quarterback Matt Barkley. ”Over-the-top” comes to mind for some reason as it relates to the Carroll-Barkley dynamic.
Quite bluntly, the coach’s fawning over a player who’s played in a mere two games is just a little disconcerting and uncomfortable, at least from afar.
Which brings us to Aaron Corp, who, through no fault of his own, is… well… not Barkley. And that seems to be an issue of growing concern for the football program.
Corp, in his first collegiate start, stepped in for Barkley and was, to be kind, not good in the upset loss to Washington. And if you don’t believe my analysis of Corp, just listen to his coach.
“He struggled with anything down field,” Carroll said of Corp. “We were very fortunate that we didn’t throw three or four more picks. There were three or four more (interceptions) there for (Washington to take).”
Uh. Oh.
It’s one thing to be honest with a player within the cozy confines of a coach’s office or a team’s meeting room. It’s another thing entirely to take that honesty and share it with the public at large through the media. And in such an emasculating manner to boot.
Especially when the player involved may still feel like he got screwed out of the starting job due to his own injury to begin with, an edge for the job he had earned with a strong performance in spring practice and carried into the start of summer camp.
And especially when said player may be counted on at some point before the end of the season to save the same coach’s ass who just seemed to throw him under the proverbial bus.
How bad must Mustain be for him to not be in the conversation at all as far as I can tell?
Suddenly Coach doesn’t seem like the class act most of the press has him made out to be. Great way to handle unpaid college kids.
Mustain is in the mix — as a punter.
http://www.bigleaguescrew.com/college-sports/usc-qb-mitch-mustain-moonlights-as-a-punter
Coach must be related to Lewis Carroll – he’s obviously in some kind of wonderland. He’s more enamored with himself than anybody. With the self-proclaimed talent he gets every year he should never lose a game but alas ….. he doesn’t even have the best college team in California.
USC is a program that has great talent for its players, but only mediocre coaching. No other way to say it. I could probably name a dozen or more coaches which, had they been coaching USC over the last few years instead of Carroll, probably would have delivered at least one–if not multiple–national championships.
When a team that has far superior athletes at virtually every position on the field, offense and defense, finds ways to lose to teams c0mprised of far inferior players–that’s on the coach. Period. Every single year USC wins a few big games and yet manages to choke away at least one easy one. Stanford 2 years ago, Oregon State last year, Washington this year. And it will be someone else next year…I guarantee it.
besides all that Copr is a really nice guy personally. yea he had a bad game but to throw him under the bus like that is BS on carrolls part.
Carroll didn’t throw him under the bus, he was basically stating what the problems were when asked about Corp along with all the other problems. If he would have said that Corp was great, you would have heard all the backlash about it. He also took all the blame!!! In my humble opinion, this was also the time for Corp to show that he was the number 1 QB and step up to the plate. That’s what Barkley did.
“# OH-IO says: September 22, 2009 4:21 PM ET
Suddenly Coach doesn’t seem like the class act most of the press has him made out to be. Great way to handle unpaid college kids.”
Unpaid college kids? This is USC we’re talking about here….