Mood Light and Fun at Pete Carroll Press Conference

It's the Tuesday before a football game, and that means a Pete Carroll lunchtime press conference. Heading into the opener against Idaho, it was hard to say much about the opponent. The Vandals' Robb Akey, participating by speakerphone, pointed out that they're considered the 113th best team in the nation -- out of 119 teams. After there were just a few questions from the press, he joked, "Any of you guys wanna play in the game?"

Carroll tried to keep it positive and said the game should be fun for both teams. He was quickly badgered by L.A. Times columnist T.J. Simers, who couldn't figure out how that was possible for the 45-point underdog. When asked if he had ever been in that position, Carroll quipped, "Maybe with the Jets." T.J. will probably have some funny stuff in his next column, since his pointed questions solicited responses such as, "That's kind of like the question, 'Do you still beat your wife?' "

After T.J. cooled off, the next reporter (Dave Denholm) brought the house down.

"How do you like handling the media here in L.A.?"

As far as on-field news, Carroll announced that C.J. Gable will start at tailback because Chauncey Washington won't be back from injury. Stafon Johnson will also play, and it's unclear if Joe McKnight will be ready. Carroll was asked about Everson Griffin, who is listed as a starter despite never having played a snap of college ball. He was positive about all of his freshmen, but pointed out, "There was a game early on when Mike Williams was just starting, he musta' had seven drops."

And yes, that was Petros Papadakis rocking a pink Hello Kitty backpack.

Comments

[Bobak]

I read this after reading Simer's article, interesting to see he really acts out on how he writes. Hmm...

[PK-IN-THE-MESA]

tj really hates USC, why i don't know maybe its because Garrett steps on him like a pest that he is but hay i really think he pulls for UCLA so Joe mac must really like that. Simers wonders if the losing teams are having fun well maybe in T- ball that could be the case so maybe he should go cover those games.

[Dedrick]

Mr Rose I don't understand Why people would even think That the Pac 10 compares to the SEC. I really would like you to explain to me why this is.
The thing I keep hearing people say is the SEC plays a soft non-conference schedule. To those people I say the Pac 10 plays a soft conference schedule. The SEC teams play 4 non-conference game. The Pac-10 plays 8 conference games.

Conference Records
The 2006 SEC Conference (w/o LSU) was 48-48
The 2006 Pac-10 Conference (w/o USC) was 38-48

Overall Records
The 2006 SEC Conference (w/o LSU) was 84-68
The 2006 Pac-10 Conference(w/o USC) was 78-64

(These stats exclude the Bowl Games w/ Mich. 11-2 and Notre Dame 10-3)

The Pac 10 had 3 teams with 10 or more wins (USC, Cal, Oregon St.)
The SEC had 4 teams with 10 or more wins (Fla, Ark, Aub, LSU)

The Pac 10 had 3 other teams over .500 all at 7-6 (UCLA, Oregon, Ari. St.)
The SEC had 4 other teams over .500 (Ten and GA at 9-4) (Kent. and S.C. at 8-5)

Both Conferences had 4 teams at .500 or less

Could you explain to me why USC and the Pac-10 are better than LSU and The SEC

[Adam Rose]

I think the Pac 10 and SEC are the top two conferences in college football today and anybody who considers one or the other inferior is kidding themselves. One neutral-ish site that has a reasonable ranking system is the College Football Data Warehouse, which places the SEC as the top conference in history, but the Pac 10 as the best since 2000:
http://www.cfbdatawarehouse.com/data/rankings/decade_conf_rankings.php?period=2000-2006

If you want the pure USC spin, consider who the Trojans have played since 2002 when they won their first of five straight Pac 10 championships. Of their six total losses, four were against Pac 10 schools. The others were against Texas (Big 12) in an epic nailbitter and Kansas State (also Big 12) in 2002. In 22 out-of-conference games, USC faced the SEC four times -- winning each contest. In fact, USC humiliated their opponent in the last three games against the SEC. In 2003 playing at Auburn, who had been hyped as a national title contender, they shut out the Tigers 23-0. In 2005, the Trojans beat Arkansas 70-17 in a game that didn't even feel that close. Last season, USC went into Arkansas and punished that year's SEC-West champion 50-14. That's a pretty narrow perspective, but at least you can see why nobody on the west coast is worshiping at the feet of the SEC.

Other notes:

- Pac 10 schools actually play all 9 other teams in the conference, which is a fairly recent change.

- I'm a bit confused as to where you determined that a conference had a loosing record against itself (Sports Illustrated made the same mistake earlier this month, so you're in good company). By definition, both conferences had .500 records against themselves, regardless of whether you drop one team from the equation or not.

- Since the only important thing would be OOC games, that would explain the discrepancy between the SEC and Pac 10 overall records based on the original premise that the Pac 10 schedules stronger OOC matchups.