Speak Softly and Carry a Large Press Corps

Pete Carroll maintained his usual mellow tone with the media today.

During a conference call, he was asked if he wants the running back committee to get narrowed down within a few games so that one or two clear starters emerge.

"If we're winning, I don't care."

Later he held a news conference for the USC media corps and was asked about LSU climbing in the polls.

"Where do those points come from anyway?"

He continued to turn the tables on the press and asked a few questions about how the AP poll works. He didn't know much about it -- or at least he didn't let on that he did.

If you want to hear more straight from the Trojan horse's mouth, FSN Prime Ticket will premier "In My Own Words: Pete Carroll" tonight at 10:30. The 30-minute program, hosted by Lindsay Soto, will give a more personal look at the USC coach. It will rerun several times this month: Sept. 14 at 2:30 p.m., Sept. 15 at 10:30 p.m., Sept. 18 at 10 p.m., Sept. 19 at 10 p.m., and Sept. 26 at 6 p.m.

If you don't get Fox Sports, some quotes from the show are after the jump.

"The overall approach to this program is to win forever."

Coach Carroll’s epiphany, with help from John Wooden: “Once he figured it out and once he…got it together, nobody could touch him. I realized even though I had been working to get to that point in my next job, I might not get 16 years, I might get 16 months, so I had better get my act together.”

Is it harder to get to the top or stay on top?  “Anybody can stumble into it.  I think it is way harder to stay on top.”

Recruiting is competition to him:  “Recruiting is building your football team.  You’re going out and finding the guys who can score touchdowns for you.  So, is that a chore? Is that something you wouldn’t want to? ... Why would you not like that?  To me, it’s the pulse of the program.”

Being highly competitive is a good thing: “Competition is to find how much you have inside yourself.  It is to realize your potential. Without competition we can’t find who we really are.  In that, those that make us compete to the highest level are the most important to us.”

He takes multi-tasking to the extreme: “I find great solace in the spaces between the spaces, is the best way to tell ya. Sleeping’s overrated as far as I am concerned.”

Carroll loves the Niners and the Giants and watching every Barry Bonds at-bat. The steroids controversy hasn’t affected his love for baseball:  “I’m a kid.  I wanna see him hit home runs. I don’t care about that.”

Coaching at the collegiate level suits him: “The NFL is a blast.  It is a great place to compete at.  It is the highest level, most resources, all that stuff, greatest athletes and coaches in the world. However, this, I think, has…I like it more.  I am having more fun.  I think it is basically because of the freedom.”

He finds the fun in everything:  “I really live my life thinking that something good is about to happen…And maybe it is because I’m ADD, you know?  ADD is a beautiful thing because you never get bored.”

Comments

[Manuel R.]

Wow, doesn't care about Barry's use of steroids? Very telling tidbit of information from a coach. Might explain the apparent 'looking the other way' for a certin Reggie Bush. I guess what he should have also learned from Coach Wooden is that above all CHARECTER COUNTS.

[Bobak]

Spelling does to: Character. But that tells you the sort of person what would come to the above conclusion.

[45 lbs.]

Which team doesn't fit? Michigan, Notre Dame, Southern Cal.
Which team doesn't fit? Southern Cal, Louisiana State, Oklahoma.

[USCNY]

I am so sick of loser nobodies trying to put down people that have achieved great things in their lives. Pete Carroll has only shown nothing but class, character and integrity while leading one of the greatest runs in college football and these idiots can only try to find (and fabricate) anything that will try to discredit him and his team. What a sad and pathetic commentary this is on these people.

[USCNY]

BTW Manuel, you might want to check out this program PC helped create to reduce gang violence before you make judgements about CHARECTER...

http://www.abetterla.com/

[Left by Leftwest]

Who goofed I gotta know;
In January Florida was Number One;
who did they lose to to become Number 4in September?
In January Southern Cal was Number Four;
who did they defeat to become Number One in September?
Is Southern Cal a contestant on this season's American Idol
and for insurance, dating Paula Abdool?
The flag is up?