The departure of Peter Carroll from USC sent shockwaves through the football world. During his time there as the football head coach, he led the Trojans to seven straight Pacific-10 Conference titles and to numerous national championship games, including a National Championship in 2004 and a National Championship in 2003 shared with the LSU Tigers.
Now Pete Carroll works for the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks, serving as their head coach and executive Vice-President. His protégé, Lane Kiffin, leaves his position as the head coach of the Tennessee Volunteers and returns to the University of Southern California with some very big shoes to fill.
This will not be Carroll’s first foray into professional football. He served as the head coach of the New York Jets in 1994 and the New England Patriots from 1997-1999. He also had stints as a defensive coordinator and as a positional coach.
“I am so fired up…” Carroll said after the Seahawks introduced him. He then assured his audience that he had grown since he last coached in the NFL. However, history indicates that this is a difficult transition, even for coaches who have been here before. At USC Carroll created a standard of success. In Seattle, the fans should not expect marginal success too soon.
After the Thanksgiving Day win over Texas A&M by the Longhorns one question repeatedly asked is. Will Colt McCoy win the Heisman?
McCoy as quarterback has led the Texas Longhorns in the march to the national championships with a 12-0 record so far this season. With a record like that, it is hard to contemplate that McCoy would not win the Heisman.
The twenty three year old McCoy is a native of New Mexico. He is 6′3″ tall, 205 pounds, and one of the best players in Longhorn history. To top it off he is a good-looking guy and that can’t hurt.
With his record of the most touchdown passes in a season and most yardage thrown plus leading his team to twelve straight wins this year, is there any doubt McCoy will win the Heisman?
This will be the first year that the Heisman votes will be cast totally by electronic vote and all 925 ballots need to be cast by 5:00PM December 7th. As close as the race to the Heisman is this year my bet is that it will come down to the wire for voting, but the question is still will Colt McCoy win the Heisman.
Bills Coach Fired
Yesterday, the Buffalo Bills fired Coach Dick Jauron, and named their defensive coordinator Perry Fewell to replace him on an interim basis.
The team has started the year 3-6, and two days ago, they suffered a devastating 41-17 defeat against the Tennessee Titans. In over 3 seasons, Jauron only managed a 24-33 record, and in recent games it’s been getting worse instead of better. The fans were becoming more critical, and calls for a change were becoming louder as time went by. Many fans were expecting him to be fired at the end of last season, and the abysmal performance by the team this season hadn’t changed many minds.
“Perry Fewell will be our Interim Head Coach,” said owner Ralph Wilson in a team statement. “Perry has done a great job with our defense and has demonstrated excellent leadership skills as Defensive Coordinator. Our players and staff have a lot of confidence in him and that is important as we look forward to these next seven games.”
Fewell will become the first African American coach in the team’s history. He’s been in the NFL for 12 years, and this is his 4th season with Buffalo. His first game as head coach will be against the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday.
Running back LaDainian Tomlinson and QB Philip Rivers led the San Diego Chargers to a victory of 28 to 16 over the Philadelphia Eagles.
The Chargers looked strong from the first quarter when Philip Rivers hit a touchdown pass of 20 yards to Mike Tolbert.
In the second quarter LaDainian Tomlinson ran 3 yards to the end zone to put the Chargers ahead 14-0.
14.6 The Eagles came with a pair of field goals of 18 and 25 yards that made good David Akers.
In the third quarter, the volt increased its lead to 21-6, LaDainian Tomlinson got his second touchdown of the game with one carry for 20 yards.
This annotation placed Tomlinson as the third best runner of all time in the NFL, behind only Emmitt Smith and Jerry Rice.
Philadelphia cut the gap to the third field goal by David Akers, a 25-yard attempt.
Before the end of the third quarter, Legedu Naanee received a 20-yard pass from Philip Rivers that sent him to the end zone and put the cards 28.9 for San Diego.
The Eagles came dangerously with two touchdown passes to Donovan McNabb connected with Jeremy Maclin and Brent celek.
With the score 28-23 Philip Rivers led a series of 12 games in which ran 66 yards to make good a Nate Kaeding 29-yard attempt that made it 31-23 final.
With the victory, the electrifying left their mark on 6-3 and tied the Division lead in the AFC West with Denver Broncos, who fell to the Red Pilees Washington.
Precisely the Chargers will play their next game against the Broncos in Denver.