Is Now the Time for Carroll to Head Back to the NFL?

First, let me say this: Pete Carroll is a perfect fit at USC and he is a better fit it college football than he is  the NFL. The problem is that the Trojans are nowhere near as dominant as they were under Matt Leinhart and Reggie Bush. Carroll still gets some of the best recruiting classes in the country, but this team does not look like it is built to win a national title sometime in the next couple of years. The Trojans can still make a BCS game (which is a joke) and Carroll deserves to coach at USC as long as he wants.

I don’t think you can put all of the blame on Carroll, I am just saying that now is the perfect time for Carroll to consider going back to the NFL. Carroll will never leave USC for another college school, since no other place can give Carroll what he currently has in Los Angeles. If you think how dumb some of the owners are in the NFL, you realize that there is a good chance that an owner will hire a college coach after this season. Florida coach Urban Meyer will probably get a look from the Jacksonville Jaguars and you never know what Al Davis is going to do in Oakland. Instead of taking a chance on Meyer or a hot name like Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz, why not hire a college coach that has a 33-31 record in the NFL?

Carroll gets ripped for his 6-10 record with the New York Jets, but you need to remember that Carroll won the AFC East with the New England Patriots in 1997 and led the team to the playoffs in I998. With the right staff (Monte Kiffin?), Carroll could succeed in the NFL. Freshman Matt Barkley might turn things around at USC and this defense could once again become dominant in the next couple of years. This team lost three great linebackers (Ray Maualuga, Brian Cushing and Clay Matthews) to the the NFL and this defense is showing how much it misses those three great players. With how many head coaching jobs that could open after the NFL season, now is the time for Carroll to leave USC. Keep an eye on a team like the Washington Redskins. Washington’s horrible team has been linked to former NFL coaches Bill Cowher, Jon Gruden, Mike Holmgren and Mike Shanahan. The problem is that Daniel Snyder wants a coach that he can control and those four coaches might not want to coach under Snyder. If Snyder throws a lot of money at Carroll, it will be hard for Carroll to say no.