Chow was always the one coach who was unafraid to challenge Carroll. He was the curmudgeonly uncle that every young staff requires. He would have fought Carroll hard enough that Booty would have been benched before throwing four second-half passes for interceptions.
Three bad losses, three offensive failures, all of them preventable.
(No, you can't blame this year's loss to Oregon State on Norm Chow, not when Jacquizz Rodgers gained 186 yards rushing against a shrugging defense).
One of the themes this week is that, since leaving USC, Chow has fallen from grace. He was fired from a Tennessee Titans team that has only lost once. He has joined a UCLA team that has won only four times.
The truth is, Chow's place in Trojans history has only grown stronger.
"I want to say something about USC," Chow said when I phoned him Thursday.
I grabbed my pen. I braced for the vitriol.
"I want to say that I will be forever grateful to Pete for allowing me to coach in the Pac-10, which led to me going to the NFL," Chow said. ''He's a tremendous coach. His staff is filled with tremendous coaches. I have nothing but the greatest respect for USC, I have many friends there still, from Mike Garrett to Don Winston to many, many others."
Typical Chow. He will never publicly admit any hard feelings about anyone. He will never publicly ask for credit. At the height of his USC fame, he was so intent on staying off the big stage, I once had to literally chase him for a quote.
"Norm was great, he did a lot for us, he made a lot of money after he left, he's done very well for himself," said Carroll. "It was a pleasure to work with him."
So what happened? It's been written before. There was no one incident. There was no bloody fight.
It was a battle of perception, and the guy with the disheveled white hair and wire-rimmed glasses lost.
Chow became so popular, folks began referring to the Trojans attack as "Chow's offense." Worried this might hurt recruiting, particular if Chow left, Carroll wanted it to be known as "USC's offense."
This theme carried itself out to the field, where, the more Chow succeeded, the more Carroll wanted to be involved in that success.
After the victory over Oklahoma for their second consecutive national title, Carroll intimated to Chow that he was going to be calling more of the plays, or at least giving more authority to young Kiffin, who was being created in Carroll's image.
Chow worried he was going to be pushed aside, so he left before that could happen, becoming the offensive coordinator for the Tennessee Titans.
This, even though he owned a South Bay home and had children who would be attending USC.
No, even at $1 million a year, Chow didn't want to go, but he didn't feel he had a choice.
"Norm and I never had any problems, we got along great, we worked together great," said Carroll.
But in the end, they didn't really trust each other's intentions, so the partnership ended, and the burgeoning Trojans dynasty hasn't won a national title since.
However, with Thursday's news that Sarkisian will be offered the head coaching job at Washington, there could be a way for Carroll to salvage Chow's loss.
Two ways, actually.
Pick up the phone. Hire him back.
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bill.plaschke@latimes.com
