Columnist note: If not for a combination of four plays since the fourth quarter of the 2005 season's championship game, the passage below could have been sent to press and appeared, as typed, in today's paper:
With five consecutive national titles in Trojans tow, a current No. 1 ranking, the man he voted for soon to drop luggage at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. and No. 21 California headed to the Coliseum this weekend, life couldn't get much better for USC Coach Pete Carroll.
He too is on the precipice of history:
It took Alabama Coach Bear Bryant, considered by many the greatest college football coach ever, nearly a quarter-century to win six national titles for the Crimson Tide.
Yet here sits Carroll, eight games into his eighth season at USC, five victories shy of a sixth crown.
Remember when people argued the 85-scholarship rule had leveled the playing field?
Yeah, right.
You could envision circumstances in which Carroll, a traditionalist with an NFL background, could have once cried for a playoff in college football.
He might have, had this fantastic fortune not fallen his way, found humor in a silly system called the Bowl Championship Series.
Other than 2003, though, when the BCS bypassed his No. 1 team, only to have the Associated Press step in to right that wrong, what complaints could Carroll have about a system that is about to chisel his face on Mt. Passmore?
OK, back to reality . . .
The plays:
1. Jan. 4, 2006, Rose Bowl, Pasadena. USC had won national titles in 2003 (AP) and '04 (BCS) and was riding a 34-game winning streak into the 2005 national-title game against Texas.
USC led, 38-33, with 2:13 left and faced fourth and two at the Texas 45.
Instead of punting, Carroll went for the first down that would have clinched a third consecutive national title.
With Heisman Trophy winner tailback Reggie Bush out of the game, LenDale White was stopped short, and Texas drove 56 yards for Vince Young's winning touchdown.
Carroll after-game quote: "I'd do it exactly the same way time and again. . . . We always go with LenDale in those situations. Always. We have for three years."
2. Dec. 2, 2006, Rose Bowl, Pasadena. Trailing 13-point underdog UCLA, 13-9, late in the fourth quarter, USC faced third down deep in Bruins territory when quarterback John David Booty's pass, intended for Steve Smith, was miraculously tipped and intercepted by linebacker Eric McNeal. Had the pass been complete and USC gone on to win, the Trojans would have played Ohio State in the BCS national-title game.
