Pete Carroll's former assistants haven't tasted much post-USC glory -- yet

Two months into the season, Steve Sarkisian needs a thesaurus to describe his first try at being a head coach.

Amazing. Disappointing. Hard to explain.

"I feel like every game gets crazier and crazier," he said recently.

Hard to deny that Sarkisian has done a reasonable job of leading Washington back from last year's winless debacle. But with the 3-5 Huskies visiting the Rose Bowl to face UCLA on Saturday, he gets measured by another standard.

It's the same benchmark facing Lane Kiffin at Tennessee and DeWayne Walker at New Mexico State.

They are former USC assistants, offshoots of a program that has gone 65-8 since the start of the 2004 season. During that time, six teams ranging from the Idaho Vandals to the Oakland Raiders have hired Pete Carroll disciples.

And, as of this week, their combined record is 30-73.

"Yeah, we feel the pressure," said Ed Orgeron, who lasted three seasons at Mississippi. "We all want to represent."

They face a version of the scrutiny that New England Patriots Coach Bill Belichick's former assistants endure in the NFL. Call it the Carroll family tree.

"We'd better start winning," said Kiffin, who is in his first season at Tennessee and on Saturday earned his first victory against a ranked opponent, 31-13 over South Carolina. "Because that tree's not growing very well."

There is another side to this story, the possibility that the talent drained from USC's staff -- the likes of Norm Chow and Tim Davis also gone -- has finally caught up with the Trojans.

"A lot of guys," said Nick Holt, who spent two seasons as head coach at Idaho and is now Sarkisian's defensive coordinator. "They're all good coaches."

Not that the former assistants are carbon copies of their mentor.

Sarkisian and Kiffin were influenced by stints in the NFL. Holt brought something a little different to the job. Walker, who became defensive coordinator at UCLA after leaving USC, says he is more low-key around players: "I get most of my work done behind closed doors. Pete's more rah-rah."

But there are undeniable similarities between USC and the programs these men have run or are running, especially when it comes to practices.

You can see it on a muggy afternoon in Knoxville, the Volunteers sprinting from one drill to the next. And on a clear day in the Pacific Northwest, where the Huskies fly around during a scrimmage, hitting each other as if it were game day.