USC's Sarkisian mulling Washington coaching offer

Scott Wolf LA Daily News

USC offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian was offered the Washington head coaching job but will not make any formal acceptance until after the Trojans complete their regular season Saturday against UCLA.

Sarkisian spoke with Washington athletic director Scott Woodward on Wednesday night but said he did not want to do anything before this weekend.

"I told them I didn't want anything to come from my end before the season is over," Sarkisian said Thursday night. "This is exactly what I didn't want to happen because I don't want to distract from our season."

Sarkisian formally interviewed with Washington on Thanksgiving and shot to the top of the search when Cincinnati coach Brian Kelly, Fresno State coach Pat Hill and Texas Tech coach Mike Leach either withdrew or were eliminated from consideration.

Woodward told the Seattle media Thursday there would be no announcements.

Sarkisian has coveted the job twice in the past four years but was not considered a serious contender until last weekend.

"Nothing's finalized in any way, shape or form," he said. "There's been some communication but nothing in writing one way or another. It's a great job. I'm humbled."

Sarkisian denied he was offered the job, but sources said the offer came Wednesday and he would accept it.

"It went well (Wednesday night), we're learning about each other," Sarkisian said.

During his official interview, Sarkisian asked Washington to wait on a decision until Sunday, the day after the Trojans play their crosstown rivals.

"We're playing for a conference championship on Saturday," Sarkisian said.

Asked if he would turn down the Washington job, Sarkisian said, "I turned down the Raiders."

He then laughed because of the circus-like atmosphere surrounding Oakland's NFL team.

Quarterback Mark Sanchez was visibly stunned Thursday night when informed of reports Sarkisian might leave for Washington.

USC coach Pete Carroll would not comment on Sarkisian's situation but already seemed to lay the groundwork for his departure. Former quarterbacks coach Carl Smith attended practices this week.

Carroll said he invited Smith to visit a month ago and it was unrelated. "There's nothing up to even talk about," he said.

However, last month, Carroll offered this answer when asked if Sarkisian might leave.

"I used to think I need to hire and look for someone based on having a lot of experience," Carroll said. "For instance, I had (veteran assistant coach) Ernie Zampese in New England and he had great experience.

"Then I realized that wasn't the most important thing. I wanted guys who have been around the program that we could mold with our philosophy and develop from within and understood what we wanted to do."

Carroll said he would consider assistant coach John Morton and then added he would also consider Smith. It's clear he no longer wants a Norm Chow-type who might come in and be considered an equal.

Morton said Thursday night he would be interested in becoming USC's next offensive coordinator.

"Without question," he said.

He could also follow Sarkisian to Washington because the pair worked together with the Raiders and Sarkisian brought him to USC.

"I'd have to think about my situation and if it were good for my family," Morton said. "USC is a hard place to leave."

Sarkisian, 34, is one of the highest-paid assistant coaches in the country, with a salary of more than $750,000 per year. He became USC's offensive coordinator in 2007 following the departure of Lane Kiffin to the Raiders.

If Sarkisian left, some fans would hardly be upset because he'shas been criticized by some fans this season over the Trojans' playcalling. Sarkisian said he doesn't have time to read or hear the fans' complaints.

Sarkisian said if he is named Washington, he might remain with the USC until its bowl game. Other USC assistant coaches who left for head-coaching jobs (Nick Holt, Ed Orgeron) remained with the Trojans during bowl practices and recruited in their spare time.

"It it happens, that is one of the options," Sarkisian said. "My focus has been on our game and getting the kids to play well."

Sarkisian spoke at Thursday night's bonfire rally held in honor of the crosstown rivalry. He did not discuss the Washington job to the crowd of students.

Renewing a colorful tradition

Ben Malcolmson USCRipsIt

The USC-UCLA rivalry is about to get a little more colorful.

Saturday’s game at the Rose Bowl will revive a classic tradition between the cross-town rivals, with the Trojans planning to wear their home cardinal jerseys instead of the road whites, Coach Pete Carroll announced today.

It’s a flashback to the days when USC and UCLA shared the Coliseum as their home field and both donned home jerseys for the annual rivalry matchup. The tradition stopped in 1982 but will resume Saturday when the Trojans emerge from the Rose Bowl locker room in cardinal instead of white.

“It’s something we’ve been thinking about for a while,” Carroll said Monday. “From talking to coaches at UCLA over the years and seeing the teams wear their home jerseys growing up, it’s something we’re going to start up again this weekend.

“This has always been a colorful matchup and we hope everyone enjoys this recognition of both the past and the present state of the rivalry.”

Carroll and his assistants officially decided on Monday morning to go with the home jerseys on Saturday, meaning the Trojans will be in violation of NCAA rule 1-4-3-a, which states, “the visiting team shall wear white jerseys.”

By wearing cardinal home jerseys during Saturday's road game, USC will then be assessed a penalty — a loss of one timeout per half — for breaking the rule.

USC: The Best Team, Not the Most Deserving

DARREN EVERSON WSJ.com

Let's take a timeout from the Big 12 tiebreaker debate and the Alabama-Florida discussion. Let's take a moment to consider the plight of the nation's real No. 1 team.

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USC coach Pete Carroll may end up looking up at rivals from the SEC and Big 12 even though his team could have the talent to beat them.

This is not to say that the Southern California Trojans, who of course had their chance, ought to play in the national championship. If they'd beaten Oregon State, they'd have nothing to worry about. It's not like the system totally let them down. But we also know that it's far from perfect. The fact that the Trojans have played the second half of the season with so little hope for a title shot encapsulates today's often unfair college football landscape.

We've already discussed the correlation between elite defenses and national championships. (The last five title-game winners didn't all dominate offensively, but all ranked top-10 nationally in total defense.) Well, USC 2008 is as elite as defense gets. The Trojans aren't merely tops in most defensive statistics. Their 3.4 yards-per-play average is miles ahead of the field. To put this figure into perspective: The 1997 Michigan defense, the Charles Woodson group generally regarded as the most dominating defense of recent years, allowed 3.7 yards per play. And that predated the spread of the spread offense.

As with baseball's heightened offensive numbers of the late 1990s, fans should consider the environment that USC's defense plays in. Two seasons ago, just one team (Hawaii) topped 40 points per game for the season and 20 teams averaged over 30. This season, 11 schools are averaging better than 40 points (five of them in the Big 12), and 37 are getting 30 per game (four of which USC played). In an offensive year USC has posted historic defensive numbers.

So despite all the hype surrounding the Oklahoma offense -- and we've been on that bandwagon too -- USC's defense may be the best unit in college football. Yet USC likely will be consigned to the Rose Bowl for a fourth straight season (yes, they did play for the national crown there following the 2005 season). The Trojans can only hope for Missouri to shock Oklahoma, which controversially leapfrogged Texas in the latest Bowl Championship Series standings, in the Big 12 title game.

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USC defenders Brian Cushing, Will Harris and Kaluka Maiava stonewall Notre Dame's Armando Allen during the Trojans' 38-3 pounding of the Fighting Irish Saturday.

USC's angst at watching the title game from home represents the second-most unfortunate outcome of Oregon State's loss to Oregon, after the gnashing of teeth in Corvallis, a city that hasn't sent its boys to Pasadena in January since the Johnson administration. If the Trojans couldn't go to the national-title game, at least they could test themselves against Texas in the Fiesta Bowl and have a shot to prove their worth. Instead, Oregon State comes back to haunt them twice.

It's becoming increasingly clear that, unlike the champions of other conferences, USC must go undefeated to reach the national-title game. Even in 2003, when the Trojans finished the regular season ranked first in both major polls, the BCS computers excluded them from the title game. The Big 12 likely will land a one-loss team in the national-championship game this season, as have the Big Ten and Southeastern conferences in recent years (the SEC sent two-loss LSU last season).

But USC, regarded as playing a weaker schedule in the Pac-10, has been held to a tougher standard. The irony of this predicament? The Trojans should have less to prove than other contenders, given their 5-1 all-time BCS bowl record and that, like the rest of the Pac-10, they buck the national trend by playing a rigorous nonconference schedule. Sensitive to more fickle fan bases less likely to swallow the weak nonconference pablum served elsewhere, USC and other Pac-10 schools schedule more major-college competition than other conferences. For example, undefeated Alabama's nonconference slate included Clemson, Tulane, Western Kentucky and Arkansas State.

Meanwhile, the Trojans played Virginia, Ohio State and Notre Dame -- three big names, albeit two mired in surprisingly mediocre seasons. Come season's end, though, USC gets little credit for it, and gets unfairly punished by the computers for playing in a conference with Washington and Washington State teams playing outrageously awful ball. The worst in other conferences -- say, Iowa State in the Big 12 -- were about as beatable. They just didn't get outscored 127-0 over two games the way the Cougars did.

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The Pac-10 also lacks a championship game. Florida, a team with a resume similar to USC's, can play its way into the national-title game thanks to its conference title match with Alabama. Then again, there's no need for it out west, since every Pac-10 team plays each other.

And so, back the Trojans trudge to Pasadena -- first for the season finale against UCLA, then, in all likelihood, for another ho-hum New Year's Day. Have they only themselves to blame for it? Sure. Just because they're college football's strongest team doesn't mean they're the most deserving of a title shot. Contenders in the SEC and Big 12 can make legitimate claims for those two golden tickets. But if we're wondering who's really No. 1, it says something that USC has gotten so good, it's tired of the Rose Bowl.