USC to face the heat from NCAA committee

Forget the Arizona heat outside. USC representatives will face plenty of pressure inside the room with NCAA rules infractions committee members soon. USC’s hearing begins Thursday, and experts say what will take place behind the closed doors in a hotel conference room in Tempe, Ariz., will be similar to a court hearing — with the NCAA enforcement staff acting as prosecutor, USC officials as defendants and the 10-member infractions committee as judge and jury. A court reporter will be present and the proceedings are recorded. “It’s an intimidating room,” said Brian Battle, Florida State’s compliance director, who participated in a 2008 infractions committee hearing. “Someone said it’s like visiting a funeral home. It’s not that bad, but you feel like you’re going to court.” – Los Angeles Times

USC AD Mike Garrett “embarrassed” by investigation stigma

USC AD Mike Garrett is opening up, but just a little bit. The university’s multimillion-dollar sports enterprise has suffered a black eye over allegations that star athletes in football and basketball received gifts from agents. Later this week, administrators will face an NCAA committee that wants to know if Garrett let his department veer out of control. USC has already announced self-imposed sanctions in basketball, including forfeits, a postseason ban and recruiting restrictions. Its cherished football team, which slipped last season and lost coach Pete Carroll to the NFL, could face similar penalties. Garrett acknowledges feeling “terribly embarrassed” by the stigma of an NCAA investigation. – Los Angeles Times

Lane Kiffin, Norm Chow didn’t speak for two years

Sources said USC coach Lane Kiffin agreed to hire Norm Chow when he interviewed with Mike Garrett. But Kiffin and Chow endured a rocky relationship when they coached at USC together, however, and did not speak to each other for the last two years (2003-04). But relations improved following Kiffin’s departure from USC in 2006. “I’ve seen Norm a couple of times,” Kiffin said. “I think the world of Norm. And I don’t have any issues with Norm.” That’s a far cry from in February 2005, when Carroll was asked about Kiffin and Chow no longer speaking to each other despite being offensive assistants. “Their relationship has been the same for years,” Pete Carroll said at the time. – LA Daily News

USC Hires Lane Kiffin

Tennessee’s Lane Kiffin has agreed in principle to become the next head coach at Southern California, sources close to the situation told ESPN.com’s Chris Low on Tuesday. Kiffin would replace Pete Carroll, who jumped to the NFL as coach of the Seattle Seahawks. Kiffin, the former Oakland Raiders coach, led the Volunteers for only one season. According to the sources, Kiffin will bring his father and defensive coordinator, Monte Kiffin, and assistant head coach and recruiting coordinator Ed Orgeron to Southern Cal with him, and wide receivers coach Kippy Brown will be named interim head coach at Tennessee. – ESPN.com

Report: Seattle, Pete Carroll agree on deal (with video)

Pete Carroll has reached an agreement in principle with the Seahawks on a deal to be their next head coach, multiple NFL sources confirmed early Saturday morning. Carroll was fully expected to be introduced by the Seahawks as early as Monday, assuming they comply with the Rooney Rule this weekend. The hangup could be locating a candidate to interview that would put the Seahawks in compliance with the rule, which requires teams to interview a minority candidate for head-coaching hires. On Friday, Jim Mora became the first Seahawks coach to be let go after one season. – ESPN.com

Seattle Targeting USC’s Pete Carroll? (UPDATED with Video)

The Seattle Seahawks fired Jim Mora earlier today and now apparently Pete Carroll is considered a possible candidate for the head coaching position in the great northwest and there is, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter and Chris Mortensen, “mutual interest” from Carroll. It should be no surprise that the Seahawks would be interested in Carroll, who has a fantastic pedigree (dispel his time with the Patriots all you want, but he won a division title and his work at USC speaks for itself) and who is rumored in most every major coaching search, if at least because he’s had tremendous success at the college game and would probably like the chance to succeed at the next level, after his reputation took a hit with his stint in New England (public opinion, not necessarily mine, see above). Add in the fact that USC has been under heavy — to say the very least — scrutiny from the NCAA and despite punishing themselves in basketball, they could be facing sanction in football as well. – BusterSports.com

Pete Carroll Upset with USC AD Mike Garrett?

Pete Carroll now on the spot, the perception nationally the Trojans’ football program is out of control, if not in need of an NCAA spanking, and AD Mike Garrett is nowhere to be found to assist the guy who saved his career. Garrett owes every day on the job, every penny earned to Carroll after stumbling across him almost a decade ago and hiring him to take the job Mike Riley, Dennis Erickson and Mike Bellotti turned down. And now, as wacky as it is to even suggest, Carroll needs Garrett to buy him some time to regroup. It has been a terrible year for Carroll, starting with the embarrassing way he reacted to Mark Sanchez’s decision to turn pro knowing more than anyone he’d be left without a solid quarterback — and leading all the way up to this week and the Joe McKnight affair and three players declared academically ineligible. “I don’t think he did anything wrong,” Carroll says, but if that’s the case, then why isn’t McKnight here practicing with his teammates? “It’s out of my hands,” Carroll says, a hint of dissatisfaction and even disagreement in his voice. – LA Times

Pete Carroll denies Charlie Weis’ allegations

USC Coach Pete Carroll said statements about him that were attributed to former Notre Dame Coach Charlie Weis on an Internet site were “untrue” and “irresponsible.” In a question-and-answer session with IrishIllustrated.com Senior Editor Tim Prister, the post said Weis was asked: “Is it frustrating to you Pete Carroll, for example, portrayed in one way ?” The post said Weis responded: “Let me ask you this question: You guys know about things that go on in different places. Was I living with a grad student in Malibu, or was I living with my wife in my house? You could bet that if I were living with a grad student here in South Bend, it would be national news. He’s doing it in Malibu and it’s not national news. What’s the difference? I don’t understand. Why is it okay for one guy to do things like that, but for me, I’m scrutinized when I swear. I’m sorry for swearing; absolve my sins.? “It’s untrue, it’s irresponsible, and it’s incredible he’d be talking about me like that,” Carroll said of Weis. – Los Angeles Times

Jim Harbaugh ticks off Pete Carroll

When Jim Harbaugh and Pete Carroll met at midfield after Stanford completed its 55-21 defenestration of USC here Saturday, their conversation was brief, pointed and seemingly unsatisfying. “What’s your deal? What’s your deal?” Carroll said, according to two sources near enough to hear. “What’s your deal?” Harbaugh retorted, and that was that. Now there’s the brevity of wit for you. It is also evidence of what will be a lingering dislike-a-thon between the two men, punctuated by Harbaugh’s impish yet gratuitous two-point conversion attempt after Stanford’s seventh - yes, seventh - touchdown. It looked like what it was, Harbaugh putting a knee in Carroll’s exposed coaching nethers. – San Francisco Chronicle

Is UNLV Coach Mike Sanford “Panicked?”

There is a little panic going on here. A little circling of the wagons. Hey, it happens when you are a head coach in a fifth year, still searching for your first winning season, and you’re coming off a forgettable loss in which some of your players afterward questioned the team’s mindset. Most coaches not named Pete Carroll, at some time or another (and many on a daily basis), restrict access to us bothersome types in possession of recording devices and meddling queries about injuries and position changes and other routine points. Like if there is one coach on staff capable of counting well enough to avoid delay-of-game penalties following timeouts when trying to attempt tying field goals in the closing seconds of a conference road game. You know, small stuff like that… But you don’t need a Masters degree to figure out what’s going on here. He’s worried and has good reason. The loss at Wyoming and how it transpired was beyond brutal for a coach in his fifth season. Teams with bowl aspirations don’t lose to a team that finished in last place last season, is picked to finish last again and started a true freshman quarterback under a first-year coach running a new offense. It was an awful loss for a UNLV team that has insisted things are different this season. UNLV now faces a stretch of UNR and home to Brigham Young and Utah. Things could go south fast here. They have at some point during each of Sanford’s four seasons. A few starters — without being prodded in the least by reporters — said after the Wyoming game that some players didn’t take the Cowboys seriously enough. Not a good thing. So it is no coincidence that for the first time in Sanford’s tenure (which includes, remember, four previous “circus” weeks for the UNR game), he is limiting access now. He will tell you it has nothing to do with the Wyoming loss or what his players said afterward, or the fact he now faces the most critical three-game stretch of his tenure, one that could ultimately decide his fate as UNLV coach. He will tell you there is not a shred of truth to any of that. On its face, limiting access this week means nothing. A few levels below, there is some panic. – Las Vegas Review-Journal

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