He leaves sunny Southern California for rainy Seattle in a move that will surely define just whether he really can coach em up at the next level

SCOTT JACOBS

Pete Carroll didn’t make USC.  But he brought them back from the dead, and turned what had been a struggling power into an unstoppable force.  So pardon Caroll as he prepares to leave his cozy gig as head coach of the closest thing LA has to a pro team for Paul Allen’s real NFL team, the struggling Seattle Seahawks.

Carroll’s been down this road before, but it’s been a while.  After an 8-8 finish with New England way back in 1999, Carroll was fired, and USC came a calling.  Since then it’s been nothing but sunshines and rainbows for Pete, who ressurected the Trojans from a 6-6 team his first year to a BCS power almost every year thereafter.  With appologies to Florida, no school was more dominant in the past decade than the Trojans, who in essence owned the mansion at the top of the hill, while the rest of the Pac 10, washed their floor.

The numbers are startling: 97-19 are the Trojans since Caroll was hired back in 2001.  And a tidy 62-14 record in the Pac 10.  Lest we forget a ho hum, two national titles (one disuputed, and one most certainly not).  If it wasn’t for Vince Young, USC might have had three.

Carroll’s dominance in the college ranks has not gone un-noticed in the pro ranks.  Despite a mediocre 33-31 record in one year with the Jets and four with the Patriots, NFL teams have approached Carroll numerous times about an interest in their head coaching gig.  He always turned them down.

It’s seems like he’s finally found the one he wants.

Seahawks owner Paul Allen is flush with money and disguisted with the mediocrity pit his team has fell into.  From 2004 to 2007, the Sea creatures owned the NFC West, capturing the division crown four years in a row.  The highlight of that run was a trip to Super Bowl XL.  But since 2007 Seattle has floundered, Mike Holmgren has left, and Jim Mora Jr. flopped badly in his first year with the team.

So here comes Pete the Savior.  The mediocre pro head coach who oversaw the most explosive college team year in and year out.  Carroll wanted another crack at rewriting his NFL legacy, and here it is.  The NFC West is the perfect division for him too.  Yes, the Cardinals have owned the division the past few years and yeah San Fran seems to have turned a corner, but the West is their’s for the taking, and a few shrewd roster moves could put Seattle right back in the post-season.

Of course, Carroll has to figure out what to do with the quarterback situation (Our advice: get a new one), and he’ll have to assemble a coaching staff not made up entirely of college guys.  The Seahawks were just 5-11 this year, but showed signs they could be better.

That’s what Caroll has to be looking at.  Yeah, the money (and there will be lots of it) will be great, but you just know Caroll must see some kind of opportunity in the Emerald City to relinquish the perfect job he had at USC.

It will also be interesting to see who replaces Caroll at USC.  You have to wonder, although semmingly the top job imaginable given it’s location, history, etc., has Caroll set the bar so high at USC that the next coach is ultimately doomed to fail?

It’s a fair question to ask and it will be interesting who USC targets on their short list.

But in the meantime, the Seahawks hope Carroll’s recruiting is not the only thing that made him an exceptional coach.  They’re banking that he’s learned a thing or two since jumping to the college ranks, and that he can lead Seattle back to prominence.

Stay tuned.

Photo: AP

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