Letters to the Editor
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Pete Carrol is really dumb
I don't want to take anything away from UT, Vince Young, or one of the greatest college football games ever, but Carrol cost his team the game by making two (possibly three) spectacular mistakes on the same play.
1) USC never should have gone for it on 4th and 2. Young didn't complete a pass over 15 yards in the entire game. In other words, even if USC punts the ball 20 yards, the odds are it would have taken Young at least two plays to cover that distance.
2) Reggie Bush wasn't on the field. No disprespect to the backup, but I've spent the last year hearing how Bush is the second coming of Sayers/Payton/Sanders/Brown/etc. How is the best player in college football standing on the sidelines at the decisive moment?
3) You could argue that a dive up the middle was also really stupid. Everyone knew it was coming. Why not let Matt Leinart play-fake and throw a short pass? It may not have worked, but if you aren't going to put the game in the hands of your best player, maybe you should at least put the game in the hands of your second-best player.
All of which goes to show: college coaches make their money in recruitment, not in game management.