ShareThisLOS ANGELES - As soon as outgoing football coach Pete Carroll's last "Thanks for the memories" echoed off the Heritage Hall walls Monday afternoon, a gaggle of reporters followed Southern California athletic director Mike Garrett from the room.
"It's Pete's day," said Garrett several times as he walked away and didn't stop. "I'm not talking."
The questions Garrett wasn't going to answer anyway, of course, were who next and how soon?
The operating word around USC these days appears to be "quick," as media talking heads and Trojans fans advocate urgency in finding a new football coach. The idea is that a class of recruits is at risk. If a new head guy isn't identified soon, the trickle of lost athletes will become a torrent.
Really? A few players at talent-glutted USC are more important than finding the right man to run your program for the next three, five, 10 years?
Leave it to one of Carroll's players -- oops, former players -- to come up with some perspective.
"I'd say quality over quick," said sophomore Chris Galippo. "Find someone who'll keep making this a special place. He's filling some big shoes. Coach Carroll set some pretty high standards."
I knew there was a reason they made Galippo a middle linebacker and let him set the defense.
Reports that a few recruits have already defected shouldn't alarm anyone. If players were coming to USC just to play for Carroll, they were going to bolt anyway.
In the end, a few lost players is a small price to pay for making sure the most important new recruit -- the guy charged with keeping USC an elite program -- shows up.
And when it comes to Garrett's performance hiring coaches, what makes anyone think that "quick" is something he does well? This is the guy who put Carroll off until there was no one left to pick nine years ago. If I remember right, Carroll was behind Door No. 4 or 5.
Then there was the Rick Majerus debacle. The big man was the USC basketball coach for, like, almost a week before he panicked and left, followed quickly (there's that word again) by Tim Floyd, whose own quick fix to the Trojans program has culminated in NCAA trouble and self-imposed sanctions.
If USC is looking to wrangle wayward recruits, hire a cowboy, or a sheepdog. But take some time for a coach. Carroll, of course, was the right guy all along, and there was nothing quick about that hire.
Monday, the Seattle Seahawks' new man spent most of his farewell reminiscing about his special time at USC. He had the right. No coach in the school's legendary history had a better run.
He also peeled off some of the camouflage he'd been wearing for nine years. For the first time that I can remember, he wore nothing with a "USC" or "Trojan" logo on it. In generic slacks and button-down shirt he looked like the NFL coach he was, and always yearned to be.
"I can't pass on this opportunity," he said, identifying the NFL as the "highest" and "most intense" level of competition. "The next stop will be the challenge of a lifetime."
Typically, he met with his players for the last time and left them talking about challenges and moving forward, too.
"In the end," said fullback Stanley Havili of the news, "we came to play at 'SC. We love being here."
Said quarterback Matt Barkley: "I'll miss him, but I'm glad I got to play for him for one year. I'm sure they'll find the right guy to bring in."
And Galippo: "I think we're more excited than bummed. Dealing with a new coach is part of it, just another challenge."
Admirable attitudes, all around. That should serve them well, right up until the Trojans fall behind Hawaii in next season's opener, and they look to the guy in charge on the sideline.
If he's the right man for the job, no one will care how long it took to find him.
(Reach Gregg Patton at gpatton(at)PE.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
columnMust credit The Press-Enterprise of Riverside, Calif.
