USC, Leinart enjoy good life
LOS ANGELES – Pete Carroll and Matt Leinart had fielded questions on stage for more than 16 minutes, safely handling queries on kickers, new coaches and life as a two-time defending national champion.
Then a curveball: “Matt, do you ever think about the 10 million?”
As in 10 million dollars, just a sliver of the sum he would be toting as the top pick in the NFL Draft had he not returned to USC for his senior year.
Before Leinart, momentarily speechless, could respond, Carroll took over.
“Ten million times,” he said, drawing more laughs.
Leinart finally gathered his thoughts: “I did see what (No. 1 pick) Alex Smith signed for, and that’s a pretty cool number. But, what are you going to do?
“I have no complaints about how I’m living right now. I’m happy and no regrets on coming back. … But it would be nice to have the 10 million.”
Life at the top is good for the USC quarterback. The Heisman Trophy he gathered in December is boxed up in a closet at mom’s house. He met everyone from California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to Maria Sharapova this summer. LeBron James congratulated him on being unstoppable in the newest video game.
“I see my picture in whatever magazine. To me, I don’t really care,” said Leinart, reflecting on his status as the king of football in Southern California. “But then when you really think about it – still being in college – this is something that professional athletes get to do.
“I don’t think it’s going to hit me until I’m about 95.”
Leinart, of course, isn’t the only unstoppable force calling the Los Angeles Coliseum home these days. The Trojans rolled to a 55-19 win in the national title game last season, are loaded once again and could well become the first team to win three consecutive national titles.
USC isn’t perfect heading into the 2005 season, though, with mastermind offensive coordinator Norm Chow and primary defensive assistant Ed Orgeron now coaching elsewhere. Four stalwarts of the 2004 defense are in the pros as well. To put it mildly, the Trojans have earned themselves a nice, big target from every team in the conference and the country.
“I don’t see the challenge as overwhelming, but I see it as different from a couple years ago and last year,” Carroll said. “It is our challenge. It is our greatest challenge to maintain the kind of focus that allows you to play at a really high level every time you go.”
But any other coach in the conference would tell you that the challenge of facing USC is far worse than the challenge of being USC.
“Who wants to play them? That’s what I want to know,” said Washington State coach Bill Doba, whose team lost 42-12 at home to the Trojans last year. “Obviously, they’re at the top, and your kids automatically get geared up for them. There is an advantage (for them). The biggest advantage is SC – they’re used to winning. And they expect to win. That, psychologically, is a big advantage.”
Carroll has the added advantage of having a savvy bunch when it comes to dealing with that pressure. Should his team make it back to the Rose Bowl, site of this season’s national title game, he knows that he has the horses to bring home a record-setting result.
“We have been in this situation and I’m hoping we feel comfortable with the spotlight,” he said. “There are so many opportunities for things to become a distraction or an issue. But it’s how you deal with it. This isn’t a conversation that I need to initiate for the first time with these guys about how to deal with stuff from the outside.”