USC Trojans Clearly Under Pressure‏

Pete Carroll, in between body-surfing, meeting to arrange truces between L.A. gang leaders, and hanging out with Hollywood actors, coaches the best team of the 'Naughts in his spare time, the USC Trojans. Turmoil should be the byline for the 2009 offseason for the Trojans, as they lost their offensive coordinator to the head coaching job at Washington, suffered further scrutiny by the NCAA over the Reggie Bush scandal, and announced a quarterback competition with no clear winner going down to the wire in fall camp. (Okay, so it's most likely Aaron Corp, but the perpetually competitive Carroll still has the competition labeled as "open." But it's probably going to be Corp.)

This should mean a tight-wired team full of stress and tension, the sort that fights in the meeting rooms, bickers in the press, and most certainly would not be relieving the stress of being L.A.'s de facto professional football team by singing at team meetings. Especially not something as melodious as Bill Withers' "Lean On Me." No, that would be preposterous.


...which is why it's actually happening, and Pete Carroll is joining in on piano, and I give up. USC as a football program is Owen Wilson in Meet the Parents. They've just whittled a gazebo for you out of a whole tree in a matter of hours, are expert water polo players with physics degrees, and climb sheer rock faces naked for fun before a breakfast of lean egg whites and a protein shake. A charity breakfast, mind you, for orphaned puppies. They're more perfect than you are, and will always be forever and ever, with the notable exception of one weekend in the Pac-10 schedule when they drop a game inexplicably, and even then they'll all hug, learn from it, and come out better for the remainder of the season before obliterating a hapless Big Ten team in the Rose Bowl.

(H/T to USC Rips It, via Rumors and Rants)

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.