Carroll Sticks to His Call the Day After

By Gary Klein

Jan. 6, 2006 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

A day after Texas ended his team’s 34-game winning streak and hopes for a third consecutive national title in the Rose Bowl, USC Coach Pete Carroll said Thursday he did not regret his decision to try a game-turning running play rather than punt on fourth down late in the fourth quarter.

Texas stopped Trojan tailback LenDale White short on a fourth-and-two play with just over two minutes remaining at the Longhorn 45-yard line. Texas quarterback Vince Young then drove his team to victory, scoring the winning touchdown on a fourth-and-five scramble from the eight-yard line.

“I’d do it exactly the same way time and time again,” Carroll said. “It just goes along with, when you get a chance to win, I think you have to go for it as opposed to hoping that you don’t lose.”

During a meeting with reporters on campus, Carroll reflected on many of the key plays and decisions that were made during Texas’ 41-38 victory and what lay ahead with the loss of quarterback Matt Leinart, the expected departure to the NFL by Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush and the possible departure of other draft-eligible players.

Carroll said that if White had gained only a few inches more, the ball, and the game, would have remained in the hands of the Trojan offense, the Trojans’ strength. A punt guaranteed that the onus would be put on a defense that could not stop Young.

Asked why Bush was not also on the field on the fourth and two, Carroll said, “We always go with LenDale in those situations. Always. We have for three years.”

Reminded that White and Bush were on the field at the same time earlier, Carroll said, “That’s a short-yardage deal; we don’t do that. Never.”

The 6-foot-5, 235-pound Young used his speed and size to create space and forced the Trojans to miss tackles. He finished with 467 yards of total offense and rushed for three touchdowns.

Texas’s offensive line neutralized defensive ends Frostee Rucker and Lawrence Jackson, who finished with four and zero tackles, respectively.

“It seemed like they weren’t apparent in the game pass-rush wise at all and there were a lot of drop-back passes in there,” Carroll said. “We were very tuned into the discipline of playing the run and we got blocked a lot.”

After the game, Rucker said it was more a case of Young.

“They’re back there,” he said of the line, “but Vince is bailing them out. You couldn’t simulate that in practice. He’s so big, you don’t expect him to have quick twitch moves like that.”

Carroll acknowledged that the Trojans put themselves at a disadvantage on their final possession by using their last timeout before Texas attempted a two-point conversion following Young’s game-winning run.

“We would have loved to have had that timeout,” he said.

Carroll said he was meeting with the offense regarding the final sequence and that the field-goal block team was sent in for what the coaching staff thought would be an extra-point kick. When it became apparent that the Longhorns were going for two, defensive line coach Jethro Franklin called timeout because there were too many players on the field, according to Carroll.

“He knew we were screwed up,” Carroll said.

Freshman Troy Van Blarcom, who handles kickoffs, would have attempted a long field goal if the Trojans had gotten into range on their final possession, Carroll said.

The Trojans were attempting to call a timeout on a fourth-and-one play in the first quarter when Leinart was stopped short on a sneak that was attempted with an empty backfield after Bush went into motion to the right.

Carroll said an official initially told him the Trojans needed less than a yard to reach the first down, but the distance was actually more when it was marked.

“You don’t generally get that information from the official but he told me and I went on what he said,” Carroll said. “We definitely would have gone for it, that wasn’t the question. It was whether the play was the right selection.”

Carroll said Bush’s fumble on an ill-advised lateral to walk-on receiver Brad Walker was reminiscent of a play Bush successfully executed in high school.

“It’s interesting that on one of his last plays as a Trojan, he would go back to his high school days and flip the ball,” Carroll said. “If Brad latches onto that thing it would have been a play for forever, a play for ages. But it wasn’t the right time to do it.”

As he did throughout the season, Carroll lamented the use of instant replay.

“I thought it was a terrible part of that football game -- not the decisions -- I’m not belly-aching about that at all,” he said.

Carroll said he could not see whether Young’s knee was on the ground when he lateraled to running back Selvin Young on a play that resulted in a second-quarter touchdown, but coaches in the press box told him that Vince Young might have lateraled the ball forward. The play was not reviewed.

Replay officials, however, reviewed several plays that cost the Trojans.

“It wasn’t the way this game was designed to be played,” Carroll said. “When they start replaying Major League Baseball maybe I’ll go for it.”

After three dominant seasons, Carroll said he was looking forward to moving new players into the lineup.

“We have a lot of questions as everybody always does, but we’re going to try and go right back into that mode again,” he said.