Pete Carroll guested on the (Steve) Mason & (John) Ireland show on ESPN 710 in Los Angeles this week. The coach attempted to hedge his comments about Harbaugh’s decision to go for two with his Stanford team already ahead of Carroll’s USC Trojans 48-21 last Saturday in L.A.. But instead, Carroll let slip smoldering resentment.

MASON: What do you think, now a couple of days removed, of Harbaugh going for the two-point conversion?

CARROLL: Well, really, even since the time that it happened, you know, I haven’t bothered with it, and I know everybody else has and taken a lot of time to kinda discuss it and all. I think, you know, it is what you think it is, you know, it’s a statement that you can take away that maybe they were trying to accomplish something that seems out of the ordinary, you know, I don’t really care, to tell you the truth, it doesn’t matter.

And when you look at it like, uh, they’re ahead in the game and they’re in command of it, they really get to do whatever they want to do, and it doesn’t bother me to worry about it anymore, you know what I mean? Jim came out and said what he wanted to say, you know, a couple different times about it and, you know, to me it’s dropped, I don’t care.

Will I forget it? No, I’m not forgetting it. But uh, you know, to me, it’s in the past.

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Jon Wilner of the SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS had the obligatory news just hours after Stanford’s monster win @ USC Saturday that the Cardinal’s athletic admin was doing all it could to slap together a contract extension for coach Jim Harbaugh.

(Had ya fooled?)

The past 24 hours I’ve heard several media members say they thought the Palo Alto-raised Harbaugh would stay at Stanford because he had such a good situation. Likewise myoptic Stanford alums, who have been in my ear since Harbaugh extinguished the L.A. Coliseum’s victory torch on Saturday evening, claiming the coach has no interest in going anywhere.

Apparently those folks weren’t paying attention in January.

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Earlier,  Adam Jacobi aftermathed the frosty midfield handshake between Pete Carroll and Jim Harbaugh last Saturday at The Coli. He noted that Ray Ratto of the SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE sourced Carroll querying Harbaugh, “What’s your deal?” Harbaugh then shot back the same.

Carroll and Harbaugh have yet to confirm or deny Ratto’s report, so in the meantime I’ll take a stab at the exchange. I prefer to cite the salutation to former Oregon Coach Mike Bellotti from Carroll as a possibility - at least the S.C. side of the field.

Or maybe I just wanted to link the video again. (NSFW after the jump.)

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Two years ago, Jim Harbaugh and Stanford buried USC’s hopes at a national title, 23-21, in what’s largely believed to be the biggest upset against the point spread in college football history. Last year, USC went to Palo Alto and won 45-23 in a game that got a little coach-chippy with some unnecessary scoring in the final minutes, with Pete Carroll telling reporters that he “doesn’t care what [Harbaugh] does.” Mr. Carroll, it might be time to start caring.

(What’s the deal?” “No, what’s your deal?” “No, what’s YOUR deal?” “No, YOUR deal…”)

It’s a toss-up whether to characterize last weekend’s 55-21 score as “misleading”; on one hand, Stanford absolutely put it on USC, running all over the Trojans for the entire game. On the other, it was still a 7-point game in the fourth quarter before the Cardinal broke it open; in fact, if last year’s late scoring was a misdemeanor, this was a gross felony, with Harbaugh even going for 2 late to try to hang 50 on the Trojans. Carroll, as you can imagine, was unamused.

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After Jim Harbaugh took a slap at Pete Carroll upon his hire at Stanford three years ago, no one should be surprised that the The Card didn’t exactly purport themselves with class during their 55-21 beatdown of USC today at the L.A. Coliseum.

The video of Stanford’s Drew Terrell and Ekom Udofia taunting USC fans today with a mock “Fight On” was preceded by Coach Harbaugh’s very own wound-salter.

(Chris Dufresne of LA TIMES, Jerome Solomon of Houston Chronicle) Read more…

Remember that old joke in Hollywood with the punchline of “if you can fake sincerity,” you’ve got it made? We seem to have found the culprit of that joke, and damned if it isn’t Southern California’s prolific coach, Pete Carroll. He has to be faking, right? Nobody, but nobody can match his passion and calmed admiration for his own team, right?

(Only at USC is this a good idea in the middle of the football season.)

Well, yes and no. It turns out that some can match it - they just so happen to be his subordinates. Thus, with USC preparing for Notre Dame in - arguably - the Trojans’ most critical matchup of the year (and certainly Notre Dame’s most important), Carroll and the USC coaches marked the occasion by, errr, slip-and-sliding on the wet Los Angeles turf. Damn your self-assured person, sir. Damn it. At the very least, we have video after the break.

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Late Monday night, L.A. sports anchor Curt Sandoval reported on Stafon Johnson’s recovery from a weightlifting injury: “USC’s Stafon Johnson won’t play this year after freak accident - but IS expected to make a full recovery!”

Sandoval added on-air that the emergency surgical procedure lasted seven hours and “could’ve cost Johnson his life.”

While it was left unsaid, the implication of a “full recovery” is that Johnson will play football again.

The L.A. TIMES reports that a source close to the family said “surgeons had planned to realign Johnson’s larynx and they were hopeful that he would regain his voice.”

More background info on Johnson’s injury and condition after the jump. Read more…

Some Web sites offer you “insider” information on which teams to put money on during the week’s big football games. But only Sports by Brooks has the ultimate insider: Jesus Christ. That’s right, each week Our Lord and Savior will descend from Heaven to offer His insight into the week’s top games. And with over 60 percent of all college and NFL players attributing their success to Him, no one is more qualified to pick winners.

I know a lot of people wrote into me (bigbettinjc@godmail.com) to give me grief for going 2-3 last weekend. To the people who doubt my wisdom, I can just say that this is a journey and not a short trip. Or as Proverbs 19:11 says, “A man’s wisdom gives him patience; it is to his glory to overlook an offense.” So instead of asking how your picks did, we’ll just use our knowledge gleaned from last week’s games to make better picks.

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After USC’s wild - and maybe undeserved - win over Ohio State, the Trojans shift their attention to the Washington Huskies, while the media still ooh and ahh over true freshman Matt Barkley, who might not even play this weekend. More on that in a second, though.

(When asked why Polk’s arms were Caucasian, Adobe Photoshop responded, “Shhhhh.”)

For the 21-point underdog Huskies (underhuskies? no, probably not, let’s scratch that one), though, the game’s all about finding some personal affront to build off of, even if it’s just about the dumbest thing in the world.  To that end, Washington tailback (and noted USC de-commit) Chris Polk is outraged - outraged, we say! - over the unforgivable slight of having been photoshopped by some bored USC fans. Wait, really?

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All this week, one of the top stories in college football was about the resurgence of the University of Miami football program after their Labor Day victory over Florida State. They were ranked in the Top 25 for seemingly the first time since Bernie Kosar was behind center, and people were talking about how head coach Randy Shannon had turned the moribund program back into players on the national stage.

Which meant only one thing: The ‘Canes were due to crash and burn last night on ESPN against Georgia Tech. After all, they would certainly be dealing with a team-wide outbreak of swollen heads after their “program changing” win against the Seminoles. Plus, they would have to deal with the Yellow Jackets’ screwy triple option offense, which is tough under any circumstances. All the signs were there for a total meltdown: in fact, it had to happen.

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