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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It’ll probably never get better for Toby Gerhart, a running back for Stanford who was largely anonymous until four days ago. But in the aftermath of leading The Cardinal to a 55-21 drubbing of USC at The Coliseum, he’s now a hot college football commodity.

Gerhart’s performance last Saturday and this season will almost certainly warrant an invitation to the Heisman Trophy ceremony in New York, and his NFL draft stock is on the rise. Not to mention he’s an accomplished baseball player who may choose to consider that sport after college.

So everyone wants to know more about Gerhart, beyond the pre-packaged pap produced by the Stanford Sports Information Dept. (Bless their hearts.) So I’m pleased to introduce the lovely girlfriend of Gerhart for the last two years: Stanford swimmer Meredith Ayres. Read more…

With it Cal-Stanford week, it should come as no surprise that Stanford has already fired the first volley. I was sent this photo of former Bear Thomas Decoud today by a Stanford alum. (I added the inset of Decoud as a Falcon.):

The photo is not manipulated or photoshopped.

Unreal. Read more…

Normally, the only thing I look forward to when attending a Stanford football game is the performance of the band. Last Saturday was a little different experience, as the team decided to show up too. But nice to know the band didn’t let us down either.

In front of 100,000 USC fans at The Coliseum, the Stanford band gave us a tribute to esteemed USC alumnus Joe Francis. Excerpt:

“That said, USC can’t take all the credit for the successes of its students. After all, it takes a special kind of man to be wanted for sexual harassment, drug trafficking, tax evasion, prostitution, child abuse and disruptive flatulence, but that’s just the kind of captain of industry that Joe Francis is.”

More fun after the break. Read more…

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…

Best GameDay sign I’ve seen this year that thankfully isn’t a gratuitous off-color reference:

(Upset: TCU students give us best GameDay sign o’ season)

Well-played, Frog fans. Amazing that you can actually display something genuinely funny and original without it referencing a bodily function or sexual orientation. Sadly though, saw no references to “IT’S RAINING FROGS, GET ON YOUR KNEES!”

My breakdown of USC-Stanford and pick after the jump. Read more…

Not only did Jim Harbaugh’s squad give everything they had in a 51-42 upset of Oregon, but the Stanford Band’s buxom, fake lady drum major gave his full measure of devotion as well. Was Hooters missing a waitress on Saturday afternoon, or was Heaven missing a rather hairy angel? Read more…