His best Trojans? Carroll says 'it's too early to tell'

By Kerry Eggers

The Portland Tribune, Sep 23, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (3 Reader comments)

USC coach Pete Carroll celebrates the Trojans' 35-3 win over Ohio State on Sept. 13. Carroll says his team won't take Oregon State lightly Thursday night at Reser Stadium. "We'd like to play well," he says.

HARRY HOW / GETTY IMAGES

The mastermind behind Southern Cal’s football juggernaut doesn’t want to hear about how great his team is.

Pete Carroll scoffs at the suggestion the No. 1-ranked Trojans – who invade Reser Stadium Thursday night to play Oregon State – might wind up being the best of his eight teams at SC.

“It’s too early to tell,” Carroll told the Portland Tribune Tuesday. “People want to make these big statements, but there’s no way you’d know that right now.

“Frankly, I don’t care if it is or isn’t. I’m not looking to try to label this thing, like everybody else. Our win over Ohio State looked impressive, but (the Buckeyes) have been struggling. We’re not all strutting it up about that. It was a nice win, we were fortunate to get it, and now we’ll see if we can get a conference win.”

Carroll said he was impressed with Oregon State’s performance in a 45-7 win over Hawaii on Sept. 13.

The Beavers “really ripped on offense and did a terrific job defensively,” Carroll said. “They started kind of slow, but once they got going, they just took the game over.

“Their offensive attack is so well-versed. When they can protect that quarterback, they tear you up. It’s big-time technology the way they throw, with the routes and the system they put out there for you to cover. Against Hawaii, they were in command of the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. They did anything they wanted to in that game."

Carroll said poor tackling was the biggest problem of Oregon State’s defense in losses to Stanford and Penn State.

“I’ve always loved the scheme and the way they play at Oregon State on defense,” the SC coach said. “It puts their players in right spots to make plays. But Penn State’s guys made them miss. (The Beaver defenders) weren’t able to tackle those running backs. And they didn’t tackle real well against the kid from Stanford (Toby Gerhart), either. But they looked good against Hawaii.”

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