Dolphins really shouldn’t go back to college now

MY QUESTION isn’t “Why, Pete Carroll?” so much as “Why Pete Carroll?”

It’s not directed at the USC coach. It’s for Miami Dolphins owner Wayne Huizenga or any other owner considering a successful college coach to run his team.

I don’t blame Carroll for listening to Huizenga when they met over the weekend to discuss the Dolphins job. When an owner publicly states he’s willing to spend whatever it takes to win, and one of his first moves is to contact you, you definitely take that call. That’s as automatic as clicking on those online dating profiles that say “Just got out of a relationship and looking to have FUN!”

In the same week assistant coach Steve Sarkisian interviewed with the Oakland Raiders and receiver Dwayne Jarrett declared his intent to enter the NFL draft, why shouldn’t Carroll entertain his own notions of going to the highest football level?

But just because Carroll is entitled to leave doesn’t mean he should. It was bad enough that Carroll was in Costa Rica and not seen or heard for two days after kicker Mario Danelo’s fatal fall down a San Pedro cliff. It would have looked even worse if after all of these years of talking “Trojan family” the patriarch bolted for dollars while players were still mourning the loss of a teammate.

Even without these extenuating circumstances, Carroll-to-an-NFL-team would be a bad idea for both parties. But while it would be lucrative for Carroll, it would just wind up being expensive for an owner.

Carroll has proven to be an outstanding college coach. But he isn’t Jimmy Johnson. Ever since Johnson won at the University of Miami, then restored the Dallas Cowboys to Super Bowl glory, NFL teams think they can replicate that feat.

The evidence keeps mounting that Johnson was a special case, but the owners keep trying. They’re like the yokels who get to Vegas, see billboards touting the latest jackpot winner and proceed to deposit an entire paycheck’s worth of quarters into the slot machines thinking they can be that guy.

You’d think Huizenga would be acutely aware of this because he just went through it with Nick Saban, the latest coach to win a national championship in college but struggle in the NFL. Saban followed Steve Spurrier, who followed Dennis Erickson, passing through the limping back to the college ranks. The only recent college coach to come close to Johnson’s success was Bobby Ross, who went 74-63 with San Diego and Detroit, reaching the Super Bowl with the Chargers. Even with Ross’ record included, those four coaches were 141-156 in the pros. Throw in Butch Davis, who brought the University of Miami back to the national championship picture before heading to the Cleveland Browns, and the record is 165-191.

Dick Vermeil, who went from the Rose Bowl with UCLA to the Super Bowl with the Philadelphia Eagles and St. Louis Rams, said the overall athletic ability in the NFL can eliminate the edge coaches have in school.

“A lot of the things you could do in college you end up not being able to do that in the pros, because of the speed,” Vermeil said.

And in the NFL every team has good athletes, not just a select few.

“Certain universities in the United States, regardless of who coaches them, they’re going to be very good,” Vermeil said. “They may not win national championships, might not go to the Rose Bowl every year, but they’ll be good, because of location and tradition.”

At UCLA, “There were a lot of teams that we were physically better than that we played. I went to Philadelphia, we were at the bottom of the barrel.”

Some of the stuff that works for Carroll in college, whether it’s jumping off a 10-meter platform into the USC diving pool or bringing in Will Ferrell to address the team, wouldn’t cut it in the pros.

Carroll always said that the thing that frustrated him about his NFL coaching stints with the New York Jets and New England Patriots was he didn’t have the autonomy he enjoys at USC. I don’t think giving Carroll the authority he craves (and, apparently, Huizenga is offering) would be the solution. The team would be better off with people who can concentrate on personnel; look at what General Manager A.J. Smith has done for the Chargers. I’d be worried about a team that didn’t have anyone it trusted to run things more than the newcomer.

If Carroll stays, the money will come his way, and surely at some point his salary at USC will be updated to reflect the new rate established by Saban at Alabama.

Huizenga’s private jet has moved on to New York (for interviews with Giants defensive coordinator Tim Lewis and Jets offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer) and Detroit (Mike Martz). Carroll is trying to choose his words carefully, saying he wants to stay at USC, but he’ll listen if Huizenga calls again.

Actions don’t lie, which is why the most relevant words Carroll said this week were, “I think the important thing is what I do.”

For advice, he could listen to Vermeil.

“Personally, I’d never leave USC,” Vermeil said. “That’s one of those situations where a quality coach is not going to lose. He’s always going to have [at least] equal talent to the team he plays. Whenever you take an NFL job, it’s because the team’s been losing. Pete’s had his options. He’s in a perfect situation now.”

Or Carroll could listen to his own words, from November of 2002.

“I don’t see [the NFL] as the ultimate,” he said then. “I think this is way better. So, I’m in the right place.”

*T.J. Simers has the day off