USC’s tailback system works for Pete Carroll
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There is the real world, and then there is the media’s version of the real world. Often, they are worlds apart.
So I had to smile when asked to write an article on which running back at USC would emerge as the “bona fide star” in 2009. Maybe Pete Carroll should ditch his present system of stockpiling tailbacks and go with one or two to build confidence and establish a rhythm, right?
I can imagine Carroll shaking his head with a sarcastic grin. Rhythm? “It’s never been a problem for us,” Carroll has often said. “It’s a problem for everyone else that they can’t figure out why we do it that way.”
Yes, it is a problem for everyone else, and that includes opposing coaches as well as sportswriters. And I’m sure Carroll relishes it that way.
Being a defensive-minded head coach, Carroll realizes the best way to give his offense an advantage is to keep the defense guessing.
If opposing coaches can look at game films and figure out the number of times Stafon Johnson, for example, will carry the ball and where he is likely to run in given situations, they can adequately game plan.
But how much harder is it to game plan when three or four tailbacks with somewhat different styles can be interchanged in the same down-and-distance situation?
When referring to the tailbacks at USC that are stacked up like airliners over LAX on Thanksgiving weekend, the media use words like “committee” and “stable.”
Carroll is right. They just don’t get it. USC’s tailbacks are not a committee or a stable. They are a system.
It’s a system that allows the USC offense to rotate different running backs in a variety of down-and-distance situations. Much like the rotations used in basketball, it keeps fresh running backs in a game even in the fourth quarter.
Of course, more running backs means less carries for each one, but it also means less chances for a back to break down over a 12-game season like your 30 carries per game, every down running back.
Lose him, and a team needs to rely on a player who has seen very limited action if any at all. But that’s not the case at USC.
Also the rotation system insures there are always experienced tailbacks ready to go should one of them get injured. And there’s no need to rush the rehab period.
More importantly, USC football is all about the ball and all about competition. Each tailback knows he is a fumble or a missed assignment away from being in or out of a game. So the system keeps them focused on competing during practice and staying involved in a game.
C.J. Gable had been benched after a fumble on the first play against UCLA and then again after fumbling in the third quarter against Penn State. After the season, Carroll and Gable sat down to talk about Gable’s frustration.
--Paul Peszko