THESE GUYS ARE PRO STOCK

We’ve pored over the game logs and determined the best National Football League matchup on the board this week is USC at Notre Dame -- at least in terms of the coaches.

Pete Carroll vs. Charlie Weis may be the most intriguing meeting of pigskin personas since Buddy Ryan stared across the field at Bill Walsh.

What’s not to like about Pete vs. Chuck, defense vs. offense, knight vs. rook, blitz vs. buzz, the best defensive coach in college versus, dare we already say, the best offensive mind?

It’s not a coincidence the most anticipated game in college football in years involves two former top-drawer NFL coordinators. It’s sort of a trend.

NFL coaches have infiltrated the college ranks and somewhat turned the game on its ear hole.

“It’s almost like in horse racing,” longtime NFL personnel guru Gil Brandt was saying this week, “when you drop a horse down in class they win.”

None of this is meant to demean any of the established collegiate icons.

Bobby Bowden and Joe Paterno have been true to their schools long enough to become the two winningest coaches at major programs. And both have their teams in the top 10.

Bear Bryant, who never sipped a drop of NFL swill, is regarded by many as the best college coach who ever lived.

It seems clear that having an NFL pedigree helps, though, and that it doesn’t work as well the other way around (see: Lou Holtz with the New York Jets and Steve Spurrier with the Washington Redskins).

Once a state-of-the-art front-office man with the Dallas Cowboys and now an analyst for NFL.com, Brandt says pro coaches who drop to college have an advantage.

“No disrespect to the college coaches, but we can do so many more things than they can do,” Brandt said.

He noted NFL coaches aren’t hindered by NCAA time restraints with players or recruiting, and get to spend almost every waking hour absorbed in their craft.

By the time a Carroll or Weis arrives on campus, he has been so steeped in cutting-edge knowledge and cutthroat competitiveness that it can’t help but make you better than Wake Forest.

Carroll and Weis, on opposite sides of the orb, have brought an advanced level of organization and sophistication to their programs.

Brandt ticked off a list of former NFL coaches who have made an impact in college:

* Ralph Friedgen, the former San Diego offensive coordinator under Bobby Ross, turned Maryland around in, what, an hour and a half?

* Kirk Ferentz, a former assistant under Bill Belichick in Cleveland, has led Iowa to three consecutive top-10 finishes.

* Butch Davis, a former Dallas defensive coordinator, took a Miami program on probation and assembled the nucleus of a national champion.

* Greg Robinson went from getting booed out of the defensive coordinator’s job at Kansas City to, last year, transforming the Texas defense into a Rose Bowl champion. That earned Robinson the top job at Syracuse.

* In his third year at UCLA, former Denver assistant Karl Dorrell has UCLA at 5-0.

* A few years ago, former NFL coach June Jones led one of the biggest one-year turnarounds in history at Hawaii.

There are no absolutes, of course, so spare the “ah-ha!” exceptions.

Paul Hackett, considered a pretty good NFL offensive coordinator in his day, was a flop as USC’s coach. Former NFL coach Jerry Glanville isn’t having much luck this year as Hawaii’s defensive coordinator -- the Warriors rank 87th in defense among 119 Division I-A teams -- and the jury is so far out on first-year Pittsburgh Coach Dave Wannstedt it may have been sent home for the weekend.

Yet, it is hard to deny that formative NFL years have made a difference for Carroll and Weis.

Idaho Coach Nick Holt, linebackers’ coach for USC’s 2003 Associated Press national-title team, said this week that Carroll’s NFL experience made him a difference maker.

“Obviously, it rubbed off on him,” Holt said of Carroll. “He is naturally a super coach, but it’s just being around that type of [NFL] competition. Not only the players, but the other coaches. You see the best things and, if you’re not prepared, you’re going to get beat.”

Asked about Weis, Holt said, “Look at the guys he’s been around?” referring to his internships with Bill Parcells and Belichick.

“The planning, the meticulousness, the self-scouting, it’s unbelievable,” Holt said. “I’ve never been in the NFL, but I’ve been around some of these guys and it’s amazing.”

Fighting (Irish) Words

Former Georgia Coach Jim Donnan, now an ESPN analyst, made public Tuesday on the ADT Coaches’ Spotlight show what he told three national writers in confidence last month: That Weis has said he “owned Pete Carroll” when both were coaching in the NFL.

Here are the facts, as best as we can assess them in the proper context.

Carroll spent 16 years as an NFL assistant and coach, and Weis toiled for 15 years, never rising beyond the position of offensive coordinator.

There were two years when Carroll and Weis faced each other when both were at least a unit leader or higher.

In 1998 and 1999, Weis was offensive coordinator for the Jets under Parcells and Carroll, a defensive specialist, was coach of the New England Patriots.

The Jets won three of the four meetings with the Patriots, outscoring them, 107-71.

New York averaged 26.75 points a game against New England.

Is that ownership, or does it sound more like a rental?

Hurry-Up Offense

* Apologies to Texas fans for suggesting this week that the No. 2 Longhorns will get passed in the bowl championship series standings at some point this season. It may have already happened. Several need-a-life people who study the BCS formula for a living are already speculating that, if the top teams remain unbeaten through the weekend, the order of next Monday’s first BCS standings will be USC, Virginia Tech and Texas.

* Southern Methodist scored a late touchdown Saturday night to defeat Alabama Birmingham, coached by Watson Brown, whose brother Mack is the Texas coach.

After the game, Southern Methodist Coach Phil Bennett greeted Watson on the field and said, “One Brown winning is enough tonight.” Earlier that day, Mack Brown had defeated Oklahoma for the first time in six years.

* On the subject of Mack Brown, did you know that, despite all his success at Tulane, North Carolina and Texas, he has never won a conference title?

More on Mack: He has scored huge away-from-home wins in the last year against Michigan (Rose Bowl), Ohio State (Columbus) and Oklahoma (Dallas). Yet, he claims his most memorable victory came in the 1993 opener, when his North Carolina squad beat USC, 31-9, in the Disneyland Pigskin Classic at Anaheim Stadium.

Brown said it meant so much because that was the year he met his wife, Sally, and the win came against then-USC coach John Robinson, whom Brown had long admired.

* And you thought your travel schedule was rough. The Tulane football team, displaced by Hurricane Katrina, will play its first 10 games in 10 cities.

* It would be a shame if politics and money forced the Texas-Oklahoma game out of the Cotton Bowl after two more years, which now seems an even bet. The game is played on the Texas state fairgrounds and is one of college football’s most unique spectacles. Where else can you see, on the same day, a great rivalry game and a refrigerated sculpture of Elvis Presley, carved from butter?

* Congratulations, we think, to longtime NCAA basketball administrator Bill Hancock, who has been selected to become the full-time BCS coordinator starting next year. Apparently, public relations director for Enron wasn’t available.

* Exit poll question: If Notre Dame whips USC on Saturday in South Bend, does Irish quarterback Brady Quinn become the leading candidate for the Heisman Trophy?

Exit poll answer: You bet your lucky leprechaun.

The game is the biggest in South Bend since No. 2 Notre Dame beat No. 1 Florida State in 1993, so it’s safe to assume the star player from the winning team will emerge as this year’s Heisman favorite -- if only because everyone will be watching. The 1993 game on NBC was a ratings blockbuster while last year’s USC-Notre Dame game on ABC was the highest-rated college football game of the year, according to Street & Smith’s SportsBusiness Journal.

In 2002, USC quarterback Carson Palmer essentially cinched the trophy with a 44-13 win over Notre Dame on Nov. 30, and Matt Leinart did the same last year.

Note the parallels between Quinn and Palmer. Both had their careers rescued by an incoming offensive coach (Norm Chow and Weis). USC was 6-6 the year before Palmer won and lost a second-tier bowl game (Las Vegas). Notre Dame was 6-6 last year and lost in the Insight Bowl.