Letters: Goodbye, Pete Carroll; hello, Lane Kiffin

After a closer look, USC’s exhaustive 2 1/2 -hour search for a new football coach makes perfect sense. To meet USC’s standards, Mike Garrett considered five people:

Bernie Madoff -- Really unavailable.

Ex-Gov. Blagojevich -- “Celebrity Apprentice” prefers the East Coast.

Pete Rose -- Not enough games to wager on.

Amy Winehouse -- visa problems.

Then the brainstorm of Lane Kiffin. I can hear Mike thinking, “He knows the way to the Coliseum, will blow off Tennessee in a heartbeat and has no character or class. A perfect fit!”

Marty Foster

Ventura

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I tried to sell this script to a TV producer:

A coach at a prestigious university leaves his lifetime commitment to take an unbelievable challenge in professional football. He is replaced by a coach who takes the only job he would leave his current school for because he is offered the job of his dreams by an alumni committee, not the athletic director who doesn’t like him. All of this is taking place at a college that is facing sanctions by the NCAA. The new coach’s recruiting coordinator has already violated ethical rules on his first day on the job.

The producer laughed me out of his office, saying that this was unbelievable.

Sol Bialeck

Van Nuys

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“One and done” used to be a basketball problem. Evidently Mike Garrett has declared it as no problem with the hiring of Lane Kiffin. I wonder how Coach Kiffin is going to spin the word “commitment” when he demands it from his players.

John Chang

Torrance

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Isn’t it amazing that when it appears that NCAA sanctions will most likely be assessed against USC football, and just as soon as Stanford, Washington, Oregon, Oregon State and Arizona become “competitive,” Pete Carroll decides to leave for the NFL to take advantage of “the opportunity of a lifetime”?

As if he had not already had the “opportunity of a lifetime” in New York and New England.

Pete Carroll’s book is titled “Always Compete.” The original title of Pete’s book was “Always Compete When You Hold All the Aces, Have All the Players You Need and You Are Not Facing NCAA Sanctions.”

I guess that wouldn’t fit on the cover.

Frank Tierheimer

Cerritos

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First, possible sanctions coming from the Pete Carroll era, and now they hire Lane “There’s an NCAA Rule Book?” Kiffin. USC should change its name to the University of Sanctioned Coaches.

Russell Smith

Moorpark

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Hooray for coaches like Bobby Bowden, Joe Paterno and Mike Krzyzewski, who can’t be bought. As for Pete Carroll, don’t let the door hit you on the way out.

Jim Schieldge

Arcadia

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After reading Bill Plaschke’s article Saturday, I am waiting to hear that he is following Pete Carroll to Seattle in some capacity with the Seahawks. How can you worship a guy who does not manage his players off the field or have any respect for the rules he supposedly agreed to follow when he became a college coach? Sure, the rules are not easy to follow, but we see a lot of honorable and successful football coaches decide to discipline the kids without waiting for the NCAA to tell the school how to do it.

Despite what Plaschke says, PC bolted out the back door because he knew next year would be no better than this year and the NCAA was nearing knocking on his door.

Clark Foster

Orange

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Secondary (minor) NCAA violations are as commonplace in college football as are the absence of mea culpas in prison yards, Steve Sarkisian incurring three of them in his first year at Washington. Lane Kiffin had twice as many as Sarkisian, posting six at Tennessee, which he has said was more or less in keeping with the rest of the league.

When he coached at Colorado, Rick Neuheisel, UCLA’s current coach, was tagged with more than 50 secondary violations, the accumulation of which led to a major NCAA infraction, for which Colorado was punished.

In comparison with Neuheisel, Kiffin is a piker.

Richard Linde

Hemet

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As a third-generation Trojan and with a family that has had season tickets since 1931, I have had the opportunity to see great coaches, players and men come through our beloved university. Pete Carroll was certainly one and will be remembered as a tremendous coach, teacher and Trojan. I want to thank you, Pete, for your positive influence on your players, USC and Los Angeles. Thanks for your relentless work ethic, and for bringing back the fun and respectability that had faded through the Smith, Tollner and Hackett years. I wish you nothing but the best in Seattle, my new favorite pro team.

Ron Roberts

Encino

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For some reason Pete Carroll got a bad rap from his time in the NFL. Now people think he is a college coach moving up when actually Pete is an NFL guy who moved down to USC.

He was defensive coordinator for two playoff seasons with the 49ers and has a better-than-.500 winning percentage as a head coach with two playoff appearances.

I’ve always believed the main reason he is not still in the NFL is that Bob Kraft let Bill Parcells and the Jets sign Curtis Martin away from the Patriots at the time when Martin was the best running back in the AFC.

Billy Sottile

Palmdale

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A prediction: After two or three frustrating seasons at Seattle, Carroll will return to the college ranks, this time at UCLA, where he’ll dominate the Pac-10 the same way he did at USC, by raiding the talent-rich high schools of Southern California. Good luck, Pete! But we’ll be seeing you again . . . and soon.

David Macaray

Rowland Heights

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The recent hanging out to dry of Tim Floyd and the departure of Pete Carroll have both shot a big hole in the myth of the so-called “Trojan family.” I don’t know of many families that don’t stick behind a family member through thick and thin. I also don’t know of many families where the patriarch decides to take off for better pastures and leave his family members behind, right when they need him most.

Chris Pisano

Rancho Palos Verdes

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If Pete Carroll left USC for the NFL because he grew tired of obeying the rules, he should first have a conversation with the head coach at New England.

Stephen Greenberg

Santa Monica

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As a Bruins fan, I have been waiting for this day where I can say to our crosstown rivals, “I told you so.” USC is finally being held accountable for the messes created by its three blind mice -- Garrett, Floyd and Carroll.

Carroll ran a loose NFL-style ship that was a source of success and serious rules violations. Floyd was cut from the same anything-goes cloth, reportedly paying cash for O.J. Mayo’s and Rodney Guillory’s services. Carroll and Floyd have spoken with their feet, fleeing town just ahead of the NCAA posse. The consequences of their “leadership” and Garrett’s win-at-all-costs attitude were inevitable. It was only a matter of time.

Will the lame-duck president finally step in and clean up this putrefying carcass? My guess is he will continue to exhibit the same infirmities of the three other mice. Squeak on!

Robert Campbell

Palos Verdes Estates

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I have known Pete Carroll since becoming the general manager of Recreation and Parks over five years ago. Pete is as concerned about the wins and losses in our city as he is with his team’s ranking. He has never hesitated to get involved with our youths at recreation centers and has invited hundreds of our youths to come to games or practices.

Our real loss will be felt every week and every day. I want to thank him personally for taking the time to talk to our youths by showing them that their lives are important and that we care. I will miss him here as a true friend and an agent of change.

Jon Kirk Mukri

Los Angeles

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Look out, Rick Neuheisel. Now that Pete’s gone, investigative sleuth Bill Plaschke will be eyeing you more closely. The Bruins better start winning or you’ll be in trouble. Heck, even if you win, he’ll find something sinister about your program.

I don’t know what kind they’re making at The Times, but whatever it is, Bill, stop drinking the Kool-Aid.

Rodney K. Boswell

Thousand Oaks

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Say what you want about Mike Garrett, but at least he doesn’t let Simers and Plaschke tell him what to do.

Rich Holland

Aliso Viejo

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Hope the staff at the L.A. Times sports department didn’t break their ankles jumping off the Trojans’ bandwagon.

Lillian Brock

Chino Hills

Big Mac is back

Mark McGwire has finally confessed he used steroids in the ‘90s. Really?

What’s next?

Tiger Woods admitting he likes the ladies?

Vince McMahon telling the world WWE matches are scripted?

Santa Claus calling a news conference to reveal he doesn’t really exist?

A relieved nation thanks you, Mark. Now we can all get on with our lives again.

Richard Turnage

Burbank

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So Mark McGwire says, “I wish I had never played during the steroid era.”

That would be like Baby Face Nelson complaining that he lived during the era of robbing banks.

Lewis A. Leader

Carmel Valley

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