Pete Carroll Should Be Called Out for Calling Out Mark Sanchez

On Thursday, USC starting quarterback Mark Sanchez announced he was leaving USC for the NFL and Pete Carroll publicly chewed him out for making that decision.

There's no denying that Pete Carroll is a great coach. His career at USC has been among the most successful of any college football coach of all time. But Sanchez is right for not taking Carroll's advice when it comes to whether or not to stay at USC for another year. If Carroll truly had his players best interest at heart, he would realize that he cannot possibly give unbiased advice when Sanchez's decision could have such a major impact on the USC football program.

If Carroll truly had Sanchez's best interest at heart, why would he so publicly badmouth Sanchez's decision? Did he really need to say this at a news conference: "Mark is going against the grain. He knows that. The statistics don't back up that he will be successful in the way he's going about it."

The way Sanchez is going about it is to wait until he has completed four years of school, make arrangements to graduate, and wait until he had the oppurtunity to talk to his coach before announcing his decision. He showed all the maturity and class that Carroll lacked. Leinart stayed the extra year at USC and it doesn't appear that it did much for his NFL career.

Isn't the goal of college athletes supposed to be to graduate. That is exactly what Sanchez is doing and instead of being honored, he is being criticized. If Carroll thought Sanchez was making a mistake, he should have told him in private why he thought he was making a mistake and then publicly support him regardless of the decision he made. Sanchez has put himself in the position of being a NFL prospect and he has earned the right to make that decision.

Carroll is a professional, drawing a nice salary to coach a college game. Sanchez is an amateur making only tuition, room and board while USC rakes in millions from fans who fill up the Colliseum. If he stays in school, there are no guarantees that he will be healthy a year from now and have the oppurtunity to be drafted.

Sanchez looked at the evidence and made a decision. USC was getting a new offensive coach, which was probably one factor in his decision. Another factor was the fact that many of this year's Heisman candidates had announced their plans to come back next year, which might have meant a lower draft position if he had stayed.

Carroll stated that Sanchez should stay at USC because another year in school will "increase his value." How did he come up with that? When Leinart stayed an extra year, his draft position actually lowered, and the same is likely to happen again to Sanchez if he stays, with so many well-regarded quarterbacks returning next year. Another USC player who was a hot NFL prospect decided to stay at USC along with Leinert and staying that extra year cost him the opportunity to have an NFL career. Carroll can't truly believe his own B.S. His advice borders on malpractice. Sanchez is a soon-to-be college graduate who deserves better than a coach that treats him like a high school kid.