USC Coach Pete Carroll to Interview for Falcons Head Coaching Position in NFL

On Wednesday January 9, Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank told reporters that he had spoken over the phone to University of Southern California football coach Pete Carroll to be the new head coach of the team. Carroll has coached in the past in the NFL for the New York Jets and New England Patriots before returning to his success at USC. With the NY Jets he went 6-10 in 1994 and for the Patriots he went 28-23 with one division title from 1997 to 1999. Pete Carroll is making a bad move here and he should stay as the head coach at USC.

Over the past couple years, we have seen time and again that college football coaches usually don't translate into good pro football coaches. Nick Saban, Al Groh and Bobby Petrino have all been failures in the NFL and you have to go as far back as Jimmy Johnson to find a college football coach who succeed in the NFL. In addition, Carroll's previous stint with the NFL was mediocre at best and his college football success did not translate into winning seasons with the Patriots and Jets. There is no reason to believe that he will be successful with the Atlanta Falcolns, a team still reeling from Michael Vick's dogfighting scandal which landed the franchise quarterback in jail.

As head coach at USC, the Trojans went 11-2 this past year. Over Pete Carroll's career at USC, he has amassed a winning percentage of .844 and a record of 76-14, including 2 national championships. He is by far one of the best, if not the best college football coach in the game today and he should stick to what he is best at which is coaching college football.

The Falcons would be foolish to hire another college football coach after Bobby Petrino was a failure. The Falcons need stability and there are plenty of able assistant coaches in the NFL that could be great coaches for the Falcons. Pete Carroll will have a difficult time succeeding in Atlanta and if he were to sign a contract with the team, he wouldn't last more than 3 seasons; opting instead to go back to college football after realizing how much he misses coaching the college game.