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Sporting News, The, Dec 22, 2003 by Pete Carroll

We at USC are thrilled to be going to the Rose Bowl. If you're somebody who's involved with college football on the West Coast, the Rose Bowl is the bowl game of all bowl games. It always has been. It's been a tremendous reward for championship seasons here in the Pac-10 forever, and it is filled with great tradition. When you think of USC, you think of the Rose Bowl and national championships.

It's been a while since we've been to Pasadena (the Trojans last played in the Rose Bowl after the 1995 season), but we're honored to have this opportunity to represent our conference as back-to-back champions. We have a chance to do something really special with a win at the Rose Bowl. It's ingrained in the fabric of West Coast football and particularly southern California football. It's always been a special event. It's always a big game. This year, it's even bigger.

If you look back, I was pretty consistent on my perspective about the BCS. It was something that was out of our control, so we didn't want to tie our value and worth to the results of what this system might be. We decided to make the most of whatever the results were. As it turned out, I'm glad we were talking that way because it put us in the mind-set of being able to handle whatever happened. It was surprising, given what had happened in the Oklahoma game, but we were No. 1 at the end of it, which was something we had worked hard for.

What we do with that on the football field is what the season is now all about. We have the opportunity that if we win this game against Michigan--and that's going to be extremely difficult--to be national champions. That won't have anything to do with the BCS. We were on track all year to worry about what we could control, and we're excited about our opportunities now.

I'm not going to be governed by something that's outside of my control in any way. That's not how I want to be. We've passed that through the program, and that's the way we think.

It's been a terrific year. It was one with a lot of anticipation of how young guys would fill in and fit into our team as we tried to fill some holes off a nice team from last year. The big question marks were, of course, the quarterback spot and running back, and the guys have just come through beautifully.

Matt Leinart has had a sensational season at quarterback. He has broken records and played with extraordinary poise and consistency. He was the player of the year in the Pac-10, and it's been really exciting to see that happen. At running back, LenDale White's had a huge impact on getting our running game going, and he has done it with a real flair. And Reggie Bush has been as flashy as can be. Hershel Dennis has been rock-solid throughout it all. Those guys have combined to add to a nice football team, which had a good defense, a strong offensive line and good receivers coming back, to make this a really special year.

We've also seen really good improvement in our kicking game. Tom Malone is the best punter in the nation, and Ryan Killeen tied the school record for field goals in a season (19). In general, we've just had excellent play on our special teams.

We had hoped for this kind of continuity. It's fulfilling our highest hopes that we would be able to come back after last year's Orange Bowl win over Iowa. We knew we had the nucleus of a real good team, but we didn't know how we would fill the voids created by the guys who were leaving. I knew we had a good system intact a year ago in all areas, but we didn't know if guys would rise to the opportunities this year. They really have, and it's positioned us to have a chance to play for the national championship in the last game of the year. I couldn't be more pleased about that.

Even though we lost at California (in three overtimes on September 27), we had been in the same situation a year ago, when we lost to Washington State in overtime (30-27). At that time, we really looked at the rest of the season like it was an NFL playoff run, in which we have to win every game to have a chance to be a champion. Since we had been in that position before, we realized that we could make it through that kind of pressure, so we tried to do it again, to re-create it. Once we started building momentum, we started believing, and the more we did that, the stronger we got. I'm really proud of the way we've been able to finish the years that we've been here. Again, we were able to finish really strong and win all our games in November (USC is undefeated in November in three seasons under Carroll). The win over Oregon State was the exclamation point to a big finish that positioned us where some really good things can happen.

I think this is an awesome opportunity for us. It is the goal of our program every year to win our conference and represent the Pac-10 in the Rose Bowl. To have that opportunity, with the national championship on the line, is as much as we can handle at one time.

Michigan is a great football team. They've had a fantastic year. They've got Heisman Trophy-caliber performers on their team. They can run the ball. They can throw it. They've got big-time receivers and a terrific defense. They beat last year's national champion to get to the Rose Bowl. This game has everything you'd ever want, and it's got some tradition, too. You're going to see the uniforms at the Rose Bowl the way you always remember them. That's awesome.