Oct. 16, 2007

COACH CARROLL: Well, okay, here we go. We're real pleased that we got our game last week and got a win, got Mark (Sanchez) and Joe (McKnight) started. And as we go into this week right here, there are still some many questions on the football team with what's gone on with the football team with some injuries and who's coming back.

But we're feeling pumped up about the opportunity. Guys are looking forward to this matchup with Notre Dame. For the young kids who have looked forward to this game it'll be a big event or them as well. We need to have a great week and get right.

I understand we've heard some reports that they're going to start Sharpley at quarterback and all, and we'll deal with that as we go through the film. Both quarterbacks have shown enough play time where we've see what they can do and hopefully we can get together a game plan that will give us a chance.

I can't give you all of the updates specifically of what's going to happen with the guys that are banged up. I can tell you where we are now. Have to wait and see as the week plays itself out and who can get back and who's right. I am excited to see that Stafon Johnson practiced yesterday and Brian Cushing practiced yesterday, so some guys are starting to come back. Nick Howell got back on the practice field for the first time, which is every bit helps in the offensive line.

We anticipate, my approach is we're going to get stronger from this point forward as guys start to return to us, and we'll just keep calling on guys to step up and play at front line level whether they been playing or not. Guys did that last week, from Butch Lewis and Tiny and the guys that jumped in did a really good job for us. Hopefully we can keep that going.

Q. What do you think of the BCS rankings?
COACH CARROLL: Well, I was told that we fell a little bit in the polls this week. I thought it was the first week, so I don't know how you can fall the first week. So as far as I know I don't know very much about it. That's not a lot of my concern right now.

Q. Do you still hold to that same thinking when you were up top you didn't pretty much pay attention and you're still not paying attention?
COACH CARROLL: Yeah. It works really well for us now.

Q. Rey Maualuga, if I can say his darn name, what was the result?
COACH CARROLL: Rey wouldn't mind. He has some swelling in his hip. He's got a hip pointer, kind of a classic hip pointer. Those injuries don't happen very much anymore, but he got one. We're just going to have to take him day to day. It's a real deep bruise, and he actually can move around some, but it does bother him when he has to really push off and go.

So we'll just have to wait ask see. Doctors can't tell how it's going to respond. It's just going to take a couple days. He may or my not be able to make it for the game. In his place, Thomas Williams will start at the middle linebacker spot. He will continue to show his versatility.

Q. Rey has alluded to the fact that it might be more serious than a hip pointer.
COACH CARROLL: I don't know about that. I don't know what Rey's depth of his injuries is. Maybe he's had them before, I don't know. We're going to be very careful with it and make sure that we see what's going on. He really got drilled by Cary Harris with a helmet right in the hip, so it was obvious that he got banged. We'll bring him back when he makes it.

Q. Why such a positive song and dance after the game?
COACH CARROLL: You know, I think everybody felt good about the game because it was a fun finish to that football game. The crowd got going and the players were excited, I think uplifted by Mark's finish to the game and Joe McKnight's play.

I felt the same way. It was a really good fourth quarter of playing defense, and the crowd just got into it. It was really a fun event. That was it as much as anything. I don't think it mattered what the standings were or who we were playing or any of that kind of stuff.

It was a good, fun football game. I thought that the energy that Mark brings was obvious in the four quarter. And to see Joe break out, I think you can see if a lot of our fans have been anticipating like I have, what he can bring. I think you saw something that really lifted you up, and we're thrilled to see him play like that and show the stuff he can do. Because.

You know there's a lot more stuff he'll do in games coming up down the schedule. I think everybody had a good time with it. I'm sorry you didn't enjoy it.

Q. (Indiscernible.)
COACH CARROLL: This is really the first time I've had this opportunity to speak on this.

Q. I'm speaking back in New England days.
COACH CARROLL: You didn't follow us then. You didn't have a clue what we were doing.

Q. I was there.
COACH CARROLL: You were in Boston?

Q. I was there covering you on several occasions.
COACH CARROLL: Okay. Surprised you made the trip.

Q. The expectation
COACH CARROLL: Was that the first or third year you were there?

Q. I don't remember which year it was. They all seem the same. The expectation was there at the beginning of this year. Your fans, whom I'm sure you do care about, are kind of curious as to what's happening.
COACH CARROLL: Of course they are. I just said that. It's obvious. I can't do anything about the expectations on the outside. That has nothing to do with us.

Q. Besides injuries, which everybody goes through, and you recruited so well you should be deeper, you would think, theoretically.
COACH CARROLL: I think we are. I think we're proving that. And I think that's we're in that challenge right now. It's just part of the football season. Everybody has their issues, and you have to deal with them and see what you can do with it.

If you can come up and find winning ways, that's really important. It isn't about style points for us, it's about getting wins right now. In that, one of the benefits of this time is that a lot of guys get to play and they have to find their level of play. That helps us.

We have a lot of games left. There's a whole second half of the season coming up. A lot of those guys that have been are going to continue to be part of it. What that becomes is what we'll find out. I can't tell you. There's a lot of things happening for the first time. Mark just started his first game ever, and we had to see what happened in that game. I couldn't tell you.

I didn't have the crystal ball to let you know what it was going to look like. But we saw him find a way to be successful and do the things that helps you win a football game. The rest of it right now, you know, I can't really let me say this again so I can help you on this: It's not that I don't care about the people. I don't care about the opinion. I can't do anything about the opinion right now.

They have to wait like we have to wait and see where we are. I think part of the issue is people would like to be eased into understanding more clearly, but we don't know. So I can't help anybody on that. If I could I would. So we have to go play.

The fact that right now wherever we are in the polls and all that, this is the middle of the season. There's a lot of teams that lost last weekend that weren't supposed to lose in everybody's opinions, and that's going to continue to happen. As that does, opportunities open up.

And because we have a loss right now, you don't know where we're going to finish. I don't know yet. I know this: We need to play really well this weekend and get our game won and then continue to grow. It'll be really interesting to see Stafon Johnson, back into his game. He was a significant part of the early part of season, and he's trying to make it back right now. He practiced yesterday.

If he is the same factor, I think we're a little better when he's playing, and Joe's helping us a little bit. In my mind, to help everybody on the outside, I think there's a lot of reason to be real positive about what could come out of this turn right now.

Mark needs to play a good, solid football game if he's in there, and keep us in the game and not make any critical errors that could give the other team a chance. That's all we need him to do. We don't need him to carry us at all.

If he can do that then the other guys can add and we'll find out what that gives us. You know, we're really not the same guys that we were when we started. I'm really excited to see Brian Cushing play for the first time this year on a regular basis if he can. He's one of our best football players, and we haven't seen him but about two and a half quarters.

This kinds of things happening may make a change in where things are, and I'm kind of hoping that it turns out well for us. There's a good chance it will.

Q. To get through the sense of disbelief after you played Washington, and why would Stanford be a challenge? On top of that, everybody would think, if they're going to really come out against Arizona, why would Arizona be a challenge with this caliber of opponent?
COACH CARROLL: Let's go back. I don't think you remember what happened last year. Last year against Washington we won 26 to 20 and they had the ball at the end of the game. The Arizona game, I can't remember what the score was. Anybody remember? But the Arizona game, I think it went back and forth and we didn't score a lot in that game either.

It's pretty much the same this year. And one of the things I did at the beginning of the season, and maybe I shouldn't have done this, but I pulled up the scoreboards at the critical part of the game to show how close our scores were with our conference teams.

In that, it was to show that how difficult these games are. If you look back and you think all of the games last year, you won ten games and we rolled right through it. We didn't at all. We fought every single game, particularly in the conference, to get those wins.

And then about game eight or nine or something we really got on track and really started hitting it. Well, that's still out there for us. That could still happen now. I have that in my mind that that's a likely scenario if things come together if we have good fortune and our guys hang.

But this is not that far removed. It's based on expectations, and I can't do anything about the people on the outside. That's what, you know, you have you guys have to try and figure out as you write about it and how you want to pose that.

But this is fairly typical. I know the situation with Notre Dame who has had a tough start to their season looks like this should be an easy game for us. It's not going to be. This is a good, hard playing football team right now. They're finding themselves and trying to get on track with a bunch of new starters and new guys as well. This could be just like the rest of them.

They're like a conference team. They play us every year and they know us really well and all of that. We expect a tremendous battle and, you know, makes it exciting and interesting. You know, you don't know what's going to happen and I don't know what's going to happen. Try to get well and play a good football game and then go to the next week and the next week and whoever is coming up on the schedule.

I totally understand the questions. I really don't have a way to make everybody feel at ease on this one. If you're implying that we're not doing well and that's the way you want to go with this, well, you can. But I think right now we're enduring the season and enduring what happened to us.

I will remind you that in the Stanford game we were ahead 9 to nothing at halftime. We were shutting them out and winning. We hadn't turned the ball over and all that. We ended up turning the ball over five times in the second half, and there's reasons for that and that's how they got their win.

If we do that this week it's happen the same way, too: We won't be able to win. The margin is very close right now.

Q. How about the change with your team and with the program back at the epic game back at Notre Dame two years ago?
COACH CARROLL: I don't think it's changed that much. That's a great memory for us all. We were fortunate to be on the winning side of that. Obviously it was so close it could have gone either way.

But, you know, we haven't built our program on that win. That was a great win for us and it was dramatic and Reggie's plays and Matt's plays Dwayne's plays and all the things that they did, they had a great game that day. I'm glad that it happened and all, but we don't talk about it. That was quite a while ago now.

It does remind you though that you can play in difficult situations like that with everybody screaming at you and you and fourth and nine or whatever it was and things can still happen on the positive side. You keep fighting and you keep believing. So in that sense, that game and others like that, nothing was quite like that one, but comebacks and things like that are beneficial to you. But other than that, you know...

Q. Do you expect the same grass?
COACH CARROLL: You know, I thought the grass was no factor, and I say that because it was kind of fun and a joke and stuff like that, but it was really blown out of proportion. I don't think it had anything to do with anything that happened on that day. I say that because I don't think it was a factor they were really trying to use in their favor.

I don't know how you can make the grass long enough that it makes it really slow in a week's time or whatever it was supposed to do.

Q. It was long for their game last week.
COACH CARROLL: I don't know. I can't tell. The field is a lot better than it used to be, I know that. The turf used to be kind of raggedy. It's a lot nicer than it used to be.

Q. This is a team that's averaging like 32 yards a game. When you guys are fifth in the country in rush defense, do you expect them to try to move on the ball on the ground?
COACH CARROLL: It's misleading to look at that stat. Look at their running back stats: They're 3 7, 3 5, 3 2 or something like that. They would probably like to be better, but that isn't indicative of those yards per game. It's all because of the 34 sacks they've had. It's over 200 yards and minus yardage against the rushing stats.

That's a big factor in that, so if they can be fortunate and not take the minus yardage stuff, and they're a solid running football team. You would be surprised at how good they've run the football at times against you know, Michigan State they ran the ball really well and looked like they had a very, very loaded up running team.

But they still lot a lot of yards in that game and offset those numbers. I'm sure that Charlie is doing everything he can to not take the negative yards, and if they're able to avoid that and they have not rushed the passer well in terms of sack yardage. Pass defense is good but our sack numbers are nothing right now.

That kind of helps them in terms of their rushing, so we still have to stop the run. We still have to maintain that integrity to play the kind of defense that we play, and it'll begin there every game we ever play forever. That's always been the way they have we done it.

Q. I believe you said after the Stanford game that you might have made some mistakes based on the that you weren't really entertaining the thought that a loss was possible. COACH CARROLL: Yeah.

Q. When you went for the field goal against Arizona, late in the game, was that an example of your judgment, the way you
COACH CARROLL: Well, I think that's the right way to handle that game was to kick the field goal right there and be in position to make them have to go the length of the field and score a touchdown to win the game, and the two point conversion, all of that. I'll be the first to tell you, I could have fixed the way we approached the fourth quarter of that game and gone about it like it was a tight football game.

I remember when we had a touchdown pass to (Ronald Johnson), and was a fairly easy score for us and worked out it came off the running game that we were featuring at the time. Felt like we could continue to do that, so we looked for opportunities. We took a big loss on first and ten, and then got in trouble on the third and long through a turnover right back at them, gave them field position, all of that.

Those would have been done differently, and I feel like that's why that's one of those games that I don't forget. I think I really made mistakes in that game in not handling it differently. I gave ourselves too much credit at the time, and we weren't worthy of it at the time the way we were playing.

So, I mean, I made an error there. This was a game that was I considered it a close to the vest game. We've got to finish it really well and do all of the things with the clock and everything that we can possibly do to not give them a chance, and that's how we finished it.

Q. Would you have handled that situation differently had the Stanford game not happened?
COACH CARROLL: Maybe. Hopefully not, but maybe. Willie was throwing the heck out of the football if they needed it. We played really terrific pass defense in the second half against Arizona, but he had the throws and they had the receivers to play the plays in the style of offense that was a little different than what Stanford had and would give them a better chance at that time.

Yeah, it was really just being a little overconfident, and that led us into that situation where we weren't more conservative under the circumstances. And that had to do with expectations, like we were talking about, and expecting to be in better command of that game and wanting to still push the score and show that we could play better and that we could win. That didn't serve us well.

Q. Did you expect Notre Dame to be farther along under Coach Weis by now?
COACH CARROLL: I didn't have expectations for Charlie and his program. Now I've been asked the question and I'll think about it for the first time. Yeah, I would think that I understand their situation. They had such a loaded team a couple years ago with a great junior class, and they all came back and it was a terrific senior class. It just left them with a lot of positions that hadn't been experienced and all that, and it put him in the situation that he's in.

I don't I think that if he could have changed it to fix it he would have. He's a heck of a football coach and he's been around the block a bunch of times. He knows what he's doing and all that. He just had kind of a roster that kind of fit that way, and it was hard to come back from that.

I know that, you know, if you see that coming, you know, you try to get your guys ready as best you can for the future, and I'm sure they tried to do that. But they had a very small juror class last year as well. So, you know, they're working and they will get it right and back on track, and I think to underestimate them, to think they're anything but a very dangerous football team would be a very big mistake for us.

They still have a big half of their season to finish up and get going and get on track and get a lot of momentum going into and next season as well.

Q. How is the depth on your offensive line?
COACH CARROLL: We have no depth. There's nothing to look at and to evaluate right now. We have a couple guys. As a matter of fact, when we practiced today, and we split the team up in practice, we'll have no backups at the offensive line. And we'll have no backups in the service team. We'll have couple defensive guys play and help us and all that.

So I think we have seven guys that are able to play right now. Nick Howell will practice today, which is a boost, and Thomas Herring may be able to try today and get some work. Charles Brown is still banged up, and that's about and Sammy's not going to go, so that's about as far as we can take it.

We came into the season with 14 linemen I think is where we started, which is a couple under where you like to be. I like to be three guys deep at each spot as you start, and it caught up with us. We're scrambling right now.

Q. You're the only SC coach in SC history with a winning record at Notre Dame. Other than the fact that they've had great coaches and great players, is it a tougher stadium to go to than most?
COACH CARROLL: Historically it's been a very difficult place to play. You know, whatever that number is, it's only as good as you get this game. So, you know, I want to make sure that we deal with the situation of going there well, in that he we need to handle it, you know, and not make it into something that's going to distract us and throw us off course.

It's a great crowd and it's a beautiful college setting to play if and all of that. Their fans let you know when you get into town that you're in for something. That's an exciting environment to play in for us, but we need to play like we play and go in and play good, solid football and not make mistakes and not be distracted and over try and put ourselves in difficult situations that we don't need to be in.

That happened the first year we went there. If you remember, we faked a punt or something in that game, which was the craziest thing we ever did, and really give them a change in the momentum of that game. You know, we overtried and tried too hard to kick the football, go on, you know.

So we're going to try to play very much within the framework that we always play in and hold our mindset and see if we can deal with it. You know, there was never a more extraordinary moment that Matt, on the fourth and nine, in terms of the crowd intensity and all of that. You could never be in s stadium of 80,000 or whatever they hold and it be louder and more challenging.

A great player came through and a great player caught a ball and a terrific football team executed under those circumstance. I don't know if we're there right now. If we're faced with one of those moments I hope we'll be able to come through a game as we've done in the past.

Q. There are a lot of people that would feel that the rivalry is more important than individual game on a year by year basis. Was there any moment that you have felt that was the case when you were there?
COACH CARROLL: The very first time I ever was at that stadium and it was on a Friday walk through, you know, I called Marv on the phone and walked through the tunnel with Marv talking to me about it. Because he had told me on a number of occasions the impact when he first went there. He remembered walking down the tunnel that dips down and comes back up, and as you come back up you can see the scoreboard. At the top of the scoreboard you can see USC and Notre Dame.

He recalled that for me, so when I went there I wanted to he couldn't go on the trip. He was ill at the time. That was the moment I'll always remember because of Marv and all that he brought and what he was all about, and then getting to share that through him it was really awesome.

Q. Baker, Brown, Heberer Rachal...all four of them, are they all possible to come back?
COACH CARROLL: They're all going to make it back eventually, yeah. This week, no. Odds of all three of those guys making it back won't happen. We'll see. Someone could emerge out of the ashes here. I don't know what's going to happen.

Q. Coach Sarkisian made a comment after the game on Saturday that this was not the same type of offense as before. Has the shock of that statement hit this team?
COACH CARROLL: I think that shock has already hit, and I think if anybody doubted it, I mean, he'd have to be blind and not be able to hear or something right now. We just went through a game a couple weeks ago that reminds you that you have to respect the game itself. It doesn't matter who you're playing.

Because you turn it over and give it up and make mistakes and you can lose. Hopefully, you know, as much as I always like the other guys to learn the hard way, we had to learn through hard lessons. We responded extremely well. We came back and had a great week.

The distractions were absolutely minimal and we focused well and played a good, hard solid football game, and we played it in a manner to make sure that we gave ourselves every chance to play a solid football game.

We weren't trying to do anything spectacular. We weren't trying to make anybody happy on the outside or whatever that means. We were just trying to play good, solid football and show that we could. One of the things that's really cool that nobody has recognized I'll give you a little stat here.

At the Washington game we had nine offensive penalties and the last two games we didn't have any. That's a big deal in efficiency and focus and all of that.

It's kind of what I noticed two weeks ago, but to do it two weeks in a row or whatever, that's darn good football. So those penalties went from 16 to 9 to 5, you know, and those are indications that we're that we had a whole level that we could step up to in terms of the littlest of things and the focus on things.

You know, we had to get shocked into it unfortunately.

Q. Talk about Mark Sanchez's ability to make plays outside of the pocket.
COACH CARROLL: He's very creative. Mark's a tremendous all around athlete. He's a great basketball player and he's got tremendous eye hand coordination and sense and he's got athletic intelligence that separates him from other players. He's really unique. I'm sure he was a good baseball player and he could do all of that stuff when he was growing up, and it shows up.

When you're scrambling and you take off and run it's like everything that you ever known in any sport comes into play. It all comes to the front immediately, and you have to react and use your vision and your peripheral vision and sense and awareness and your athleticism and your gut and all that.

And he displayed a ton just on his one big scramble down inside the ten yard line. He's stumbling, bumbling, falling down, scrambling to get in there, and he sneaks out on the other end of it and almost makes a touchdown on the play.

He got out of the end season the one time and he got flushed. Not only got out to avoid getting the sack for a safety, but he converts a first down to Patrick and beats the sticks there.

Those are just what a guy brings in his nature makeup. Some guys have different attributes than that. John David is not a guy that you see do that. John was a football player that was a quarterback that was a shotgun in the pocket guy. He's more of that kind of a football player, and he's really, really good at it.

But Mark has more of a variety of things that he'll create with the football in his hands. You know, we have to corral that. You have to harness that so that it doesn't work against him and take him out of the normal rhythm of plays that could be executed.

It's fun to see it, and we expect him to be able to do that on more occasion than just what he did.

Q. Have you talked to Mark about his ball carrying?
COACH CARROLL: Yeah, yeah. He was in big trouble about that. The only thing he could have done worse is gone behind his back for a lay in or something.

Q. Is there any worry about the status of the offense?
COACH CARROLL: No. There's not any. We'll just play him and see what happens. That's not it at all. We're trying to go to what we can really count on. You have to understand that there's a big factor when you lose your left tackle. That's a big factor in your program. You have a guy that's been and All American for a couple years, is a great player, that's in the back of your mind, that you have to take care of that situation and that's been so secure for such a long time.

And all of the things that happen that make you move around and call for changes, you have to adapt to that and find out what it means to you. I really think that one of the big factors, and I'm hoping that this comes out in the next couple weeks, is that Stafon Johnson and Joe are adding into the running game.

I think that could be a big factor for us. Stafon, I don't know what he's averaging, but it's like seven yards a carry or something like that, 8.2. That's a huge hit that you take when you lose that guy. We're just learning how effective I mean how much he affects us. Hopefully he'll jump back in.

You can see what Joe (McKnight) did. Joe sparked the game and changed the game with his couple plays in there. I'm hoping that these things come together and really add to it. Early in the year going into the season it was to find out what those guys could do and what they could add to the offense. We were learning as we go along that Stafon was becoming a big factor and we lost CJ and CJ averaged ten something or whatever a carry.

That's a lot of yards to lose out of your running game. So and I was hoping, as looking at the season, somewhere in the middle of the year, four, five or six or seven games we would find out where we were with all of these guys and we would have a good sense for it.

We've learned quite a bit, but now we need to get those elements back out and working for us. Meanwhile bring the other kids along that have to help out in the spots where they're playing for the first time. And John David, a guy that started over a dozen games for us, or 15 games or something like that, is a not in the lineup right now. So that's a factor too.

We're putting it together. Like I said, this is an exciting time. This is really calling on us to do some great stuff in the staff room and in our preparations and using our people well and finding ways to make this a really successful team. You know, we're challenged by it.

I thought we did a really good job of coaching last week just in general to make it all fit and work under the circumstances, and I'm proud how everybody came through in that one. That's why maybe we enjoyed it more than we appeared we should. But it was a good accomplishment for us, and this one will be that and the same. Maybe if we're able to keep understand making progress with our people, we'll have really set things that we understand and we know we can count on. When that changes all the time you're not the same until you rediscover, so we'll see what happens.

Q. Are you redshirting (running backs) Broderick Green or Marc Tyler?
COACH CARROLL: Never officially redshirted until way down the road. You apply for your redshirt in the fifth year. Officially it would mean like we said we're not going to play him anymore. In Mark's case, he's come back and forth. His leg has been sore after he works hard, so he's likely to be redshirted because can't yet endure the steady pounding.

Broderick is going to practice for the first time today. We'll see what he looks like. This is the first stage to kind of leak him into the lineup and get him a few snaps. It's six games to go. He wants to play. He wants to play. And so we'll see how he looks. We'll see how that figures in asa we get down probably next week. He's been in the Chauncey role, and Chauncey has done his for job and he's holding on to that to crack, for his opportunity there.

His attitude has been great and he's been working hard and Stafon and Joe and CJ were in a different role in the way they played them. We look at those guys individually, and they have stuff that they do, and unfortunately for Allen...Chauncey has done a great job and been banging away pretty good for us.

Q. Are you surprised that Hershel Dennis has come back for yet another season?
COACH CARROLL: It's extraordinary that he made it back. This guy is a two time injury on the same knee, and he's just willing his way out there. He's competitive and tough and all that stuff, but he's got a knee that's almost too early to say it's well yet. So just try to keep him involved and keep him doing some things to help us out, but also to protect him.

We do the same thing with Desmond on the regular basis. They don't like that because they want to play more. They're giving us good quality plays and the stuff that they're doing adds a tremendous amount to our team, but it's challenge to them because they want more.

FastScripts by ASAP Sports