Although the University of Southern California football program has had a pretty good run under Coach Pete Carroll over the past several years, there is little question that events over this past weekend have confirmed that the USC program is in full-blown retreat mode.
The warning signs began appearing immediately after the Texas Longhorns beat the Trojans in the BCS National Championship Game in early January. This hilarious Bill Simmons article after that game revived the “Coach Fredo” (after the frustrated oldest son of the Corleone Family) nickname for Carroll that East Coast pundits had tagged him with during his less-than-stellar coaching stints with the New York Jets and New England Patriots.
But that was nothing compared to what has occurred over the past couple of weeks in the run-up to this year’s NFL draft of college football players. As this NY Times article reports, it started about a week ago with various media outlets reporting that Reggie Bush’s family had been in a house owned by a San Diego man who was hoping to handle Bush’s marketing work, which prompted Bush and his handlers to make some ill-advised public comments. That resulted in the owner of the house disclosing publicly that he had made over $100,000 in cash payments to the Bush family and that he plans to file a $3.2 million lawsuit against Bush for fraudulently inducing Michaels to spend more than $300,000 under the premise that his sports marketing company would be representing Bush.
Inasmuch as those allegations, if even half-true, would be major violations of multiple NCAA rules and regulations, that giant sucking sound you hear is the Trojans’ 2004 National Champtionship Trophy beginning to be pulled back to NCAA headquarters in Indianapolis.
But that wasn’t all.

On the heels of the Bush revelations, reports last week indicated that former USC Quarterback Matt Leinart and star Trojan receiver Dwayne Jarrett were living last season in a $4,000-per-month L.A. condo, but Jarrett was paying far less than 50 percent of the rent. Turns out that each player was paying $650 monthly, with Leinart’s father picking up the tab for the balance.
Now, normally there is nothing wrong with a college student’s father paying a portion of his son’s rent. However, Leinart’s father has taken a central role in the representation of his son, which makes him look very similar to a sports agent. The NCAA does not look kindly on sports agents advancing funds for the benefit of student-athletes, particularly for student-athletes who are not the son of the agent. And just to make sure that measly major violations of NCAA regulations governing relationships with agents were not the only problem for the USC program at this point, current Trojans quarterback Mark (appropriately nicknamed “DJ Dirty”) Sanchez was recently arrested on charges of sexual assault.
Meanwhile, almost every USC prospect in the NFL draft over the past weekend was picked lower than expected. Of course, as we all know, the Texans passed on the presumed no. 1 pick, Bush, while Leinart, who probably would have been the No. 1 pick in last year’s draft had he elected to participate, fell to the tenth pick in this year’s draft, costing him an estimated $25 million or so. Offensive tackle Winston Justice fell out of the first round altogether, as did Bush’s running back counterpart, LenDale White.
In the wake of all this, Coach Fredo must be wondering how much money he left on table by not taking one of any number of NFL coaching jobs that he could have had over the past couple of seasons in the glow of USC’s National Championship run. Timing is everything, Pete.
Meanwhile, the best crack I heard over the weekend on the Texans Williams-instead of-Bush pick came from Brian over at Longhorn Law, who observed that, “with this yearís #1 draft choice, Texans GM Charley Casserly has made a strong case for extending the leagueís random drug-testing program beyond the field to the front offices.”