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UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 21, 2008

Pete Carroll

COACH PETE CARROLL: This is really an exciting week to prepare. Coming off some good weeks in succession for us, feeling pretty good about ourselves right now in preparation for a huge game.
Yesterday at practice, we might have had seven or eight guys return to the practice field that have been sick or hurt, which you can just feel the energy that that brings and the boost to the depth chart and the competition and all.
Arizona, coming off an enormous game, I don't know this, but I would think it's one of the biggest games since Mike has been there, to put themselves and position themselves in a great spot in the Pac 10 beating Cal last week coming from behind. They were down 24-14 or something at half-time and came roaring back and commanded a great win and the place went crazy. They had fantastic play from both sides of the ball. Keola hit the big time and just exploded for them at the running back spot. Really, they have got to be flying.
For us, we are excited about it. This is a championship matchup for sure, and we are going to try to take the momentum that we're building here out of the first half of the season and take it to Tucson and see if we can get ourselves a win.
A couple question marks, but if guys that will play, some question marks in terms of competition of who is going to get the play time, as well and that will be determined this week with a couple of positions. Have to wait and see how Joe is. He practiced yesterday and we'll see how he takes to the work this week, and other than that we are in fret pretty good shape and be ready to go.

Q. Ever heard of a team scoring 138?
COACH PETE CARROLL: No, I don't know. I'm sure it's happened. But it's been a good run for the defense now, and we've had some great challenges in there and really big-time field position challenges which shows the mettle of the team and their attitude and progress coming through and all that. And last week we were pretty much in command throughout the game and they didn't really get a chance to threaten.
It's fun for the kids and fun for the coaches, and it's a source of pride when you can put a little string like that together, and it's unusual that it happens. Have some fun with it, but it's on to this week.
This offense we are playing with Arizona is very balanced and they have a tremendous passing game with a terrific quarterback in Willie Tuitama, and the tight end is fantastic and Michael Thomas is a great player. This is going to check us out and it's going to be very hard to hold them down at all. They have scored a ton of points already on most everybody they have played.

Q. Status of McKnight? Bradford?
COACH PETE CARROLL: Allen Bradford is finished for the season now. We are going to try to get him well and healed up and surgery to be determined, when is the right time to do it. I think we are going to make sure that we take advantage of plenty of time to see how he moves after a long rehab, maybe before we do any kind of surgery and see what happens. He's got a serious issue so we have to take care of it.
Joe's situation is really day-to-day. We're going to see how he does in response to the workload during the practices. He ran yesterday and did all right. But you know he was still limited in what we gave him chances to do, and see what happens and it will be a day-to-day thing and probably won't know until the end of the week.

Q. You said a couple of positions were up in the air, I'm assuming that Kyle's spot is one of them?
COACH PETE CARROLL: Yeah, with Butch Lewis and Zach coming back, both guys that started earlier in the year, both guys that have stepped in have done very, very well. So those situations which were competitive going in have become even more so, and Nick at tackle and Alex Parsons at guard have done very, very well.
So those situations which were competitive going in have become even more so, and so we'll figure it out during the week what's the right thing to do. But we are really happy about the depth and the fact that those guys can play and contribute really is a big boost to us.
Parsons has played left guard, right guard and center for us, so his versatility has really helped us as well.

Q. Is Howell more physical?
COACH PETE CARROLL: Nick has always been one of the strongest guys on our offensive line and drills and stuff, he's always shown that. He does bring a physical presence that is exciting to see. The thing that Nick did really well is he played with a minimal amount of mistakes and errors and mental stuff that could plague a guy starting for the first time. So he just was knocking people around and it showed very well.

Q. What is it about Tuitama?
COACH PETE CARROLL: Willie has been a big, strong thrower since he was a big kid early in his high school days. We saw him at camps and on film early on and he always had the big arm. Really good all-around athlete.
He's got the kind of stature and just he is a classic pocket type of quarterback. He can throw on the move but he doesn't do much of that, and basically they are a line-of-scrimmage team throwing the football. He has a big arm for the down-the-field stuff, and has a nice touch on the game and well ahead of where he was before. He's experienced now and been through a ton of games and been through all kind of situations.
If you remember, he burst on the scene the first time he played. He had a big, big game and he's grown tremendously since that time. Now you look at his numbers: His picks are way down, his touchdowns are way up and his completion percentage is excellent. He's just really efficient in their system.

Q. What are they doing in their scheme --
COACH PETE CARROLL: They have had a really disciplined scheme for years. The same thing they have been doing. They are basically a zone team and they mix their pressures nicely. A lot of zone pressure, not too much man-to-man pressure, but they just have a real good sense of playing zones and they fill up the field and make it look like the field is too small.
There's not a lot of spaces and they break up the ball well and they position and anticipate beautifully. They are going to keep you in front of them. They are not going to give you any big plays which is a good idea in this conference. They are real disciplined at it.
So they show real consistency and when their playmakers start to grow up in their system like they have had in the past, they are able to make a lot of things happen and they are getting the turnovers and all of that.

Q. The play for 120 yards, can you go through his game, the rest of it, blocking it?
COACH PETE CARROLL: Yeah, he's grown as a blocker. He's got a great body to be a good blocker but he's really improved there. He has very good hands. He catches everything down, running routes with him, so he's an adequate receiver out of the backfield. We would never use him as a split-out guy.
But he's a classic catcher. He runs behind his pads and his weight and his speed at 240-almost pounds, he pounds you. He also has enough quickness and he's got good feet to make you miss in the open field. He broke for a couple extra runs that were he might have had eight and ten-yard runs and made them into 20- and 30-yard runs. He's a very skilled kid. He's just a freshman, so we are just getting started with him.
He didn't accomplish much of anything last year because he was banged up. He came in with a broken foot and never could get over that, so he red-shirted.
When we went to camp this year, we took a lesson out of the Stafon Johnson process and started him over as a freshman again and gave him a ton of work and as we did Mark Tyler, and let them really show where they fit in. He started fast and then kind of tailed off a little bit through camp and then has come back around in the last month to really run hard and tough and has made a big impression on his staff and teammates that he brings something special. He's a good player.

Q. (Inaudible.)
COACH PETE CARROLL: Yeah, he's similar. He is similar. Same kind of size and speed and Lendell had a real knack for breaking tackles and they are very similar, though. He's as big as Lendell when he left. Lendell went 80 this week, did you see that? It was awesome. It took a long time. That was great. Great to see it.
Did you guys know that Reggie and Lendell are leading -- I don't know about what happened last night, but they are leading the NFL in scoring. I heard that, pretty cool. Eight touchdowns or something like that apiece. Where are they when we need them, Jose?

Q. Did you have a plan for how it was going to shake out --
COACH PETE CARROLL: I didn't have a plan for how it was going to shake out. I think there have been should big surprises. Obviously the Mountain West was a big weekend and it set us back a little bit. I think if you would have known quarterbacks were all going to get hurt, I think you could predict it was going to be tough on the offenses, you know, a lot of teams are playing with their second and third guy, and it's been hard on them.
So I think that's the big issue this year in the conference is the quarterback's inability to stay healthy.

Q. Were you able to stay for the whole thing yesterday?
COACH PETE CARROLL: No, I had to go back over to meetings and practice.
I got to be there at the start of it, and I heard Mike Garrett talking and he just was -- it was like perfect. He knew everything that you needed to know to convey the kickoff message about Craig and a wonderful guy he was and the spirit and the humor that was always present whenever Craig was, and there was a lot of fun stories that guys were telling us. I heard some of the feedback afterwards, it was a great ceremony, and I think it was uplifting for all of those who were feeling saddened by his loss and I remembered Craig in a beautiful way. It was very, very well done.

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