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ROSE BOWL GAME: TEXAS v SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA


January 2, 2006


Pete Carroll


PASADENA, CALIFORNIA

COACH PETE CARROLL: You feel a special connection that separates you and gives you that sense that you know something special is going on. Sometimes you've got a shot to entertain them, whatever it is, there's a whole series of things that you have a chance to do as a team as you go through the process, and I think it can all be beneficial. Anything we do together is good, as long as we take some time to show and we know what happened. Then we take some time to share the stories and the fun and sometimes the harshness, as well.
That's all part of this process of connecting; to throw them off one time with a little crack here or there, it gives us an opportunity to have some fun with it. Things come out of it, there's always something that happened that's kind of funny or crazy that happened that we can share.
Q. You also said last year at the Orange Bowl, you told a story when you were in New England. You said you really didn't get a chance to be yourself in the NFL.
COACH PETE CARROLL: I got a chance to be myself; they fired me. They just didn't like it.
Q. It is a different mindset, though?
COACH PETE CARROLL: Yeah, it's a little bit different. It's not the same. It's different coaching college football. There's a different energy about the whole thing. There's this level of seriousness in the NFL is the best way I can explain it that takes some of the fun away from it. But the other side of it, it's an extraordinary level to compete at, too.
I had a great time coaching there. I don't regret anything that happened at all. It all meant everything to where I am right now. I'm most appreciative.
However, it's different. I think our players are amateurs, and I think that the fans and the following treat them a little differently, and the coaches, as well. There's a different level that doesn't cross over as much. It's more fun. The air about it, the atmosphere, is a little bit more fun.
Q. By the same token, how do the players in the NFL treat the coaches, too?
COACH PETE CARROLL: That's a good point. The difference is you can only have four or five years of experience in college. You get guys with five years in college and six or seven years in the NFL, they start to develop an opinion that they know what's right for them and the league and they all position themselves in their own situations. That's the difference is you get older players have more time and they develop a bigger opinion. So you have to deal with that. They know what they can and can't say and do, most of them. That creates a different kind of exchange and relationship.
Q. Defensively when you look at Texas's offense, what are you trying to exploit as far as the key to stopping them?
COACH PETE CARROLL: You can't exploit anything against these guys. They're too well-balanced, too well-schooled, too experienced, just too talented. You just have to try and survive the game with them. The X-factor obviously is Vince can take off and run anything in the running game or the passing game, and that makes a huge element of surprise and a great level of ability that makes it very hard to defend them. We're going to try to position ourselves play after play after play so we're where we're supposed to be.

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