Written by In The Bleachers | 13 February 2007

Pete Carroll cannot get out of the spotlight. Whether it be for winning games, bringing in huge recruiting classes which he totes the line of fair and unfair, and now his name is surfacing for the job of the San Diego Chargers. A month ago remember that the Dolphins' owner flew to Costa Rica to talk to Carroll about his interest in that job, but nothing came of it. Now Pro Football Talk outlines what they might think could be Carroll's ticket to San Diego and back into the NFL.

After it was announced that Schottenheimer would return to the Chargers, John Czarnecki of FOXSports.com reported that the Chargers would have cut Schottenheimer loose if they could have lined up the guy that they wanted to take his place. Czar didn't name the mystery candidate, but our guess was/is that it is/was Carroll. Four weeks later, Carroll was able to lock up another class of recruits, who signed their letters of intent on February 7. Also, remember how Steve Sarkisian abruptly pulled out of the running to coach the Raiders? He said at the time that he wants to be a head coach at the college level, prompting speculation that he'd been given a wink-nod of his own that, if/when Carroll leaves, Sark will get the Trojans' gig. And that might have prompted USC co-offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin to look elsewhere so soon after Sarkisian said "no thanks" to the Raiders. Then there's the looming Reggie Bush mess, which could eventually cause serious problems for USC. But it's generally accepted at the college level that the NCAA doesn't come down as hard on a program if the coach who presided over the mess is gone when the poop hits the propeller.

Those are all good points but I think it would have to take a lot more to get Carroll out of USC. His Trojans are going to be the #1 ranked team come this fall and they have every recruit in the country wanting to come to his school. So unless he knows of some impending sanctions that the NCAA might slap him with he will end up staying at USC. But if he has done some shady things like some are speculating, he can leave USC and have another coach clean up his mess.

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