Pete Carroll: NCAA punishment of USC would be "surprise"

Seattle Coach Pete Carroll 

Seattle Seahawks Head Coach Pete Carroll was interviewed by Dan Patrick on The Dan Patrick Show today, Tuesday. Patrick, to his credit, did not duck from asking Carroll several pointed questions about the NCAA's investigation into alleged NCAA rules violations at Carroll's last employer, The University of Southern California. Carroll said he would be "surprised" if the NCAA punished USC.

The NCAA is expected to make a ruling this week on the allegations that USC violated NCAA rules in the basketball and football programs. In the case of the football program, the NCAA opened an investigation into charges of illegal benefits given to then USC Running Back Reggie Bush during his final year at USC. (Bush is now with the NFL's New Orleans Saints.)

And the NCAA announced that a Pac-10 coach violated NCAA rules when he retained a paid consultant to watch practice and attend games. While the NCAA does not name Pete Carroll, bloggers speculate that the NCAA could be referring to Carroll's hiring of Pete Rodriguez to focus on USC's kicking game.

On The Dan Patrick Show, Pete Carroll said there was much he did not know surrounding what went on at USC that led to the allegations. Carroll was head football coach at USC where he won two national championships, and several Pac-10 Championships. Carroll said "it's hard to control" every aspect of an athletic program.

On Seattle Seahawks-related issues, Pete Carroll told Dan Patrick he was pleased with the Seahawks 2010 Draft class and added that 1st round choice Russell Okung was already showing promise of being a special player, and 2nd round pick Golden Tate has already made big plays in minicamps.

What's interesting about The Dan Patrick Show interview of Pete Carroll is their promos leading up to it said nothing about asking Carroll about his possible role in the NCAA rules scandal. Yet, almost half of the interview consisted of questions and conversation about that issue. You could almost feel the energy come out of the room as the focus turned to the NCAA. Coach Carroll went from being energetic and happy to slow and somber in his speech. I wonder if he felt blindsided. It sure sounded that way.

Carroll's going to be really dogged by what happened as USC if the NCAA surprises him with some kind of punishment. He should get used to the questions. One just can't run away from a mess.

Stay tuned.