USC’s Pete Carroll feels trapped by new recruiting rules
College football coaches can’t make in-person contact with potential recruits during the spring evaluation period. It’s a move, the Trojans’ top man says, that penalizes hard-working coaches.
By Gary Klein, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
May 31, 2008
The suspense, the not knowing, drove Pete Carroll crazy.
While his assistants roamed the nation this month evaluating players for future recruiting classes, USC’s football coach restlessly awaited their dispatches while aching for a firsthand look.
“I feel like that kid in ‘Disturbia,’ ” Carroll said last week.
Kale Brecht, the fictional 17-year-old played by actor Shia LaBeouf in the 2007 movie thriller, wore a court-ordered ankle bracelet that forbade him from traveling outside a 100-foot perimeter of his home.
Carroll can relate. He has spent more than 40 days under the NCAA’s version of house arrest. And he is not the only road-hungry football coach feeling shackled by the NCAA.
The so-called “Saban Rule” was adopted this year reportedly after Alabama’s Nick Saban, another relentless recruiter, was accused of violating NCAA regulations that prohibit in-person contact with high school players during the spring evaluation period. The legislation, sponsored by the Southeastern Conference, sidelines all head coaches from April 15 to the end of May.
latimes.com
5/31/08
