At ease over uneasy

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LOS ANGELES -- The most anticipated recent title game in college football could come down to the difference between a sweatshirt and a sports coat.

Southern Cal's Pete Carroll bounced into the interview room yesterday looking more like a kid on his way to recess than a man on the threshold of history. He wore a sweatshirt and sneakers, shedding a black leather jacket as he hopped onto the dais to address the media. He then proceeded to spend 30 minutes absolutely bubbling over the joys of football and the dreamy thrill of game time.

Texas coach Mack Brown followed Carroll at the podium (which no man should be forced to do), a coat and tie and uneasy expression overwhelming practiced words intended to convey casual and calm. He looked less like a man basking in the confident glow of 19 straight victories and more like a prisoner desperately trying to smile at the gallows.

In a title game as evenly matched as tonight's Rose Bowl between the top-ranked Trojans (12-0) and No.2 Longhorns (12-0), that startling juxtaposition and its implications could make all the difference.

To label Carroll as loose and Brown as tight would be an understated injustice to both. Carroll often borders on luminous, radiating a childlike joy that might seem disingenuous if the man hadn't been in character for a lifetime.

Carroll is the coach who was chastised by the machismo police in New England for the crime of riding his bicycle to Patriots training camp. He's the man who revels so deeply in the college game he has fight songs -- and not just the redundant Trojans theme -- piped into USC's summer camp dining hall, commonly polling incredulous freshmen for their favorites. This is the coach who, when asked to share his seminal big game memory, scrolls back to his peewee playing days.

"My first big game was the Thanksgiving Day game when I was a Pop Warner player," said Carroll, genuinely transported by the recollection. "We played a team from San Diego. ... To me it was the Rose Bowl. I think I was 12 at the time. I was the single-wing tailback, backing up the mercurial Kenny Johnson at the time, and played defense and safety. ... As a little kid your eyes are so big and you're floating on the energy and excitement of it. I don't feel a whole lot different going into this game than I did back then."

Even as the cynic within bridles, it's impossible not to believe Carroll, the coach whose favorite f-word is "fun," the coach who yesterday likened the running style of Heisman Trophy-winning tailback Reggie Bush to the improviso of a master jazz musician.

Even beyond his technical talents with X's and O's, the acumen that given a month of preparation many believe will produce an unusually stout USC defensive performance tonight, perhaps Carroll's ultimate coaching gift is his magnetic, contagious passion and his fearless belief in his players.

"I've never dreaded a game," he said. "I've never gone to any game where I wished I wasn't there, was worried about the outcome in the sense that I wasn't going to enjoy it. ... We've grown up in the last four or five years here such that we look forward to creating this kind of hype and being in this kind of situation. You can't get a big enough game for us."