Sports
Will Manchester United ever return to the top of English football?
Back in the dark days of the 1980s, Manchester United used to run an advert in their official match programme with the slogan: “This season we mean business!”
It became a standing joke among fans once this slogan was not only retained beyond the miserable first few months of one campaign but well into the next.
But there was always a belief within the game that United, having fallen into decline after winning their first European Cup in 1968, would rise again.
Liverpool were English football’s dominant force, but the Merseyside club’s chief executive Peter Robinson often warned of the danger that “that lot down the East Lancs Road” would “get their act together” sooner or later.
Sure enough, they did. After years of struggle, Alex Ferguson (no knighthood in those days) got to grips with that faltering institution and, through sheer force of will, dragged United out of the doldrums, winning the club’s first league title in 26 years and establishing them as the dominant force in English football.
Manchester United celebrating their 20th — and most recent — league title in 2013 (Andrew Yates/AFP via Getty Images)
Rarely has a club “meant business” like United did under Ferguson’s management through the 1990s and 2000s — right up to his retirement in 2013, at which point the Glazer family started to run it their way and the footballing empire Ferguson had built so painstakingly was allowed to crumble once more. If the Glazers meant business, it was strictly in the corporate sense.
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The extent of United’s struggles in the post-Ferguson years is remarkable. So much money spent, so little success, so little joy, so little sense of direction or purpose. Their trophy successes have been beyond the dreams of most clubs — the FA Cup under Louis van Gaal, the League Cup and Europa League under Jose Mourinho, the Carabao Cup and FA Cup under Erik ten Hag — but for a club of United’s size, history and wealth, those have been meagre, miserable pickings.
And yet the same feeling has persisted among their rivals: that the darkest hour is just before the dawn; that at some point, “that lot” will get their act together and start competing for the biggest prizes again; that the confused recruitment strategies of the past decade will give way to something coherent; that they will eventually find a manager who can win hearts and minds and take the players and fans on a real journey, rather than reaching the first staging post and losing his way completely.
That is the challenge that awaits Ruben Amorim, should he choose to take over from Erik ten Hag, who was sacked on Monday.
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United sit 14th in the Premier League and 21st in the Europa League standings, sandwiched between Viktoria Plzen and Elfsborg. In all competitions this season, they have won four games out of 13 (against Fulham, Southampton, Brentford and Barnsley). Going back to the start of last season, they have won just 21 matches out of 47 in the Premier League, scoring just 65 goals and conceding 69.
(Jacques Feeney/Offside/Offside via Getty Images)
In terms of expected goals (xG), a metric that reflects the quality of chances teams create and concede, United’s tallies since the start of last season — per Opta — are 71.7 xG for and 85.5 xG against.
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To be polite, none of this is good. Whatever Ten Hag’s inevitable protestations, the problems went a lot deeper than profligacy in front of goal or an unwelcome VAR intervention at West Ham on Sunday.
Ten Hag was in some ways the quintessential modern-United managerial tenure: a challenging first transfer window, early struggles, a call to arms, back-to-basics football, an improved work ethic, a significant upturn, a trophy success, an upbeat declaration that “this is only the start”… and then looking helpless as the whole thing unravelled, a dysfunctional group of players reverted to type and another would-be saviour was quietly ushered away.
Even at the best of times, whatever technical and tactical vision Ten Hag had when he arrived in Manchester seemed to have been sacrificed in favour of pragmatism. It remains startling that a coach who initially wanted to build a team around Barcelona playmaker Frenkie de Jong ended up drifting so far from that concept, signing so many midfielders and trying so many combinations in that department, none of them remotely convincing.
(Visionhaus/Getty Images)
That word: drifting. United have spent far too much of the past decade drifting, going nowhere. One step forward, two steps back, more bust than boom, far more bad signings than good. There are parallels with Liverpool’s decline in the 1990s — not just in the way things crumbled and standards slipped so quickly but in the naive assumption that this is all just a bit of a readjustment after a little turbulence and that, sooner or later, the natural order will be restored.
That was a theme in this piece exploring the journey between Liverpool’s 18th league title in 1990 and their 19th three decades later. Their former defender John Scales, one of several big-money acquisitions in that mid-1990s period, reflected that “there was still a feeling at Liverpool that it was a matter of when — not if — they got back to winning titles”.
Steve Nicol, a Liverpool stalwart of the 1980s, recalled suddenly feeling in the early 1990s that “OK, we’re not in the best shape here. This is going to take a little bit longer than I thought.” “Before you knew it,” he said, “it was five years, 10 years, 20 years…”
Sound familiar? United are not approaching the 20-year stage yet, but it is 11 years since their last Premier League title (and while Mourinho and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer still proudly trumpet their runners-up spots in 2018 and 2021, those were two of the most distant second-place finishes in English top-flight history). It can already be taken as read that 11 will become 12 after the way they have started this season.
The greater concern might be that, by prolonging the misery under Ten Hag into this campaign, by lacking the courage to go with their original conviction at the end of last season, United’s much-vaunted new executive team have risked this being another wasted season rather than phase one of the latest rebuild.
This was supposed to be a season when United “meant business”, to judge by the numerous bold statements from petrochemicals billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe when he bought a minority stake in the club.
Short of pointing fingers directly at the club’s majority owner, Ratcliffe could hardly have been more scathing of the culture of mediocrity that has developed under the Glazer family’s ownership. Addressing that, he said, would be a question of appointing the right people at all levels and changing attitudes and culture in the boardroom, dressing room and office floor alike. Some of these noises were encouraging, as were the moves to lure Omar Berrada from Manchester City and Dan Ashworth from Newcastle United as chief executive and sporting director.
It seemed so strange in that context, having held talks with Thomas Tuchel, Roberto De Zerbi and various others, to stick with a manager who had been floundering for an entire season. Results had been poor, performances frequently even worse and the mood inside the club, while not approaching late-Mourinho-level toxicity, was almost unremittingly bleak.
Beating Manchester City in the FA Cup final brought a day to remember, but it had the feel of a happy ending for Ten Hag rather than a new start.
United’s FA Cup win against Manchester City in June gave Ten Hag a reprieve (Alex Livesey – Danehouse/Getty Images)
The message from inside Old Trafford in June, after they had decided to offer Ten Hag a reprieve after all, was that they wanted to give him the opportunity to work under an elite sporting structure. As Mark Critchley suggested here, it is far from clear whether that is something they were in a position to offer. There is something deeply hubristic about such talk when INEOS’ track record in football is so underwhelming.
There was another line that sticks in the mind from Ratcliffe’s round of interviews last February. When asked about United’s playing style, he told reporters that “we will decide that style, plus the CEO, sporting director, probably the recruitment guys, what the style of football is and that will be the Manchester United style of football, and the coach will have to play that style”.
Eight months after that statement, five months after holding talks with coaches as stylistically opposed as Tuchel and De Zerbi, and four months after choosing to trigger a one-year extension of Ten Hag’s contract, it is still not entirely clear what that style is meant to be. United’s summer transfer activity certainly didn’t bring much clarity in that respect — though perhaps Amorim, if he takes the job, can make more sense of their latest intake than Ten Hag ever looked like doing.
In some ways, perhaps the United hierarchy should be grateful that results remained so poor. Performances were arguably a little more coherent and structured than last season, but this is the faintest of praise. Results gave them little option but to call time on Ten Hag and seek a top-class replacement immediately. Far better if they can do that than write off another campaign under a beleaguered manager or an interim.
Ten Hag said recently that there is “almost no club in the world where the expectations are so high as at Manchester United”. Did he really believe that? He was kept on last season after finishing eighth in the Premier League with just 18 wins (few of them encouraging) from 38 matches and with a negative goal difference. There are few bigger clubs in world football, but this is not a club that has sacked managers — or been under external pressure to sack managers — for falling just short.
If it is to be Amorim, he will be given time. He will also get money to spend (unless, of course, United have blown too much of their profit and sustainability allowance on players for the previous manager). An improvement will be expected of course, but it will be requested in the context of medium-term improvement. That is not an overwhelming level of expectation.
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It was fascinating to hear that Berrada, when addressing the club’s staff recently, cited a target to be Premier League champions again by 2028, the 150th anniversary of United’s formation. It was a target that somehow managed to sound both terribly unambitious for a club of United’s size and unduly optimistic when looking at the state of the squad.
On the one hand, Manchester City, Premier League champions in six of the past seven seasons, are a daunting opponent and Liverpool, Arsenal and even Aston Villa and big-spending Chelsea look better placed to challenge them in the immediate future. Looking at United’s squad, there is some obvious talent, in Bruno Fernandes and some of the younger players, such as Leny Yoro, Kobbie Mainoo, Alejandro Garnacho and Rasmus Hojlund, but under Ten Hag they did not even seem to have the nucleus of a squad that might challenge for the big prizes any time soon.
But the mention of those other clubs tells you it shouldn’t be as difficult as United and their managers keep making it look. Liverpool went from an abject position in late 2015, before the appointment of Jurgen Klopp, to the Champions League final within three years, winning the Champions League within four years and winning the Premier League within five; Arsenal went from finishing eighth in their first two seasons under Mikel Arteta to making genuine title challenges in seasons four and five; only goal difference was keeping Villa out of the Premier League’s relegation zone when they hired Unai Emery in October 2022, but by the end of his first full season, they had qualified for the Champions League, where they have thoroughly enjoyed themselves, sitting top of the table after three games.
Recruitment is a big part of where United have gone wrong. So many of their big signings have flopped, which points to failures of strategy, failures of coaching and failures of environment. The new regime at Old Trafford insists things will improve on its watch. It hopes that summer signings Noussair Mazraoui, Matthijs de Ligt, Manuel Ugarte and Joshua Zirkzee, having brought negligible improvement to date, will be energised under a new coach.
But it isn’t just about energy. United desperately need goals. In the last three seasons, they have 57, 58 and 57 in the Premier League. For context, the seven teams who finished above them last season all scored at least 74. Zirkzee, Garnacho and Hojlund have potential, but the reluctance to invest in proven goalscorers and proven creators is all the more confusing when set against the sums and wages paid for players in other positions.
United’s summer 2024 signings before the first game of the season (Ash Donelon/Manchester United via Getty Images)
There is so much work to be done. United will hope that a new coach can unlock something in those players the same way Klopp, Arteta and Emery — all of them mid-season appointments — got so much more out of the squads they inherited at Liverpool, Arsenal and Villa.
If it is to be Amorim, his work at Sporting inspires a certain confidence that he would bring an uplift in performance, both individual and collective, over the first 12 months.
But that is almost taken for granted when a manager takes over a big club at a low ebb. The greater challenge at United is to ensure that any such uplift can be sustained beyond the first year or two — and to escape this familiar post-Ferguson cycle where the rot sets in so quickly and where, suddenly, it once again seems such a long way back to pre-eminence.
(Header design: Meech Robinson)
Sports
Those who never doubted Cameron Skattebo share validation: ‘No one understood what we were looking at’
Arizona State was picked to finish last in the 16-team Big 12. The Sun Devils are now meeting Texas in the Peach Bowl in the College Football Playoff quarterfinals. The player who sparked that incredible run also epitomizes it.
Cameron Skattebo — 1,568 rushing yards, 19 rushing touchdowns, 506 receiving yards and three receiving touchdowns — went from high school graduate with no FBS offers to fifth-place finisher in the 2024 Heisman Trophy voting. The running back has gone from cult hero to folk hero, displaying an uncanny knack for breaking tackles and for blowing people’s minds.
Leo Skattebo III (Cam’s father): Before he turned 3, we got him a bike for Christmas.
Becky Skattebo (Cam’s mother): He (Cam) argued with my dad (Cam’s grandfather) to take the training wheels off. “I don’t want em! I don’t want em!” wouldn’t take no for an answer. My dad popped them off. “Welp, he’ll eat dirt a couple of times and then he’ll figure it out.”
Leo Skattebo IV (older brother): They took him out on the bike. He goes down the street, and within two minutes, he’s full speed pedaling back and goes, “Watch this!” And he stands up on the seat of the bike coming down the street.
Becky: He’s going, “I don’t have to hold the handlebars!” The neighbors just stood outside hysterically laughing.
Leo III: I think that’s when I knew he was gonna be different.
Becky: At about 18 months, we were sitting at the dinner table and a neighbor knocked on the door. She’s standing there with Cam in a diaper. He had climbed over the fence and dropped over the other side to play with her kids.
The scariest thing he ever did was when he was 2. We were watching his dad play softball. He had been standing next to me and we were watching his dad at bat. It seemed like a split-second but when I turned and looked. He was gone. I started to panic. Everybody was yelling his name. His brother ran to the bathroom and was calling his name. People are looking under the bleachers. Then, the umpire says, “Well, there, he is!”
We looked straight up above us. He had crawled all the way up the chain-link backstop and was looking down on his dad that was at bat. It was like 14 or 16 feet up on those rounded backstops. One of the guys started to climb the fence and Cameron turned around but instead of backing down like a normal person, he came down head first, like a little Spiderman. He’s been doing things that are inexplainable from pretty much Day 1.
Leo III: Yeah, he did a lot of weird things.
Leo IV: All he ever cared about was winning. It didn’t matter if we were playing a video game, or wrestling on the trampoline. He wanted to beat me.
Becky: We had many holes in the sheetrock from the boys wrestling, slinging each other around the house. They never took it easy on him. They tossed him around pretty good, and he’s just always been able to handle it.
Leo IV: I was six years older than him and he wanted to beat me in everything. I didn’t take it easy on him.
Becky: He’d always competed with older kids, whether that was wrestling in the front yard or on the field. When he says he can do something, it’s real hard not to believe that he can do it.
Jack Garceau (Rio Linda (Calif.) High School coach, Skattebo’s coach from 2017-19): I’ve known Cam since he was a little boy, because I coached his older brother, so we’ve always heard about Cam coming up in our youth program. We’d go watch him. He was just a little ball of muscle. He had that little mohawk and it just always fit his image.
I became the head coach when he was a sophomore. It was the first day of spring ball. It was a blocking drill. No pads and he just was not going to lose. If he got beat in any one-on-one drill, he was going again. I came home and told my wife, “This guy is way different than anybody we’ve ever had.”
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In 2018, Rio Linda won its first section title in 14 years, led by Skattebo. The junior running back scored seven touchdowns and ran for 313 yards in a 63-12 win over Casa Roble.
Chris Horner (Casa Roble (CA) High School head coach): After that game, I saw him by the bus. I remember dapping him up. I said, “Bro, you were so fun to watch. I’ve never seen anything like that. Good luck. I’m a huge Rio Linda Knights fan from here on out.”
Skattebo had a prolific high school season but struggled to gain traction with major FBS programs. (Photo: Aaron M. Sprecher / Getty Images)
A few weeks later, on Rio Linda’s opening series of the CIF State Division 5-AA Title Game against San Gorgonio, Skattebo had a 67-yard touchdown run where he broke 11 tackles. He finished with 396 yards and three touchdowns on 29 carries in a 38-35 win. He was doing it all through his parents’ divorce.
Leo IV: My mom and dad had been together for about 20 years. That was hard. It was hard on Cameron. I was away at college. I lived in Ohio, had a son. I wasn’t there to be the big brother for him. And at the most formative moment for him — he’s 16 and everything around him is falling apart. Somehow on Friday nights, he was able to tune out all that emotional distress, when he was falling apart on the inside, and still be the best player in the state. A lot of kids can’t handle that. That showed me this kid has something different than other kids have mentally.
It’s very easy to let that affect you, and start lashing out at other people around you. He just didn’t do that. He continued to be a leader.
Becky: When we split up, his coach was really instrumental in keeping him focused and letting him vent, giving him room when he needed. I don’t think we’ll ever really know if it fueled him or if it almost derailed him.
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That same year, Skattebo led the Knights to the California 5-A state title by rushing for 3,550 yards and 42 touchdowns. He averaged almost 12 yards per carry but he was still a zero-star recruit who had no scholarship offers.
Garceau: Bigger schools did come. We had UCLA, USC. Utah, Air Force but they just passed on him. It made us all kind of doubt ourselves.
Cam Skattebo: I went to UCLA right after my junior year. They told me that I wasn’t good enough for this level. I can’t remember who I was sitting with at the time. It was (Bruins running backs coach Deshaun) Foster’s assistant. Bjian (Robinson) was at the facility and that was their focus. They spelled my name wrong on my name tag. It was just an unofficial visit there. I was just sitting in the back, hanging out. Me and my father. It was a humbling experience.
Troy Taylor (Stanford head coach, former Sacramento State head coach 2019-22): We were evaluating players. I couldn’t really find anybody who said we should go on the kid. I put on the tape. You could see the anger when he ran and the determination. I was five or six clips in and I said, “We’re taking this guy!”
I remember specifically that run (where he broke 11 tackles in the state title game). I just couldn’t believe that no one else would go on the kid. I’m not always right but I decided on the spot. We were his only offer. Everybody missed on that one.
Cam Skattebo: I wasn’t too worried because I knew at some point in my life I was gonna take that next step even if I had to go the juco route. I knew I was gonna make it. But I definitely sat around a lot of days hoping for a text from somebody, which never happened. I finally got Sacramento State, and I was the happiest kid in the world.
Taylor: Then he came to our camp and he was kind of a prick when he competed. It was one-on-ones against the linebackers. He would win the rep and then get up and cut in line and take another rep. He just had that attitude that you don’t want to compete against this kid. I just fell in love with him.
Malcolm Agnew (Sacramento State running back coach, 2021-22): In 2021, he was unbelievable in spring ball because of how physical he was, and because of how competitive he is. It was practice No. 6. This kid touched the ball probably around 10 times that practice, and he scored every time. And we had a pretty good defense.
My favorite play was when we ran this middle screen with him. It was a poor throw, but the dude caught it with his left hand like down towards where his knees are — and he played baseball so he’s really good at tracking the ball — and had the ability to make a guy miss as he was turning and catching it. Then, he made another guy miss and scored. I said to our head coach, “That is one of the best plays I’ve ever seen.”
Taylor: His first game, it looked like he was playing with younger people who didn’t belong on the field with him.
Jason Eck (New Mexico head coach; then-Idaho head coach): He killed us (Idaho) in 2022. He reminds me of Jim Brown highlights.
Agnew: I’ve seen this kid hit standing backflips. I’ve seen this kid broad-jump almost 11 feet. He did a 10-7. I’ve seen him throw a baseball 95 miles an hour to the point where the Sac State baseball coach asked him if he wanted to play in the offseason. We didn’t let him.
Skattebo is the heart and soul of Arizona State’s turnaround. (Photo: William Purnell / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
In Skattebo’s first season at Sacramento State, he ran for 520 yards, averaging over 9 yards per carry, scoring six touchdowns. In his second year, he had almost 1,900 all-purpose yards and was named Big Sky Conference Offensive Player of the Year, helping the Hornets go 11-0 in the regular season. But after Taylor left to become Stanford’s head coach, Skattebo opted to enter the transfer portal.
Taylor: (Then-Arizona State offensive coordinator) Beau Baldwin called me: “We’re trying to figure out whether to go on Skatt. What do you think?” I said, “Beau, he’s an incredible player. You guys would be crazy not to take him.” Beau pulled the trigger.
The Sun Devils were in the midst of a massive rebuild. They finished 3-9 in 2022 and subsequently hired 32-year-old Kenny Dillingham, an ASU graduate, to lead the program. They were an undermanned team in 2023, but Skattebo emerged as the backbone of the overhaul. He did almost everything for the Sun Devils. He was a finalist for the Paul Hornung Award, given to the nation’s most versatile player. He’d run for 788 yards, but also played some quarterback, completing six passes on 15 attempts for 150 yards and a touchdown. He averaged over 42 yards per punt. He lined up at receiver for another 100-plus snaps.
This year, the Sun Devils were seeded fourth and got a bye in the first iteration of the 12-team College Football Playoff. They will play 5-seed Texas in the Peach Bowl on Jan. 1 for a spot in the Playoff semifinals.
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Marcus Arroyo (ASU offensive coordinator): I think (former USC analyst Kliff) Kingsbury was the first guy who told me about him (Cam). Kliff’s like, “Dude, they got a back down there that is bananas. This little sawed-off White guy.”
Joe Connolly (ASU strength coach): Last season, we saw a lot of flashes of unbelievable balance, unbelievable body awareness. He was our starting quarterback at one point, our starting punter, our starting running back, often playing wide receiver. One of the biggest things we did this offseason was tightening the nutrition, the consistency. He was north of 230 pounds and now he’s around 218. He’s increased his speed and his quickness. All those things really showed this year. He never has to come off the field. He is absolutely relentless.
Cam: I think my top speed was the high 19s (miles per hour on the GPS) last year. Right before training camp this year, I almost hit 21.
Arroyo: The guy can really run. He’s hitting 20 MPH on his GPS in the game. It’s crazy where he doesn’t look like he’s moving that fast sometime. When you see guys go up against real guys, and you’re like, “OK, let’s see what this looks like?” And every time, he takes the torch. God-dang, these guys just can’t even tackle this guy. Against Utah, those guys are really big and fast and talented, and he ran over those guys. He was absolutely insane against Iowa State.
Morgan Scalley (Utah defensive coordinator): For as much punishment as he dishes out, and as much as he takes, he is so durable. His shirt get ripped and all the crap he takes, and he just keeps coming back. He’s like Rocky.
Taylor: I always said he was like a Viking. A couple of hundreds years ago, he’d have been at the front of the boat with horns on his helmet, ready to jump onto the other boat to take it over.
Horner: Our coaches (at Casa Roble) had a text chain while we were watching what he was doing to Iowa State (in the Big 12 title game). It was another level. When we lose to a guy like this doing what he’s doing to a college team, it should make us feel a lot better about that drubbing that he put on us in his junior year of high school. Yeah, we lost to Cameron Skattebo, but so did everybody else!
Taylor: He’s been doubted at every single level, and they’ll doubt him again for the NFL, but watch, he’ll end up being an NFL player — and a good one.
Leo III: Whoever drafts him or wherever he ends up, if he just plays in the preseason, he’ll earn his spot on the team. But if they get him on the field and give him the opportunity, he’s going to make somebody very smart.
Garceau: Now, we all feel validated. We knew exactly what we were looking at and nobody else understood. We would hear everything from he’s too small, he’s too short, he’s not fast enough. There was the stigma of the White running back; the fact that we weren’t a giant school. There was just always that one little thing. I am just glad he got the opportunity to show everybody what he can do. But if you change that, and he maybe he gets a big ride out of high school, maybe we’re not here today.
(Photo: Sam Hodde / Getty Images)
Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver George Pickens was singled out by NFL legend Terrell Owens after the Steelers dropped three straight games, including a lopsided loss to the Kansas City Chiefs Christmas Day.
Returning from a three-game absence after a hamstring injury, Pickens was expected to have an impact against the defending champions.
Kansas City Chiefs safety Justin Reid (20) hits Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver George Pickens (14) during the second half Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
But after just three receptions for 50 yards, the third-year wideout faced scrutiny for his lack of production. Among those calling him out was Hall of Famer Terrell Owens.
Responding to a social media post about Cam Hayward’s postgame comments in which he said, “When 10 guys do their job and one guy doesn’t, we are screwed,” Owens agreed there was a similar issue on offense.
“Same on offense as well when you got #14 not running his routes causing [interceptions,]” Owens said in a post on X.
Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver George Pickens (14) makes a catch against Kansas City Chiefs cornerback Joshua Williams (2) during the second half Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
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Owens seemed to be referencing a play at the end of the first quarter. With the Chiefs leading 13-0, veteran quarterback Russell Wilson threw an interception in the end zone. While taking ownership for the mistake, Wilson acknowledged Pickens was supposed to run another route.
“Yeah, you know, I think he was going to go vertical. But, at the end of the day, it can’t happen. It’s on me,” Wilson said, via FOX 8. “I was trying to give Pat [Freiermuth] a chance. He’s done a good job for us down in the red zone, and they made a good play.”
Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Russell Wilson (3) runs into the end zone for a touchdown against Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Leo Chenal (54) during the first half Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Matt Freed)
The Steelers have lost three games in 11 days.
“The bottom line is the junior varsity is not good enough. We’ve got to own that,” head coach Mike Tomlin said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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It certainly seems calculated. Pete Carroll, scheduled to begin teaching at USC this spring, has reportedly expressed interest in the Chicago Bears’ head coaching job.
Likely of no coincidence is that the Seattle Seahawks — the team Carroll coached for 14 seasons — visit the Bears on “Thursday Night Football.” The broadcasters are spoon-fed a talking point while noting that the Bears have lost nine games in a row, including all three under interim coach Thomas Brown.
A delicious detail is the shared USC history of Carroll and Bears rookie quarterback Caleb Williams. Carroll coached the Trojans from 2001-2009, posting a 97-19 record and winning national championships in 2003 and 2004. Williams was an appendage to new Trojans coach Lincoln Riley, transferring to USC as a sophomore in 2022 and winning the Heisman Trophy. Although 2023 didn’t go as well, Williams was the first pick in the NFL draft.
Chicago needs an impact coach. Carroll is one, or at least was for a long time, leading the Seahawks to nine consecutive winning records, 10 playoff berths and a Super Bowl title. He is one of four head coaches — Barry Switzer, Jimmy Johnson and Jim Harbaugh are the others — to have led teams to a college national championship and a Super Bowl appearance.
But Carroll is 73 and appeared done when he was nudged out the door by the Seahawks after the 2023 season.
In August, he seemed lukewarm, replying to a question about his coaching future on a Seattle radio station by saying, “I could coach tomorrow. I’m physically in the best shape I’ve been in a long time. I’m ready to do all the activities I’m doing and feeling really good about it. I could, but I’m not desiring it at this point.”
Yet sitting at home watching 17 weeks of football apparently rekindled the fire. Carroll initiated this story. He wants it known. He’s interested in coaching the Bears, according to a report by ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
Remember that in his final days in Seattle he repeatedly said he wanted to continue coaching, putting an exclamation point on his intentions shortly after his last game by saying those comments were “true to the bone.”
NFL head coaches have been skewing younger. If Carroll were hired, he’d be seven years older than the current oldest NFL head coach, Andy Reid, although it bears mention that Reid’s Kansas City Chiefs are 15-1 and defending Super Bowl champions. Carroll has always appeared younger than he is, exhibiting boundless energy and enthusiasm in a profession that can jade men.
The Bears are one of at least three teams — the New Orleans Saints and New York Jets are the others — that will be shopping for a head coach when the season ends. Chicago fired Matt Eberflus on Nov. 29, one day after a 23-20 loss to the Detroit Lions that concluded with perplexing clock mismanagement by the coach and his quarterback.
Williams has had a roller-coaster season, mixing brilliant plays with poor decisions. He’s been sacked a league-leading 60 times yet hasn’t thrown an interception in nine games. Working under Carroll, who developed Russell Wilson even though the pair had their share of differences, could accelerate Williams’ improvement.
All of a sudden, the USC class Carroll is scheduled to co-teach this spring is in jeopardy. The Marshall School of Business offering is called “The Game Is Life: a new course designed to help students develop their personal game plan for life after graduation, while using their USC education to conquer challenges along the way.”
Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit can unpack it all Thursday night while the Bears try to win for the first time since Oct. 13 against the Seahawks, whose sideline still seems strange without Carroll bounding, grimacing and grinning.
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