USC Football Under Pete Carroll Featured In 30 For 30 Documentary

USC football during the Pete Carroll era will be featured in a new 30 for 30 documentary from ESPN Films entitled “Trojan War” this October.

Revolving around Carroll’s nine-year tenure in Los Angeles, “Trojan War” should have a fairly broad scope covering the good, the bad and the ugly of one of USC’s most successful decades ever. Here’s the official summary:

"When Pete Carroll took over the football program at USC after the 2000 season, the once-great Trojans were under siege. But thanks to his football knowledge, upbeat personality and recruiting skills, Southern Cal was soon back atop the college football world as home attendance skyrocketed, Carson Palmer, Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush won Heismans and the Trojans put together a 34-game winning streak. As it would be later discovered, though, the program was committing sins that would result in lost scholarships, victories and one of those Heismans. But those revelations didn’t come until after the national championship game in the 2006 Rose Bowl between USC and the University of Texas. Featuring interviews with Carroll, Leinart and others inside the USC program at the time, “Trojan War” looks at Carroll’s nine-year USC reign through the prism of that game, considered one of the greatest in college football history. It was also the beginning of the end."

Current adjunct professor and USC alumni Aaron Rahsaan Thomas directed “Trojan War.” His personal connections to the Trojans could have a sizable effect on the presentation of the film.

An admitted fan of USC football, Thomas says he set out to express the feelings he had watching USC football during the Carroll era.

“I arrived at USC at the same time Coach Pete Carroll did. What I remember is an electric atmosphere, an expectation that exciting things could happen at any moment, on the field as well as the sideline,” Thomas said in his Director’s Take on the the film. “It was entertaining. It was exhilarating. It was the Hollywood Dream.”

Of course, any discussion of that time period must inevitably cover the NCAA violations and sanctions which arose from the Reggie Bush scandal.

“What became obvious, was that there are costs to achieving the Hollywood Dream, some of which the film explores,” Thomas said. “Those consequences can seem to be unforgiving.” How much time will be devoted to the fall out from the NCAA’s heavy-handed punishment of USC and former running back coach Todd McNair’s defamation lawsuit will need to be seen.

“Trojan War” will air Tuesday Oct. 13 at 6 p.m. Pacific on ESPN as part of 30 for 30 Volume III.

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