[ritehook]

During the summer the new Stanford head coach, Jim Harbaugh, full of himself as usual, make a bad gaffe during a press conference.

He told the sportswriters that this year would be USC coach Pete Carroll last in college ball, and that Pete next year would be off again to the NFL.

Naturally,the press contacted Carroll for comment. And Carroll exploded, saying that it was totally false, and that Harbaugh could have gotten on the phone to call him if he heard any suchrumor. Carroll said he had zero plans to leave college ball.

Pete was rightfully furious, as such a rumor can hurt recruiting, for that is what has made USC what it is today, the best recruiting machine in the land.

Some top prep players will not want to go to a school if they think the successful HC will not be there in the future.

It's doubtful that Harbaugh spread the story intentionally, to dip a bit into some potential recruits that were thinking of signing with USC. The fact is that the top-rated preppies, if not going to USC, sure as hell would not have Stanford as a second option, or even a 10th option.

If was just young and feisty (not too many years removed from being a NFL qb) Jim shooting off his mouth.

But count on it that Carroll was and likely still is pissed, and will want to exact bad punishment on Jim's team, as an object lesson to other Pac 10 coaches not to spread such stories.

38 or 38.5 is high, and normally I would not bet into such big wood. (It probably would have been even higher had USC not stunk the joint up in their narrow and lucky win vs Wash on Sat). But I think this angle alone makes it worth a moderate wager.