Mark Carrier’s legacy at USC is substantial. That legacy of quality and excellence was recognized on Monday with yet another inclusion on the College Football Hall of Fame ballot. Carrier made the ballot the previous year. He seems destined for the Hall; it’s only a matter of when, not if, at this point in time.
Carrier owns an important place in USC football history. He helped coach Larry Smith make three straight Rose Bowls, returning the Trojans to an expected standard after the mediocrity of the Ted Tollner years and a general dry spell for much of the 1980s.
USC made the Rose Bowl only once in a seven-year span from 1980 through 1986. Carrier lifted the Trojans back to the Granddaddy on a regular basis, which is the kind of transformation the program seeks today under Lincoln Riley, having made the Rose Bowl only once since the 2008 season (2016 under Sam Darnold).
We recalled the 1990 Rose Bowl win authored by USC and Carrier over Michigan in Bo Schembechler’s last game as a college football coach:
The poetry and symmetry of the moment were profound and unmistakable: Smith was a Bo Schembechler assistant at Miami of Ohio and Michigan. He lost to Bo in the 1989 Rose Bowl and wanted to win his first Granddaddy. Schembechler had suffered for a long time in the Rose Bowl, mostly at the hands of USC, but he finally got the Trojans. Winning back-to-back Rose Bowls and going out on top in his last game would have been the perfect ending for him.
The added historical touch: Schembechler’s first season ended with a Rose Bowl loss to USC, also on the very first day of a new decade. Bo lost to John McKay and the Trojans on January 1, 1970, in his first Rose Bowl. Exactly 20 years later, Bo coached his last game. He wanted to make it memorable.
Instead, Larry Smith had the answers this time.
USC ended Bo Schembechler’s career at Michigan the way it began. Year 21 concluded the way Year 1 had concluded. January 1, 1990, played out the way January 1, 1970 did:…
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