The slow season in college football is a great time to examine various trends and topics within the game. Something that jumped out about the 2008 season was the standout performance by Pete Carroll's USC defense. It posted some of the best cumulative marks of the era in points (9.0), yards (222), pass yards (134) and pass efficiency defense (85.75) allowed. It pitched a trio of shutouts. It will likely send every starter into the NFL along with many backups.

Without hesitation one can safely claim it was one of the best defenses we've seen in the last 20 years of college football. Of particular interest is that it didn't happen in isolation. USC's been building towards a performance like that for several years. After digging into the numbers an interesting trend jumped out.

Pete Carroll Is Frighteningly Good Coaching Defensive Football originally appeared on Fanhouse NCAA Football Blog on Mon, 16 Mar 2009 00:32:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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