Spring Break
The Daily OrangeThe Architect: Daryl Gross
By Adam Kilgore
Posted: 5/3/05, 12:06 AM EST Section: Sports
That was before the Trojans lost, the only time that's happened in two years. Grandison didn't speak with Gross afterward. He didn't have to - he knew Gross would be too dejected for any postgame plans.
Grandison didn't speak with Gross until four days later. Even then, Gross couldn't stop thinking about the loss. "We just weren't prepared," Gross told him in a less-than-pleasant tone. "We need to stop taking things for granted."
"He was talking to me like I was one of the players," Grandison said.
Fortunately for Gross - and his friends - USC didn't lose much at the end of his Trojan tenure, and that can be largely traced to him. It was Gross who pulled the trigger on the hiring of Pete Carroll, who has won 42 of his first 51 games and delivered two national championship trophies.
It was not an easy decision. Much of the USC athletic brass disagreed with Gross, but he convinced them to take a chance. While Gross was a scout with the New York Jets after graduate school, he observed Carroll and felt his teaching ability and upbeat style would translate on the college level.
At first, it didn't. Carroll went 6-6 in his first season at USC, and fans grew restless. Carroll had bombed out of the NFL after mediocre stints with the Jets and Patriots, and now it seemed he was doing the same in the college ranks.
"It would have been easy for him to start inching away from the football program at that time," said SU senior associate athletic director Mark Jackson, who served as the Trojans' director of football operations and came with Gross to Syracuse. "He stuck with us through good and bad times."
Gross, supremely confident in the man he hand-picked to turn around the football team, never wavered. After back-to-back last minute losses during Carroll's first season, Gross walked into the visitor's locker room at Washington and told the coaches what a great job they were doing.
Three years later, he walked into the locker room to celebrate a national championship.
Grandison didn't speak with Gross until four days later. Even then, Gross couldn't stop thinking about the loss. "We just weren't prepared," Gross told him in a less-than-pleasant tone. "We need to stop taking things for granted."
"He was talking to me like I was one of the players," Grandison said.
Fortunately for Gross - and his friends - USC didn't lose much at the end of his Trojan tenure, and that can be largely traced to him. It was Gross who pulled the trigger on the hiring of Pete Carroll, who has won 42 of his first 51 games and delivered two national championship trophies.
It was not an easy decision. Much of the USC athletic brass disagreed with Gross, but he convinced them to take a chance. While Gross was a scout with the New York Jets after graduate school, he observed Carroll and felt his teaching ability and upbeat style would translate on the college level.
At first, it didn't. Carroll went 6-6 in his first season at USC, and fans grew restless. Carroll had bombed out of the NFL after mediocre stints with the Jets and Patriots, and now it seemed he was doing the same in the college ranks.
"It would have been easy for him to start inching away from the football program at that time," said SU senior associate athletic director Mark Jackson, who served as the Trojans' director of football operations and came with Gross to Syracuse. "He stuck with us through good and bad times."
Gross, supremely confident in the man he hand-picked to turn around the football team, never wavered. After back-to-back last minute losses during Carroll's first season, Gross walked into the visitor's locker room at Washington and told the coaches what a great job they were doing.
Three years later, he walked into the locker room to celebrate a national championship.
