Rule #56: Blame Pete Carroll

I love you, Taylor Mays, but it seems you have fallen into the same trap that so many USC fans have been sucked into since that fateful January day when the news first broke that Pete Carroll was leaving the Trojans.

Blame Pete for EVERYTHING.

I can understand the frustration. Mays, a Seattle native, saw a perfect situation. His (beloved) former coach was now in charge of his hometown franchise, a franchise that would no doubt be looking for a Safety in the draft. Who wouldn't be excited to not only go home, but continue to play under the same man who mentored you in college?

It was a dream come true. A dream that was shattered by the name Earl Thomas.

A dream that was then beaten mercilessly into a bloody pulp by every pick that didn't end with the name Taylor Mays (35 to be exact).

So after nearly 24 hours of torturous waiting and wondering what he did wrong, Taylor vented:

Mays told the [Sacramento] Bee: "I definitely thought from the relationship we had, the things that he had told me about what I needed to be aware of with the draft process and things that I needed to do, I felt he told me the complete opposite of the actions that he took, which was definitely -- it was alarming. ... I understand it's a business. But with it being a business, he needs to be honest. And that's all I was asking for." 

Mays said Carroll told him "I didn't have anything to worry about, that my game was OK, that my backpedaling was fine ... my tackling was fine. It was all things that I asked -- what I needed to work on, what I needed to show. I was kind of led to think that I was going to be OK."

Here's the problem. Mays knew precisely what he needed to improve in his game if this LA Times headline from last year is to be believed:

Taylor Mays to return to USC

THE ALL-AMERICAN FREE SAFETY WAS PROJECTED AS A FIRST-ROUND NFL DRAFT PICK BUT SAYS, 'THERE'S SOME THINGS I NEED TO WORK ON THAT I THINK WILL REALLY HELP ME ELEVATE MY GAME.'

Those things that he needed to work on, mostly coverage skills, were the same things responsible for his draft free fall.

(That's not to say Carroll is completely without blame in this. If Carroll indeed told Mays that his tackling was "fine" then something was wrong. While Mays was one of the best hit men in college football, fans often bemoaned the fact that he had the frustrating habit of not wrapping up.)

In the end Mays needs to remember saying this:

"I can't say I want to come back so I can take Spanish 2, but I just think it would be best for me in the long run," he said. "It might affect making a million dollars right now but hopefully in 10 or 20 years I'll look back on it and be like, 'That was the right decision.' "

Live by those words Taylor. They mean as much now as they did then.