LOS ANGELES – USC Trojans’ quarterback Mark Sanchez has made the decision to leave Southern California and enter the NFL Draft.

Normally people close to these athletes line up and pat them on the back, wish them well in their challenging journey, the ticker-tape parade ensues and the player rides off into the sunset.

That is, unless you have a selfish coach who’s team failed to win the national championship he was predicted to win at the start of the season. A coach like that may decide to fizzle out the hype by telling the press how the player hasn’t had enough experience to go pro and “should have postponed his dream another 12 months”.

Trojans head coach Pete Carroll responded to the news of Sanchez leaving with dialogue that could only drop his quarterback down lower in the draft and take money out of his player’s pocket. “Mark is going against the grain and he knows that”, said Carroll who added “he made a bad choice”.

A man in Carroll’s position should support, without question, any young man who is in a position to be in an NFL uniform with a contract loaded with enough guarantees to provide a lifetime of financial security for him and his family.

Projected by many as the No. 2 quarterback behind just Georgia Bulldog Matthew Stafford, Sanchez should not risk injury or a bad season and ignore Carroll’s remarks.

This is not the first time Carroll has pitched for one of his QB’s to play out another season in gold and cardinal red.

In January 2005 after winning the Heisman Trophy and being touted as a possible No. 1 or No, 2 pick, Trojan QB Matt Leinart like Sanchez was expected to opt out of his final year of college and join the NFL Draft. After speaking to Carroll, Leinart had a change of heart, remained in college and was later selected much lower the following year and has been collecting splinters from the Arizona Cardinals’ bench ever since.

So if and when Pete Carroll ever says he is leaving college for the NFL again, should his athletic director remind the NFL owners, Pete and everyone else how college icons like Steve Spurrier, Lou Holtz, Barry Switzer and Bobby Petrino fell on their faces on NFL sidelines? And how Carroll was fired after one season as head coach of the 6-10 Jets in 1994?

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