This is a great story of if, would have and maybe.
But aside from what happened before Carroll got to USC, none of it has an ounce of reality tied to it.
Butch didn't stay and win the title, he certainly didn't outcoach Tressel in 2002 and Carroll did not have just one 10 win season. The reality is the complete opposite is true.
Carroll actually won two titles at USC, has been to two Super Bowls, winning one in Seattle and will be in the Hall of Fame.
Butch built a great program here, then bigger, better dealed us for a big payday in Cleveland. He was subsequently fired from that job and his next one before taking a job at a nothing FIU program after years without another gig.
That's the thing I'll never get about Butch lovers. They assume with 100% certainty that everything with him would have work out perfect. Today alone I've read titles would rain down on us if he had stayed, that he'd outcoach a proven guy like Tressel, that he would have stopped USC's dynasty and he'd absolutely out recruit Nick Saban at Alabama had we hired him.
These claims are so absurd and ridiculous they defy any kind of logic, yet with every passing year the legend continues to grow to even more preposterous levels.
It really is an amazing phenomenon.