Show Notes
House of Troy is a new podcast from LA Times Studios tracing the rise and fall of USC football, from coach Pete Carroll’s back-to-back national titles in the 2000s, to the Reggie Bush scandal, to the series of missteps that followed. It’ll feature exclusive interviews with coaches, players, and USC officials who saw it all up close — and shine new light on how a college football dynasty came undone.
More from House of Troy
In 2010, Lane Kiffin takes over from Pete Carroll as USC’s head coach. He sees it as a dream job, but soon finds himself tasked with cleaning up his mentor’s mess and guiding the Trojans through NCAA sanctions. In a candid interview with The Times, Kiffin reflects on his rise, his humiliating firing at LAX and the personal spiral that followed. Today, the LSU coach has found sobriety, faith and hot yoga. Yet even after reinventing himself, Kiffin remains one of football’s most cryptic personalities.
Reggie Bush was the face of USC football’s glory years — and one of the figures at the center of its collapse. But behind the saga was a group of men trying to build a sports agency around Bush, and in the process, said they provided him and his family with the benefits that would ultimately bring the NCAA down on USC. Two decades later, the fallout still lingers. Bush still denies the claims and is fighting to restore his reputation. And the people behind New Era Sports & Entertainment are still reckoning with how the scandal changed their lives.
In 2005, there was no bigger show in L.A. than USC football. The players were household names, celebrities crowded the sidelines, and the wins kept piling up — until Texas came to town. As the dynasty began to crack, Pete Carroll saw his once-unstoppable program start to unravel, while stars Matt Leinart and LenDale White grappled with life in the spotlight. Then the NCAA came calling over Reggie Bush, and USC found itself on the brink of a new era.
In the late 1990s, USC football was in desperate need of a revival. The school turned to an unpopular choice: Pete Carroll, a former NFL coach. What happened next would transform USC into a college football powerhouse and Carroll into the face of a modern dynasty. In the first episode of House of Troy, the Times’ USC beat writer Ryan Kartje takes us back to the beginning of the Pete Carroll era, and the drama that unfolded on and off the field.