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Does Pete Carroll really Twitter?
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USC coach Pete Carroll at the Rose Bowl,
a few weeks before he joined Twitter.
(AP Photo/Matt Sayles)
First it was MySpace.
Then it was Facebook.
Now, the new Internet fad is Twitter.
In case you're unfamiliar, Twitter is a service that allows you to "tweet" short updates of 140 characters or less via text message or the web to your Twitter page. Anyone else can view that online or subscribe and have your updates texted to their cell phone. Twitter users can post anything they want, but most use it to let their friends and followers know where they are and what they're doing.
On January 20, USC head coach Pete Carroll signed up for a Twitter account.
Two days later, LA Daily News beat writer Scott Wolf reported that though the account was in the coach's name, he would not be writing his own updates. (Wolf has his own Twitter, but only tweets posts from his blog, Inside USC.)
If it's true that Carroll does not write his own Twitter posts, it wouldn't be anything new. Last year, he joined Facebook, but his profile was created and maintained by Ben Malcolmson, who is also in charge of USCRipsIt.com, Carroll's personal website. (In 2006, Malcolmson wrote a piece for the Daily Trojan about going through walk-on try-outs and ended up making the team as a wide receiver. After graduating, he joined the football staff to run USCRipsIt.com.)
So what has Carroll -- or his ghostwriter -- been Twittering about?
Most of his posts have been recruiting-related, though NCAA rules prohibit him from actually revealing much of anything.
"Still on the road recruiting," Carroll (or someone in the athletic office) twittered on January 21. "I'd tell you where I am, but NCAA rules don't allow me to reveal that. It's like I'm on a secret spy mission."
Subsequent updates mostly consisted of more bland recruiting posts ("Who doesn't love airports?? So many good travel stories" and "The countdown to signing day has reached 6 days... Almost there!!") and what song he was currently listening to ("Currently playing on my ipod (aka the song of the day): "barracuda" by Heart. Great song!!!").
While it's nice to see Carroll trying to learn about this new form of communication -- especially since it's likely that some of his current players and perhaps even a few potential recruits also Twitter -- it's hard to argue that there's much value in posting the non-specific, uninteresting updates that have been tweeted so far.
Especially if he's not even the one posting them.
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