Matt Cassel Talks About Pete Carrol

Kansas City Chiefs QB Matt Cassel has an extensive history with the New England Patriots but before he came to the NFL, he was a backup QB for the USC Trojans and then head coach Pete Carrol.

A few years down the line, Cassel has his own team in Kansas City and Carrol is in his first season coaching the Seattle Seahawks. The two will go up against one another for the first time this weekend.

Cassel talked with reporters this week and shared some of his thoughts about is former coach.

“I have the upmost respect for Coach Carroll and we had a great relationship while I was at USC,” said Cassel. “He was a great coach and led us to a bunch of National Championships, obviously he made the right decision going with Matt (Leinart) because we won National Championships with him and he won a few Heisman trophies.”

More after the jump.

It is interesting that Cassel brought up Leinart who Chiefs’ coach Todd Haley worked with during his time in Arizona. Cassel was Leinart’s backup at USC and he talked a little bit about his experience not getting the start back in college.

“I thought, ‘gosh, am I ever going to get the opportunity to play,” said Cassel. “Should I transfer? Should I do this? Should I do that? You are kind of in a catch-22 because I felt like my education was important to me and I was a semester away from graduating but at the same time there was no defined starting role for any of us right then early on and you didn’t know how it was all going to pan out. Like I said, fortunately for me I still got a shot at the next level and it has all worked out to this point.”

Though he faced adversity then, Cassel now has better numbers than both the QB’s he backed up in college. (Carson Palmer and Leinart). You can’t argue that Cassel has heart.

“I, by no means, do it on my own,” said Cassel. ” It starts with the 11 guys on the field and you can see it each and every Sunday with these guys out there. The receivers are making catches, the running backs are running down hill and the offensive line is doing a great job of blocking. We are playing pretty good football this year and hopefully that continues and we can make a push here in these last six games.”

Let’s hope he’s right.