Big Pimpin’ Carroll and the USC Song Girls, Photo from TrojanFb.com

San Jose Mercury News reporter Jon Wilner has released what he thinks are the top ten Pac-10 football coaches of the past two decades. And it’s a scrumptious Trojan sandwich, with the rest of the conference wedged between number ten -Larry Smith- and number one -Pete Carroll-

The complete list is as follows:

10. Larry Smith, USC
9. Dick Tomey, Arizona
8. Dennis Erickson, Washington State, Oregon State and Arizona State
7. Bruce Snyder, Cal and Arizona State
6. Tyrone Willingham, Stanford and Washington
5. Mike Price, Washington State
4. Jeff Tedford, Cal
3. Don James, Washington
2. Mike Bellotti, Oregon (with an assist from Rich Brooks)
1. Pete Carroll, USC

Wilner goes into further analysis of his selection. Here are the USC-related excerpts:

10. Larry Smith, USC: Yes, Smith struggled in his final seasons — struggled far more than the USC coach should struggle. But his first four years coincide with the first four years of my time frame, and during that span the Trojans were 26-3-2 in Pac-10 play and went to three straight Rose Bowls.

1: Pete Carroll, USC: Sure, he’s got all that tradition to recruit to. Sure, he’s got all those players within 100 miles of campus. Yes, the admissions door is wide open. And yes, Carroll runs a loose ship that has resulted in NCAA/Pac-10 investigations, arrests, assaults, suspensions, academic woes and dismissals. But how can you not have Carroll at the top of a “Best Coaches” list when he has 59 wins in the last five years? Bottom line: He’s a great college coach, one of the best ever. Given that he wasn’t USC’s first choice to replace Paul Hackett, or even its second, I’d say the Trojans got pretty lucky.