(Photo by Matt Sayles/AP)

Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh said in his weekly press conference that going for a 2-point conversion when his team was leading 48-21 with only 6:47 left in the game “wasn’t personal.”

“We were just trying to win a football game. … The only reason we went for two was we really thought we could get it.”

When asked if it was a strategic decision, Harbaugh responded:

“Yeah, exactly. … I’ve been reading some people’s opinion that somehow this is something personal with coach [Pete] Carroll. That couldn’t be further from the truth. There was nothing personal. I’m not trying to make any enemies. Life’s too short for that. The way our relationship has been is it’s been very competitive. And I really enjoy especially pregame with Pete Carroll. He’s very loose. He’s funny. We kind of yuck it up before the game. We kind of always end it with ‘time to go to war.’ And then you go out and try to gouge each other’s eyes out. You do the same thing in recruiting. It’s great competition. But these games are decided on the field by the players. We enjoy watching it. We enjoy being a part of it. From my end, and I’m pretty sure from Coach Carroll’s end … from my end, it’s nothing but respect for him and his program. Certainly there’s nothing personal involved in this.”

This story is a getting a little blown out of proportion. Harbaugh is never going to say publicly, “yeah it was personal, we wanted to run the score up on the Trojans to send a message to their players, coaches and fans.” Whether Harbaugh was trying to send a message or not to Pete Carroll, one thing is for sure, the Staford vs. USC game is becoming a great rivalry. Mark your calendars, next season the Trojans plays Stanford in Palo Alto on 10/09/10.

Harbaugh: 2-point play ‘wasn’t personal’ [espn]