Matt Hayes

He's hopped up all right, juiced from this magical, mercurial ride that just gets better with each season. Here is Pete Carroll, walking briskly through the bowels of Pro Player Stadium in South Florida -- wait, make that be-boppin' and scattin' all over this joint -- singing a little James Brown and mixing in a few words about how his Southern California Trojans have seized control of the college football world and have amateur analysts from Tacoma to Tallahassee using the dreaded "D" word.

"We're in the middle of something special," Carroll says. "We can see it; it's very clear."

So let's throw it out already: dynasty. The most overused, oversimplified word in sports this side of great. Just exactly where are we with these Trojans, who not so long ago probably were the third- or fourth-best team in their own state, behind some university named Fresno State?

In three years, the Trojans have produced two Heisman Trophy winners and won three BCS games and two national titles, the last coming after a 55-19 demolition of Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl. They arguably have had the best team in college football in each of those three years. In 2003, USC split the national championship with LSU, and in 2002, after destroying a powerhouse Iowa team in the Orange Bowl, the Trojans were playing better than anyone at the end of the season. The Trojans also had top-ranked recruiting classes the past two seasons (trust us, they're just as important as the big wins) and have made football meaningful again in Los Angeles.

So, yeah, why not talk dynasty? Well, that's a question that can be answered only with more questions. How much will the departure of key players and coaches hurt? How can success be sustained in a sport that is set up to showcase fresh faces every few years?

"It's just about impossible to do," says former LSU coach Nick Saban, who left the Tigers earlier this month for more green with the NFL's Miami Dolphins -- and because, well, he couldn't top what he already had accomplished. Getting to the top in college football is hard enough. Staying there -- with all of the anxiety and uncertainty of recruiting, of maintaining a cohesive coaching staff, of baby-sitting 17-, 18- and 19-year-olds -- is something few have mastered.