CARROLL ALREADY HAS DREAM JOB ... AT USC.

Byline: KEVIN MODESTI

Pete Carroll worked long and hard in a dozen jobs to become a football coaching hero, and now that he has made it, his reward is an unusual one.

Success at USC buys Carroll the opportunity to say no to a boyhood dream.

He was born in San Francisco. Went to high school in Larkspur and junior college in Kentfield, just across the Golden Gate Bridge. Went to college in Stockton, only a long highway hour from home.

He was a 49ers kid who grew up to be a 49ers assistant coach - between his head-coaching heartaches with the Jets and Patriots - and build an enduring friendship with 49ers executive Bill Walsh.

He has intimated that if any NFL head-coaching job could tear him away from USC's, it would be the 49ers'.

Now the 49ers have fired head coach Steve Mariucci, the surprise announcement coming Wednesday morning, and the Trojans' resurgence makes Carroll a logical candidate for that hot seat.

How many guys get a chance to say no to a fantasy?

Carroll is giving it the old college try.

``I'm not doing anything,'' he told the Daily News' Scott Wolf the day before Mariucci's firing. ``I haven't heard anything, and even if someone called, I wouldn't be interested. I'm not going anywhere.''

On Wednesday afternoon, in an answer to a question relayed through the USC sports-information director, Carroll repeated those sentiments, wondering how much more emphatic he is obliged to be.

Carroll promised his players, in a meeting in the days after their Orange Bowl victory over Iowa, that he will remain at USC. He has been assuring high school kids, during his recruiting visits, of the same thing.

Staying here is indeed the right move, and if Carroll wants to make sure, he should look at himself and he should look at Mariucci.

In Carroll's mirror is the youngest 51-year-old he'll ever see, enthusiastic despite his earlier career setbacks, still that Bay Area kid at heart.

His personality didn't fit pro football, where the players couldn't take him seriously, but it's made for a college campus, especially one that needed his energy and optimism after three years of Paul Hackett. He's in charge of his whole football program, with no general manager or owner to rely on for players, with no high-salaried players to battle for power. He's at the peak of his popularity at USC after its rise to a No. 4 ranking and Carson Palmer's Heisman Trophy.

He is, by all accounts, optimistic last season's success will continue even though Palmer and safety Troy Polamalu will be gone.

Would he really want to quit being Pete Carroll to become Steve Mariucci?

Mariucci took the 49ers to the playoffs four times and had a 57-39 record in six years - though never the Super Bowl as Walsh and George Seifert had. He turned Canadian Football League veteran Jeff Garcia into a Pro Bowl quarterback. He was respected by his players and by the rest of the league. He turned down the Buccaneers' job offer last season to stay in San Francisco.

Mariucci's reward was to be fired Wednesday, with a year remaining on his contract, because of ``philosophical differences'' with the front office.

That's how it works in the NFL.

Of course, it might be that the NFL won't be interested in Carroll, not with his firings in New York and New England so fresh in the memory, no matter what he is accomplishing on the college level.

But if pro football does come after him, it could double the more than $1.2 million salary Carroll is believed to receive from USC.

Double isn't enough. Or it shouldn't be.

``Oftentimes, when someone loves being at their place of employment, sometimes you will continue to stay there and say no to something else because you're on a mission to accomplish something where you are,'' a head coach said at a news conference this week. ``I think we have a good thing going on here.''

That was Steve Mariucci talking about his own willingness to take less money in a new 49ers contract than he could get from another team.

He could have been talking about Pete Carroll, who should give the NFL a stiff arm until he has finished what he has started at USC.

Carroll is a football coaching hero on the 12th try, and his reward is the chance to say no to a dream in San Francisco.

And become an even bigger hero in Los Angeles.

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(color) USC football coach Pete Carroll said even if he's offered the San Francisco 49ers' coaching job, he won't take it.

Kirby Lee/Special to the Daily News