As Frak mentions in his fan post Pete Carroll promoted Rocky Seto to Defensive Coordinator. Carroll also promoted Ken Norton Jr. Assitant head coach for the Defense as well as bringing back Jethro Franklin to coach the defensive line.

This comes on the heels of an internet firestorm yesterday afternoon that rumored former USC coach Ed Orgeron as possibly coming back to USC which in turn Pete Carroll quickly dismissed.

Tennessee assistant coach Ed Orgeron was a candidate to be Southern California’s next defensive coordinator but is “not involved” in the process according to Trojans coach Pete Carroll, according to a report posted on a Web site that covers the Trojans.

USCFootball.com speculated that Orgeron may have even been offered the position, vacated by Nick Holt, who accepted the defensive coordinator position at Washington. That, however, is unclear. The Rivals' Web site was not ready to eliminate Orgeron as a candidate despite Carroll’s claim.

He spoke to Orgeron but no offer was made. Coach O accepted the Tennessee job last week.

Here is th break down from The L.A. Times

Carroll's announcement came the day after former defensive coordinator Nick Holt was introduced at Washington, where former Trojans offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian is the new head coach.

Carroll said he had spoken to several coaches about the Trojans' defensive coordinator job, including former defensive line coach Ed Orgeron, who recently joined Tennessee's staff, "just in case we couldn't get anything worked out."

But Seto, 32, was regarded as the front-runner to succeed Holt because of the continuity he provides. Seto has been on USC's staff since 1999 and has coached linebackers and the secondary under Carroll, who will still call the defensive plays.

"He has just continually developed over the years and become a tremendously valuable guy," Carroll said.

This is no real surprise. Pete Carroll likes to promote from within the program and with the recruiting season in full swing and just about in the home stretch these moves will go a long way to calming the nerves of those recruits who might have been having second thoughts. The Norton promotion is an obvious one in that it rewards Norton for his loyalty and gives him more responsibilities as his next step will be to DC at some point.

The Franklin hire was also met with some skepticism from some on the message boards. My attitude is simple, Pete Carroll has been successful with the way he runs the program. Carroll sees Franklin as great recruiter and right now we need to stabilize the recruting front so if Carroll sees Franklin as a positive addition then its fine with me.

It could have gone a couple of different ways but in the end Carroll went with Seto who has been an SC assistant for 10 years. I also think this sets up Norton perfectly for the future. Many feel he may need just a bit more seasoning before taking on a DC role and with the mess between him and Neuheisel when its time for him to make the next move he will have a solid resume in place to take a job without all the drama that he would see across town.

WIth all this finally resolved Pete Carroll and staff can finally put the finishing touches on this years recruiting class.

Congrats to Seto, Norton and Franklin!