Taylor Mays was the defensive anchor of the USC football team last season.
(Creative Commons)

After a draft day slide saw former USC safety Taylor Mays fall all the way to the 49th overall pick, the newest San Francisco 49er took time to lash out at Pete Carroll.

For NFL prospects, the thrill of hearing commissioner Roger Goodell read their name is undoubtedly the moment of a lifetime.

However for three-time All-American Taylor Mays, the wait appeared to be more than he could handle.

While Mays, a 2008 Jim Thorpe Award finalist, was selected by the San Francisco 49ers with the 49th overall pick on Friday night, for the three-time All-Pac 10 honoree, his call came a night late -- a result he believes has much to do with the efforts, or lack thereof, of former coach Pete Carroll.

Mays, a sure-fire top 10 pick had he left school early after his junior year in 2009, decided to stay at USC in the hopes he could win a national championship for Carroll as the physical cornerstone of the Trojans' defense.

The result was a 9-4 season, an injury that forced him to sit out his final game against his hometown Washington Huskies in Seattle and a draft stock that with time only gained more and more uncertainty.
 
The thing that arguably bothered the Seattle native the most was the false reassurance Carroll gave him throughout the year.

Mays told Shelley Smith of ESPN.com that he was determined his senior year to showcase why he was worthy of a top 10 pick, yet when he went to Carroll, the response he got was more or less vague.

"[Pete] kept saying, 'Taylor, you'll be fine. You're fine,' "Mays said. "Obviously that wasn't the case."

The 2009-10 season was a frustrating one for Mays, but when Carroll bolted for Seattle in January, the talented defensive prospect once again believed he had a terrific opportunity to regain his status as a top draft pick.  Coupled with a strong showing at the Senior Bowl and an official 4.43 40-yard dash time at the scouting combine, it seemed only logical that Mays and Carroll would reunite, as the Seahawks owned the rights to both the sixth and 14th overall picks.

But as Thursday night came and went, and the Seahawks selected fellow safety Earl Thomas from Texas, Mays realized the relationship he had built up with Carroll may not have been as strong as he thought. The coach invited Mays to Seahawks headquarters as late as Wednesday morning, but by the end of Round 1, the former USC star likely recognized the reassurances he had received throughout the year were all for not.

On Friday he finally heard his name read by Goodell -- to a place where his physical presence is in all actuality more of a perfect fit than in Seattle -- Mays lashed out at his former coach with comments that reflected the bitterness of a young man who felt deceived by one of his closest mentors.

"I wish I would have known why I wouldn't be taken in the first round," he said Friday during a conference call. "At least have been shown what I needed work on. Here's my head coach, the person I trust most, telling me I had nothing to worry about and then I'm worrying about it [when it's too late] because I'm not getting picked."

Carroll, who just finished his first draft as the Seahawks' coach was forced to answer more questions about Mays' criticism than the improvements his team made during the weekend.
"We really were looking forward to picking Taylor," Carroll said. "We thought we would get the chance to do that in the first round. But we were surprised when Earl Thomas showed up, we really coveted him as an all-around cover guy who could play safety or corner. And so when we made the pick, we felt fortunate to get Earl, but we were really hoping that we were gonna get a chance to get [Taylor], but unfortunately we didn't."

Mays will not have to wait long to take his first shot at Carroll. The Seahawks play host to the 49ers on the opening day of the NFL season.