After his best job, would Carroll want a new job?

Every year at this time, three wisps of change can be found swirling around Heritage Hall.

Red leaves, a brisk chill, and the idea of Pete Carroll going to the NFL.

Every year at this time, one of those wisps is immediately blown through a fence.

The thought that Carroll would trade Saturday power for Sunday precariousness has been deemed as outrageous as him trading facial expressions with Karl Dorrell.

No NFL team can give Carroll enough control. No NFL team can give him enough talent. No NFL team can give him enough fun.

“Every season, with these stories, it’s like the movie ‘Groundhog Day,’ ” Carroll said with a laugh.

Well, uh, not every season.

This season, these stories could be like “The Sixth Sense.”

This season, there exist several odd occurrences that could be creeping toward a surprise ending.

If USC wins the national title, this season could be Carroll’s last as its head coach.

The evidence is mounting, the questions are toughening, and Carroll’s answers are softening.

“Things are so good here for me right now, I can’t picture a place that would be attractive enough for me to leave,” he said. “That could change, but right now, I can’t even imagine it.”

But, as he said, that could change. And, yes, it could be soon.

There is an NFL team out there that might be willing to give him the necessary control.

This same team has some of the league’s best young talent.

And how much fun would Carroll have coaching his old quarterback?

They are the Arizona Cardinals, and don’t laugh. They have a new stadium, a new commitment to spending, a new quarterback named Matt Leinart, and the need for a new coach after they release Dennis Green.

“Oh c’mon,” Carroll said Tuesday. “You know I don’t even think about that kind of stuff right now.”

Maybe Carroll isn’t thinking about it, but several sources indicate that representatives of the Cardinals, and representatives of Carroll, have talked about it.

And, certainly, while Carroll is not thinking about it right now, things could change dramatically in six weeks.

If the Trojans beat UCLA on Saturday, then upset Ohio State in the national championship game, Carroll will have completed the best coaching job of his six years here.

In doing so, he will have completed perhaps the best five-year stretch in college football history.

“We’re not done yet this season,” said Lane Kiffin, his offensive coordinator. “But at this point, yeah, no question, he’s done his best job.”

Carroll has gone 10-1 with a team that lost not one, but two Heisman Trophy winners.

He has produced the second-ranked team with no returning starting quarterback or running backs.

He maintained the winning mentality with a defense that has only two contributors in their final year of eligibility.

He did all this after a stormy off-season during which off-field controversy threatened to burst the program at its seams.

So if Carroll wins a national championship after all this?

And it’s his third national title, pushing him ahead of Joe Paterno and Bobby Bowden, putting him among the best of the best?

What more could he accomplish here?

No matter what his history says, human nature would argue that another national title would make this winter the perfect time for Carroll to move to the NFL.

And Carroll says he understands.

“That is human nature, that happens, that happens,” he said. “And I don’t know how I would feel about that if it came up. I only know how I feel today.”

For the first time since he began fielding these questions, Carroll is at least acknowledging the potential for that feeling.

“I do know this -- college coaches don’t just get stupid,” he said. “What happens is, they can lose their intensity. They can lose their will to fight the fight.

“That’s not happening with me. Right now I feel even more committed than ever.”

Right now, he said. But what about six weeks from now?

“I only know how I feel right now,” he repeated.

There are other new factors in place that could sway Carroll to the NFL.

It was long believed that his dream would be to seamlessly move from USC to the NFL team that comes to Los Angeles.

With talks between the league and the city recently coming to a stalemate that could last years, this is no longer a realistic option. If Carroll wants to return to his first love, he’ll have to move out of town to do it.

There is also the chance that, while Carroll would have most of his top players returning next year, he could lose his two most trusted advisors with no obvious replacements.

Kiffin and assistant head coach Steve Sarkisian are ready for Division I coaching jobs. Any offensive minds who could lose Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush and still average 32 points a game would be ready for their own team, no?

When Carroll lost Norm Chow a couple of years ago, Kiffin was being groomed as his replacement. Today, there is no replacement, and would the defense-minded Carroll want to trust his team with a stranger?

Finally, Carroll being the hottest in all of football at any level, this is being played out on a higher level than USC or the Arizona Cardinals.

There is talk that the NFL office would get involved in Carroll’s hiring, pushing Cardinals owner Bill Bidwill to give Carroll complete control in hopes of making them a competitive team to help the buzz for next year’s Super Bowl at their new facility outside Phoenix.

“Right now, I’m not thinking about anything beyond today’s practice,” said Carroll, repeating the NFL-type mantra that has made him so successful, and could soon make USC fans so scared.

Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Plaschke, go to latimes.com/plaschke.