They say that one of the things that separates us from the animals is our ability to learn from our mistakes.

Apparently, that trait doesn’t apply to everyone.

Nearly one month to the day after former coach Bobby Petrino chose the . . . Arkansas . . . Razorbacks over the Falcons after less than a full season as coach, the franchise reportedly is pursuing USC coach Pete Carroll for an interview.

Even if Carroll is ready to return to the pro game, where he would be attempting to make the third time as charm as an NFL head coach coach, the notion that owner Arthur Blank would offer up another college head coach given his experiences with Petrino is flabbergasting to us, and should be very troubling to any Falcons fans.

The issue isn’t whether Carroll would or wouldn’t get the job done.  It’s whether the Falcons, who are mired in one of the ugliest stretches that any pro franchise has ever faced, should expose themselves to another potential high-profile debacle by hiring the next in a growing line of college coaches who can’t get it done at the highest level of the sport.

The last college head coach to succeed in the NFL was Jimmy Johnson, and he’s still the only coach to win a national championship and a Super Bowl.  He might hold that record longer than DiMaggio.  (Unless a guy wins a Super Bowl before heading to college.)

[Editor’s note:  Barry Switzer won a Super Bowl and a national championship, too.  And he won the Super Bowl on the fumes of Jimmy Johnson.]

Johnson built his team in the final days of the pre-free agency/salary cap NFL, at a time when only the draft and so-called “Plan B” free agency (i.e., you can sign my “D”-level players) were available.  The fleecing of the Vikings via the Herschel Walker trade didn’t hurt.

The problem has become more noticeable in recent years, given Petrino’s disappearance, Nick Saban’s two-years-and-out in Miami (after more than two years of being the hot candidate from the college ranks), and Steve Spurrier’s subpar performance with the Redskins.

The fact that Carroll has presided over a program that has been able to recruit the best players in the nation to go to college in Los Angeles and then has lined them up to consistently pummel the likes of Fresno State doesn’t mean that he’ll be able to manage a pro football team.

And manage it is what he’ll want to do.  Carroll doesn’t want to just be the coach; he wants the whole enchilada.  And his first front-office hire would be good buddy Pat Kirwan, who for some reason hasn’t been able to get a job with a team at any point in the current decade.

Even if Carroll works out (and we think the odds are against it), the fact that the Falcons would even take a look at him will do nothing to persuade folks that the franchise gets it.