Pete Carroll Returning To USC…Kinda

Pete Carroll is returning to the USC campus. 

Carroll, the 72-year-old former head coach of the Seattle Seahawks and, more famously, the USC Trojans from 2001-2009, is coming back to his old stomping grounds. But not the football program…yet.

For the spring semester of the 2024-2025 USC school year, Pete Carroll will be teaching a class on campus. Though the school did not reveal what class, or whether this would be a recurring appointment. 

"We are excited to welcome Pete Carroll home to USC in a new capacity in which he can, as a legendary coach and leader, share his knowledge and experience with our students," the university said in a statement on Wednesday.

Carroll was effectively a free agent after he and the Seahawks surprisingly parted ways in January 2024. 

READ: Seahawks Surprisingly Part Ways With Pete Carroll As Coach, Which Even He Didn't Plan

Though he remained with the organization as an "advisor," the organization's statement described it as an "amicable" agreement for his role to "evolve" from Head Coach. A sort of conscious uncoupling, if you will.

NASHVILLE -Pete Carroll the head coach of the Seattle Seahawks after a win against the Tennessee Titans at Nissan Stadium on December 24, 2023. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)

Pete Carroll Return To USC Brings Up Memories, Possibilities

It didn't sound like Carroll was fully ready to be done with coaching, telling a Seattle radio station that he could "coach tomorrow."

"I could coach tomorrow," Carroll said to 93 KJR-FM. "I’m physically in the best shape I’ve been in in a long time. I’m ready to do all the activities that I’m doing and feeling really good about it. I could, but I don’t really — I’m not desiring it at this point. This isn’t the coaching season. We’ll see what happens. I’m not waiting on it at all. I’m going ahead. I’ve got other things that I want to do that I’m excited about, and I’m going to see how all that goes. I’m not thinking that I’m holding my breath and that kind of thing. If it’s been 40-something years, 48 years or whatever coaching, and that’s it, I’ll feel OK about that."

Though USC head coach Lincoln Riley already hired an entirely new defensive staff, headlined by new defensive coordinator D'Anton Lynn, the Pete Carroll era at USC was the program's high point. Especially on defense. Carroll was known for recruiting elite defensive talent and getting the best out of them.

Troy Polamalu, Clay Matthews, Brian Cushing, Mike Patterson, Taylor Mays, Sedrick Ellis, Rey Maualuga, Keith Rivers, Lofa Tatupu…the list of defensive stars in the Carroll era is nearly endless. With limits on coaches now a thing of the past, it's worth wondering if Carroll would be interested in joining the current iteration of USC. As one of the best recruiters in college football history, he could lend credibility and expertise to a program that needs it.

For now though, he's just a "Professor." Down the road? We'll see.