Former Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll is headed back to Southern California. But not for the reason you might think.
Carroll told Sports Radio 93.3 KJR-FM on Tuesday that he’ll be teaching a class at USC, where he coached the football team from 2001-09 before heading to Seattle. The class will run during the spring semester, but Carroll didn’t dive into any other details.
“I’m looking forward to that,” Carroll said. “It’s going to be a really exciting endeavor when it’s finalized and all that.” When asked if he ever wanted to coach again, Carroll said he could, but he also made it clear that he has been content with life off the football field.
“I could coach tomorrow. I’m physically in the best shape I’ve been in a long time,” Carroll said. “But I don’t really — I’m not desiring it. … We’ll see what happens. I’m not really waiting on it at all. I’m going ahead. I got other things that I want to do that I’m excited about, and we’ll see how all that goes.”
Carroll led the Seahawks for 14 seasons (2010-23), coaching them to a title at the end of the 2013 campaign. Seattle went 137-89-1 under Carroll, making the playoffs 10 times.
But since Carroll stepped down from his post with the Seahawks in January, he hasn’t had much contact with the team and new coach Mike Macdonald.
“I haven’t talked to those guys at all,” Carroll said of the new Seattle coaching staff. “I ran into Mike in the parking lot one day, and it was a great chance to just, the two of us alone, to meet, say hey and kind of get greeted, and on we go.
“I have not had much to do with them in any way, and really I’m just watching the games a little bit when I see them on TV. I’m not paying that much attention to it because it just feels like it’s the right thing to do to let them go.”
Carroll is only one of three coaches to lead teams to a Super Bowl victory and a college national championship, as the Trojans went all the way in 2003 and 2004 under his watch.
