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Brady Henderson, ESPN
Pete Carroll isn’t sure whether he’ll return to coaching. For now, he’s returning to USC.
The former Seattle Seahawks and Trojans coach told Sports Radio 93.3 KJR-FM on Tuesday that he’ll start teaching a class at USC this spring, though he didn’t offer any specifics beyond that.
“I’m looking forward to that,” Carroll said. “It’s going to be a really exciting endeavor when it’s finalized and all that.”
Carroll’s radio appearance marked his first comments to local media since his farewell news conference at Seahawks headquarters in January, after team owner Jody Allen announced that he was transitioning into an advisory role with the organization. A source has told ESPN that Carroll has only nominally been an adviser to the Seahawks, and he told the radio station that he has been keeping his distance from the team.
Carroll, though, said he will be doing some advising for “some other clubs.” He wouldn’t specify which ones but did clarify that they aren’t football teams. Another recent project involved a trip to an American military base in Kuwait for a basketball tournament with U.S. troops. He said that experience reminded him that he has to continue to give back.
“I’m excited about it because there’s more stuff to teach,” he said. “There’s more stuff to share. Everybody wants to know what I’m doing and all that, am I coaching or what am I doing, I’m working with some really fun people and some exciting opportunities to do some really cool stuff and putting things together … for others, so I’m going to keep working that way and see what happens.”
Carroll said he hasn’t had much interaction with the Seahawks’ new staff other than an impromptu meeting with his successor, Mike Macdonald.
“I haven’t talked to those guys at all,” he said. “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. I don’t really have any opinion other than they’re really hardworking and it’s a really smart group of guys, and I know that they have a good group around them to build on and it sounds like they’ve done some really good things. … With purpose I’m staying away from it and I’m not visiting with them at all.”
Carroll, 72, coached USC from 2001 to 2009, before joining the Seahawks for a 14-year run in Seattle. He’s one of only three coaches to win a Super Bowl and a college national championship.
Carroll didn’t close the door on coaching again, saying he hasn’t lost his competitive edge, but he noted he doesn’t feel the desire to do so right now.
“I get asked it a lot and I’m pretty familiar with the answer now,” he said. “I could coach tomorrow. 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.”