When Pete Carroll returned to USC this spring as the commencement speaker for the Marshall School of Business, nostalgia hit. He may have been removed for 16 years from coaching the Trojans, but that’s not long enough for him to forget what this program used to feel like when they ruled the sport.

“We kicked a– back in the day,” Pete Carroll said as he spoke inside the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. “39-3 in the Coli, can you imagine that? Just week after week, year after year, it was freaking awesome. This place was roaring back in the day.”

That quote, shared by USC beat writer Ryan Kartje, immediately hit fans the right way because Pete Carroll wasn’t exaggerating. From 2001 to 2009, the Trojans were the winners of seven straight Pac-10 championships. He even led them to two back-to-back AP national championships in 2003 and 2004. They also appeared in seven consecutive BCS bowls and won six times. 

USC even spent 33 straight weeks ranked No. 1 in the AP Poll. If that’s not dominance, what is? The NFL used USC as a developmental league during Pete Carroll’s run. He developed famous names like Matt Leinart, Reggie Bush, Troy Polamalu, LenDale White, Brian Cushing, and Clay Matthews, among others.

During his tenure, Pete Carroll sent 53 Trojans to the NFL, including 14 first-round picks. He also produced two back-to-back Heisman winners in QB Matt Leinart (2004) and RB Reggie Bush (2005), while 25 of his players earned First-Team All-American honors. That’s why his return to campus feels different from the standard “legend comes home” ceremony schools usually do for old coaches. 

Even after NCAA sanctions brought a two-year bowl ban and scholarship cuts, USC still had several 10-win seasons during that period. The system Pete Carroll built continued to help the program long after he left for Seattle in 2009. You can even see some of USC’s later QB success back to Pete Carroll’s recruiting. 

“I remember that day,” Cody Kessler said of receiving a USC offer while still a sophomore at Bakersfield. “It’s so exciting in high school when you get a call from USC.”

That was the Carroll effect. USC recruited belief. Despite moving to the NFL, Pete Carroll stayed close, co-teaching his “Game is Life” course at USC’s Marshall School of Business, even after getting hired by the Las Vegas Raiders ahead of the 2025 season. Unfortunately, that stint didn’t end well. 

After leaving the Seahawks following the 2023-24 season, Pete Carroll waited a year before jumping back into the NFL with the Raiders. But it didn’t work out, as the Raiders finished 3-14 in 2025, the worst record in football. He was shown the door on January 5, 2026. And yet, somehow, he still refuses to disappear.

Pete Carroll isn’t done coaching yet

According to reports, Pete Carroll is set to become a head coach once again, four months after losing his Raiders job. Next January, he will return to the sideline as one of the head coaches at the 2027 Adidas Polynesian Bowl in Honolulu. His opposite sideline will feature Mack Brown, the same coach whose Texas team broke USC hearts in the legendary 2006 Rose Bowl. More than two decades later, the two will meet again.

“It’s an incredible honor to be part of the Adidas Polynesian Bowl and to serve as a head coach,” Pete Carroll told 247Sports. “The Polynesian community has given so much to football at every level. This event is about more than football – it’s about celebrating culture, family, and the tremendous talent of these young men.”

Maybe this role is more natural for Pete Carroll than trying to rescue a broken NFL franchise in his 70s. The Polynesian Bowl has become one of the top high school all-star games in America since it started in 2017. His involvement gives the event even more attention because very few people in football have both a Super Bowl ring and national championship trophies.

Only Jimmy Johnson and Barry Switzer have won both a college football national title and a Super Bowl as head coaches. That’s why USC fans still get excited whenever he returns to the Coliseum.