George Willis

George Willis

NFL

Carroll could join rare company with Super Bowl title

Pete Carroll has tried to keep Super Bowl week as normal as possible. The Seahawks have completed Competition Wednesday, Turnover Thursday and No-Repeat Fridays. By the time Super Bowl XLVIII kicks off Sunday at MetLife Stadium, Carroll will have utilized lessons learned during his 40 years of coaching to prepare his team to face Peyton Manning and the Broncos.

Most of those lessons were learned while he was the head coach at the University of Southern California, where he returned the Trojans to prominence, winning the BCS national championship in 2005. If the Seahawks are able to win the Super Bowl, Carroll joins a short list of coaches, who have won a college national championship and a Super Bowl. The others were Jimmy Johnson, who won a national title at Miami before winning two

Super Bowls with the Cowboys, and Barry Switzer, who won three national titles at Oklahoma before taking over for Johnson and winning Super Bowl XXX.

Carroll, 62, has credited his tenure at USC from 2001-09 as the time he perfected his coaching style and gained belief in his system.

“I think I had a terrific experience in college football back at USC that really was kind of the groundbreaking for me about figuring out how I wanted to do this,” Carroll said. “I think all of the experiences were beneficial.

That time there gave me the opportunity to be in charge and run a program in the same manner that we’re doing it here in Seattle.”

There were questions whether Carroll could duplicate the success he had at USC at the pro level. His two previous NFL coaching opportunities were less than inspiring. He was 6-10 in his only season as the Jets head coach in 1994 when he was 43, and he was 27-21 in three years with the Patriots (1997-99). But at USC, Carroll found a formula that would work on all levels: acquire talented, aggressive and coachable players; raise the level of competition within the team; and create a climate that respects everyone’s individuality.

“We’ve created a culture that hopefully allows for guys to be at their best,” Carroll said. “That’s what we’re trying to do, find out the ways that we can best help these guys perform at their very best. The culmination of years working with guys, and teams and coaches, all of that, this is what you’re seeing.”

Being a college coach seemed to fit Carroll’s style. Being labeled as a “players’ coach” was viewed as a bad thing when he was with the Jets and the Patriots. He was considered a maverick in an era when domineering coaches such as Tom Landry, Chuck Knox, Don Shula and Bill Parcells were revered. But Carroll’s success at Seattle validates the methods he honed at USC.

Carroll said his time at USC was “crucial” because he learned “you can be true to who you are.” It has made him comfortable in his own skin and confident in his dealings with players.

“You get challenged and you get pulled and tugged in so many directions in this job that you have to be grounded to answer the questions, answer the issues and solve the problems,” he said. “If you’re scattered around trying to be like somebody else that you were with, you’re going to falter.”

Switzer doesn’t get much credit for winning Super Bowl XXX. He was viewed mostly as a caretaker, succeeding Johnson, who abruptly resigned after winning two Super Bowls. Johnson was under even more scrutiny when he left the University of Miami to become the Cowboys coach, replacing Landry in 1989 and going 1-15 in his first season. But by his fourth season, the Cowboys were Super Bowl champions. Carroll is in his fourth season at Seattle.

Joining Johnson and Switzer as the only coaches to ever win a national championship and a Super Bowl might not get him into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but it’s something John McKay, Nick Saban and Steve Spurrier didn’t do when they won national titles in college and tried coaching in the NFL.

Along with Competition Wednesday, Turnover Thursday and No-Repeat Fridays, Carroll can now add Super Bowl Sunday to the list.