Former Seahawks coach Carroll excited about ‘exciting opportunities’

Pete Carroll is still unsure about his return to coaching. For now, he’s back at USC.

The former Seattle Seahawks and Trojans coach told Sports 93.3 KJR-FM on Tuesday that he will begin teaching a class at USC this spring, though he did not provide any further details beyond that.

“I’m looking forward to it, it’s going to be a really exciting project when it’s finished and all that,” Carroll said.

Carroll’s radio appearance was his first public comments to local media since his farewell press conference at Seahawks headquarters in January, after team owner Jody Allen announced he would move into an advisory role with the organization. A source told ESPN that Carroll was only a nominal advisor to the Seahawks, and he told the radio station he was keeping his distance from the team.

Still, Carroll said he would do some consulting for other clubs. He wouldn’t say which ones, but he made clear they weren’t soccer teams. One of Carroll’s recent projects was a trip to a U.S. military base in Kuwait to attend a basketball tournament with American troops. He said the experience reminded him that he had to keep giving.

“I’m excited about it because there’s more stuff to teach,” he said. “There’s more stuff to share. Everyone wants to know what I do and all that, whether I coach or what I do, I get to work with some really fun people and have some exciting opportunities to do some really cool stuff and put things together… for other people, so I’m going to keep working like that and see what happens.”

Carroll said he hasn’t had much interaction with the Seahawks’ new staff other than a surprise meeting with his successor, Mike McDonald.

“I haven’t spoken to those players at all,” he said. “I ran into Mike in the car park one day and it was a great opportunity to meet, greet and move on. I haven’t had much contact with them in any way, and I actually watch a little bit of games when I see them on TV. I don’t care too much about it because I feel like letting them go is the right thing to do. I have no other opinion than they’re really hard-working and they’re a really smart group of players, and I know they’ve got a good group around them that they can build on and they seem to have done some really good things… and for a specific purpose, I’m going to walk away and not visit them at all.”

Carroll, 72, was the head coach at the University of Southern California from 2001 to 2009 before joining the Seattle Seahawks for 14 years. He is one of only three coaches to win a Super Bowl and a college national championship.

Carroll did not close the door on coaching again, saying he had not lost his competitive edge, but indicated he did not feel like doing so at the moment.

“I get a lot of questions about this, and now I know the answer. I can train tomorrow. I’m in the best physical shape I’ve been in a long time. I’m ready to do all the activities I do and I feel really good about it. I can, but I don’t really want to at this point. This is not the training season. We’ll see what happens. I’m not waiting for that at all. I’m going to keep going. I have other things I want to do that I’m excited about, and I’ll see how it goes. I don’t think I’m holding my breath or anything like that. If it’s 40 years or 48 years or whatever and I’m training and that’s it, I’ll be satisfied with that.”