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The influence of USC's head coach stretches beyond imagination, from his work on the football field to his efforts in the inner-city to his impact on the bottomline


By Jonathan Horowitz
USCRipsIt
PeteCarroll.com


In this presidential election year, USC football coach Pete Carroll will also conclude the length of two terms in office. No one needs to conduct a poll to realize that the eighth-year coach of the Trojans has high approval ratings. But are people fully aware of what they are approving when they cheer for the coach from the stands at the Los Angeles Coliseum or praise his accomplishments in the media?

A President is measured by what he accomplishes, and the same can be said for a college football coach.

What, then, is the “Pete Carroll Effect”?  

The three presidential debates this fall focused on foreign policy, domestic policy and the economy. Among the major issues were America’s position in today’s globalized world, how the government provides for its citizens on social issues such as health care, and the country’s economic affairs. In a similar way, these are also the major issues a college football coach must address: where his team stands in the national collegiate picture; what he does to improve the university; and how he affects the athletic department’s economic viability.

The results for Carroll will amaze you. 

POLITICAL 

Politically, foreign policy is measured by a country’s strength and perception in a contemporary world that has become more interconnected through globalization. In eight years, Pete Carroll has guided the Trojans from a team that had played in only one bowl game in the five seasons prior to his arrival to one of the most accomplished college football teams in the 21st century.

Change came quickly after Carroll was named USC’s head football on Dec. 15, 2000. Take a look:

First season (2001): USC plays in its first bowl game in three years.

Second season (2002): The Trojans capture their first Pacific-10 Conference title in seven years. They defeat rivals UCLA and Notre Dame for the first time in the same season since 1981. USC advances to and wins its first BCS bowl game, the Orange Bowl, and finishes the season ranked No. 4 in the Associated Press Poll. It’s the first time the Trojans are ranked at the end of a season since 1995.

Third season (2003): USC wins its first national championship in 25 years.

Fourth season (2004): The Trojans earn their second consecutive national title, a feat not accomplished at USC in more than 70 years.

Thus after the length of one presidential term in office, USC went from unranked to undisputed. During his next four years Carroll has continued the string of success. The Trojans will play in their fourth straight Rose Bowl game on New Years Day. In eight years under Carroll, USC has won seven straight conference titles, advanced to seven straight BCS bowls and finished within the top four of the AP college football final rankings for six straight years.

“It is very beneficial to a conference to have one or more of its members competing for BCS berths and the National Championship game, as well as attracting national attention to the conference throughout the season,” Pac-10 commissioner Tom Hansen said.

With no term limits for college football coaches, Carroll has a set a goal to “Win Forever,” a philosophy he explains as: “You can never really gauge how much it takes to get that done as a goal. You just keep on working at it and going for it and see how long you can put winning years one right after another. And someday when we’re old and gray we look back and say, ‘Look what we accomplished.’ We found a way to find a theme and a manner and a style and an approach that would allow us to win over a really long period of time. The goal, then, is to Win Forever.”

Carroll’s current 87-15 record in eight years at USC gives him a .853 winning percentage, which is tops among active NCAA Division I-A coaches with at least five years of experience. If Carroll records his 88th victory against Penn State in the Rose Bowl, he will tie former Marshall University coach Bob Pruett for most wins among NCAA Division I-A college football head coaches in their first eight seasons since 1900. (Only George Woodruff, who was 102-9-2 in his first eight years at the University of Pennsylvania from 1892 to 1899, has won more games. Pruett was 88-17 from 1996 to 2003. University of Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops follows Carroll with an 86-19 record from 1999 to 2006.)

“Pete has done a terrific job,” said Joe Paterno, the 43-year head coach of Penn State who has won more games than any other NCAA Division I-A coach. “[There are] two or three coaches out there that really changed the whole game of football. Pete certainly has been right there at the top of it.”

On an individual level, Carroll’s tenure has produced three Heisman Trophy winners. No coach has turned out three Heisman Trophy winners in a four-year span like Carroll did from 2002 to 2005. In addition, Carroll has overseen 30 first-team All-American selections. After finishing USC, 42 of Carroll’s former Trojans have been drafted into the NFL.

“The thing Pete has done is revived a program that was down for 25 years — and not only revived it, but made it comparable to, if not better than, the school that symbolizes college football, and that’s Notre Dame,” USC athletic director Mike Garrett said.

Garrett cites that under Carroll USC has now matched Notre Dame’s total of 11 national championships and seven Heisman Trophy winners.

“So now when you think of the elite college football programs in the country, historically we would have to be comparable to Notre Dame, if not better, and that’s a hell of a statement,” he said.

USC’s quick rise under Carroll has attracted increased media attention for USC football, including from foreign-language and entertainment media.

“Since Pete has gotten here, we’ve been at the forefront of the national and local media,” USC sports information director Tim Tessalone said. “The run that we’re on right now with Pete is unprecedented not only in USC history but in college football history. It’s a dynasty in a sense. So we’ve become really kind of America’s team in a lot of ways much like the New York Yankees or the Green Bay Packers or Notre Dame football. We’re in that category in a lot of ways.”

SOCIAL

Voters often ask what will be done to make government work for them. Carroll has made USC football work for its fans and surrounding community by epitomizing the university, by founding the community outreach organization A Better LA, and by establishing the messages “Win Forever” and “Always Compete.”

Pete Carroll is USC — in the same way that the Trojan Marching Band is USC or Tommy Trojan is USC.

“Pete has put his own spin on all these great traditions,” said Dr. Arthur C. Bartner, who has directed the Trojan Marching Band since 1970. “The bottom line is the fact that Pete is an approachable coach and this endearing guy that everybody loves. He has become part of the fabric of the University of Southern California.”

Carroll quickly bought into the idea of the “Trojan Family,” and the “Trojan Family” quickly bought into Carroll.

“We always play ‘Conquest’ for the team when they win after the game, and Pete Carroll — he’s always the first guy there leading the team over to the band,” Bartner said about Carroll’s rapport with the Trojan Marching Band. “Pete has really brought his own little twist to all these things, more so than any other coach. I guess it’s really a very unique thing that we do at USC.”

Carroll’s success has enhanced the reputation of USC in a way that goes beyond athletics.

“A university grows in many ways. As we were growing academically, there were many questions of whether we could grow athletically like we once had,” Garrett said. “I don’t know of a school that’s as academically as sound as we are and plays at the level that we do in athletics. Pete’s winning kind of put us in a league all unto ourselves…If you get a great president like Dr. [Steven] Sample and a head coach like Pete, it’s amazing what you can achieve.”

Said David Carter, a professor of sports business at USC: “[Carroll] has personified what the university has to offer.”

Carroll’s social influence extends far beyond the USC campus. In 2003, Carroll helped found the organization A Better LA that works to reduce gang violence in South Los Angeles. The organization brings together former gang members, politicians, police officers and others who focus a variety of backgrounds and experiences upon a common goal.

“One of Pete’s original ideas was that, ‘Gosh, if there are these guys in the neighborhood who are leaders but leaders for such negative, if we can turn them into leaders for positive, how powerful would that be because they have so many people following them,’” A Better LA executive director Brian Center said about empowering former gang members. “That’s turned out to be true.”

In addition to an office near the Los Angeles Coliseum, Center said A Better LA’s first target area for social improvement is the West Athens area of South Los Angeles. Carroll hopes “to create a model for how to really get a handle on violence and transform the inner cities.”

Carroll often meets with at-risk youth in struggling areas of South Los Angeles in the middle of the night.

“Here’s Pete Carroll,” Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn said, “this highly successful guy who’s used to dealing with wealthy alumni and donors, and he’ll go to Nickerson Gardens — without any kind of entourage — and he’ll talk to people about getting their lives together. I think he’s saving lives, no question. He’s a hero in my book.”

“It goes a long way,” said Reynaldo Reaser, a former gang member. “From him being a coach and being someone of influence in the community that can go anywhere and speak to many gang members, all of them respect him. By his influence of coming out and talking to these guys it motivates them into becoming leaders of the community in a positive way.”

Reaser now works for the community intervention organization Common Unity Reaching Everyone (C.U.R.E.) that A Better LA helps fund. C.U.R.E. stepped in to create a cease-fire after a shooting earlier this month in South Los Angeles. The incident threatened to escalate into an all-out gang war that could have involved up to eight gangs.

“Wow,” Reaser said and then pauses for a second. “It could have escalated into a major war between the Bloods and the Crips. It was getting to a boiling point that guys wanted to go to war. They [are] holding the respect right now. It’s more of like a cease-fire, a stand-down.”

“That doesn’t get any better than that,” Center said. “For us to be saving lives is pretty incredible.”

In May, A Better LA helped launch a basketball league in Watts called “Moonlight Basketball” that brought together 12 teams from different areas of South Los Angeles and Southern California. Players from historically rival gang neighborhoods competed against each other, and the only shots spectators witnessed were those with a basketball.

“It’s also been a fantastic way for young men from different local communities to get to know each other, and to improve their relationship with the LAPD, who also has a team in the league,” said Hahn, a participant in the league’s launching.

Carroll has encapsulated his ideals in the philosophy “Win Forever” and the poem “Always Compete.” The poem concludes, “Compete to be the Greatest You and that will Always be enough and that will be a Lifetime! Always Compete.”

His messages have also motivated other USC athletic coaches. Ali Khosroshahin, the Trojan women’s soccer coach who won a national championship in his first season at USC in 2007, said he attended a Trojan football practice soon after being hired and was influenced by Carroll.

“For us as a new coaching staff, we would always measure everything we did against the football program and what Coach Carroll has done with the program as far as competition in training, the intensity in training, how they compete at everything they possibly do,” Khosroshahin said. “When you have a championship-caliber program like our football program that’s competing year-in and year-out at the elite level, we’d be foolish not to pay attention to what it is they’re doing and try to emulate some of the things they demand of their student-athletes, and we want to try to incorporate those things and make them ours.”

The head coach of USC’s men’s and women’s water polo teams, Jovan Vavic coached the men’s squad to a national championship this year, his fifth total title between the two teams. He said hs program has incorporated many of Carroll's philosophies.

“Both of our programs really believe in competition," Vavic said. "We have a team that’s very deep and very competitive. Both programs are very deep and talented, and there’s great competition all the time in practice.”

Carroll’s coaching philosophies have affected athletic programs outside of USC as well.

The coaching staff of the basketball team at Citrus Community College in Glendora, Calif., has adopted Carroll’s motto of “Win Forever,” even devoting a section to it on the team’s website. The team breaks huddles during games with Carroll’s “Let it Rip” message. Citrus College won its first California junior college state basketball championship last year.

“Without Pete Carroll’s two main philosophies, I don’t know if we would have ever really been able to convey what we really wanted out of our guys and what we really wanted in of our program,” said Joey Wellman, an assistant coach at Citrus College. “It’s gotten to the point where anytime we need inspiration for our team or we’re trying to get them ready for a game, we’re pulling up Coach Carroll articles.”

“Win Forever” is emblazoned on the team’s state championship sweatshirts.

“For us it’s not about basketball. It’s about getting your grades, getting your AA [degree], moving on, becoming a better man while you’re with us,” Wellman said, citing that each of the Fighting Owls’ graduating players earned an Associate of Arts degree and transferred to a four-year university. “It’s about excelling in life.”

“Winning forever applies to more than sports; it applies to life,” Carroll said.

Carroll’s presence is felt even when he is not immediately around. He has the rare ability to command a situation without actually saying a word.

“He’s with you in the huddle. He’s all around. You can feel his presence everywhere,” former USC All-American defensive lineman Shaun Cody said.

A little inspiration carries everywhere.

ECONOMIC

Most political experts believe economic issues ultimately determined this year’s president election. So what has been Carroll’s effect on the USC economy during his eight years in office?

In USC’s 78 seasons of playing at the Los Angeles Coliseum prior to the arrival of Carroll, the highest average home attendance in a season was 76,063 in 1988. The Trojans have surpassed that average each of the last six seasons under Carroll, including a USC- and Pac-10-record average of 91,480 fans per game in 2006. The Trojans have averaged 80,524 fans at home games in eight years under Carroll, more than 21,000 more than they had at home games over the previous eight years.

With the exception of home games against UCLA and Notre Dame, USC had not played in front of a capacity crowd at the Los Angeles Coliseum for 69 years. Capacity crowds at the Coliseum have now become a regular occurrence for the Trojans since Carroll was hired. This season seating capacity at the Coliseum has been expanded from 92,000 to 93,607.

USC senior associate athletic director Steve Lopes said the football team went from around 35,000 season ticket holders before Carroll was hired to around 65,000 currently, an increase of 86 percent. With 12,000 tickets allotted to students and several thousand seats given to visiting teams for each home game, there isn’t much room for more season ticket holders.

Even though former Green Bay Packer football coach Vince Lombardi used to say that “winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing,” a confluence of additional factors have supplemented the Trojans’ on-field performance to create a perfect storm that has attracted fans to the Coliseum in record numbers. The Trojans had similar success from 1966 to 1979 when they won four national titles and played in 10 Rose Bowls in 14 years, but the Coliseum rarely reached capacity and average home attendance during that period was 64,258, more than 16,000 less than the current number of fans that Carroll’s Trojans’ have averaged. Today there is no professional football team in the nation’s second largest media market. Perhaps the biggest reason for USC football’s economic success is that the program has bridged the gap between sports and entertainment and become spectacle in addition to sport.

“To succeed in this market, you don’t just have to win, but you have to win with flair,” said Carter, the USC sports business professor and the executive director of the USC Sports Business Institute. “What’s happened over the last several years since Carroll’s been there, USC — and I don’t mean the business school and I don’t mean the athletic department — but the university overall has gone from being just a school, just a university to being an aspirational brand, a lifestyle brand. I think Saturday afternoons in the fall personify that better than anything else USC has going for it. And the guy that’s making it happen obviously is Carroll. He’s at the pinnacle of this lifestyle brand that has become USC.”

Said Tessalone, USC’s sports information director: “It’s this decade’s version of the Showtime Lakers. It’s the place to be at a USC game. It’s a real vibe and a real electricity and energy. It’s the place to be seen. We embrace that.”

The aura created by the USC football team’s success has also helped the athletic department’s bottom line.

The number of endowed football scholarships has also increased. USC currently has endowments that pay for 64 of the 85 football scholarships in perpetuity, according to USC senior associate athletic director Don Winston. Membership to the USC athletic department support groups, whose fees range from $3,000 to $30,000 annually for the opportunity to purchase priority football and basketball seating, has also grown.

“Because of our winning now in the last seven years, obviously it’s tremendously helped our bottom line,” Winston said. “We all become better fundraisers when we win.”

During Carroll’s first Pac-10 championship season in 2002, the USC athletic department was able to balance its budget for that school year after three years of operating in the red. Since that time, athletic department revenue has increased 63 percent from just shy of $47 million for 2002-2003 to just over $76 million in 2007-2008, according to reports filed under the Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act.

“Coach Carroll has built a program and one of his mottos is ‘Win Forever,’ and by winning forever and being successful at winning, it’s built up to a point where we see tremendous growth. We’re ecstatic about it,” Lopes said.

Revenue from football supports almost all of USC’s 20 other varsity sports.

“Football is the driving force for our revenue in this department,” said Lopes, USC’s senior associate athletic director. “It is the engine that drives our department so to speak.”

CONCLUSION

The quick rise of USC football under Carroll has produced results that the university and its surrounding community feel politically, socially and economically. As the United States prepares to inaugurate a new president advocating “The Change We Need,” the Trojan empire would probably be satisfied with more of the same.

However, Carroll’s philosophy is not at all about staying the course. He presses his players, his fans and himself to seek out and confront more and more of life’s challenges, both on and off the playing field.

In this respect it may well be argued that Pete Carroll is truly a man for all seasons.


• Jonathan Horowitz is a staff writer for USCRipsIt/PeteCarroll.com. You can contact him by sending an e-mail to Ben@PeteCarroll.com, and it will be forwarded to him.