Pete Carroll

Head coach, USC, 2001 to 2009

College career97-1983 official wins · 14 vacated

Titles2national

Program liftNo. 19of 1,290 tenures since 1937

Now

Career arc

Bowls and playoffs: 7-2 · won 1 of 2 national title games

’01L’02W’03W’04W★’05L’06W’07W’08W’09W

Show all 9 games

2001Las Vegas BowlL 6-10

2002Orange BowlW 38-17

2003Rose BowlW 28-14

2004 ★Orange BowlW 55-19

2005Rose BowlL 38-41

2006Rose BowlW 32-18

2007Rose BowlW 49-17

2008Rose BowlW 38-24

2009Emerald BowlW 24-13

Report card

Top-quarter offense — 85th percentile.

USC, every completed season graded against the whole field, then averaged.

Offense

of which —85th

efficiency — 85th percentile success rate, 2004–09

A87th

Standard-downs success

B+73rd

Passing-downs success

A84th

Trench push (line yards)

C-37th

Red-zone scoring rate

B69th

Power-success (short yardage)

B68th

Ball security (giveaways per game)

Each season is his team’s percentile among every team with that stat (the share it beat), averaged over his completed seasons here; a mid-season takeover year and the season in progress aren’t graded. Letters: A+ 90th percentile and up, A 80, B+ 70, B 60, B− 50, C+ 45, C 40, C− 30, D 15, F below.

Stats

Big games

The big-game ledger

How he does in the games that matter most — rivalry record, performance broken out by real opponent tier, one-score games, and his toughest historical matchup.

16-2 against his rivals. Just 1-2 against Jim Harbaugh.

Rivalry record

16-2

88.9% · 2 rivals

One-score games

21-16

56.8% · margin ≤8

Against Blue Bloods or better

7-1

87.5%

Rivalry ledger

Notre Dame8-189%

UCLA8-189%

The toughest matchup

vs. Jim Harbaugh1-2

3 meetings, 2007–2009

’07 L’08 W’09 L

33% win rate across a real, 3-meeting series — short of the bar this site uses before badging a series “Nemesis.” Shown here as the toughest matchup on record, not an algorithmic crown.

Performance by opponent class

Blue Blood

7-1 87.5%

Power Program

38-9 80.9%

National Program

43-8 84.3%

Regional Program

9-1 90.0%

Signature games

20-3 vs. AP top 25 · 6-2 vs. the top 10 · 2004– (no AP data before 2004)

AP-ranked regular-season opponents since 2004, by rank (#1 at top) and year

win loss · higher = higher-ranked opponent · dashed line = top 10

Signature wins

Oklahoma · 2004

55-19

Quality opponentBowl/CFP stakes

Notre Dame · 2002

44-13

RivalQuality opponent

Notre Dame · 2003

45-14

RivalQuality opponent

Signature losses

Notre Dame · 2001

16-27

Rival

UCLA · 2006

9-13

Rival

Utah · 2001

6-10

Bowl/CFP stakes

Tags describe each game; they aren’t scores. The weighting that picks these games is still being tested.

How he plays

more pass-heavy than 90% of FBS coaches →

Run/pass mix, by field position

Called about what the situation called for.

3,425 run and pass snaps at USC, 2004–2009, his own games, one row per offensive coordinator. Each cell is how much more often he passed than the rest of FBS did in the same situation (field zone, down, distance, score, quarter, same season), in percentage points. Play-by-play starts in 2004, so his earlier seasons there aren’t in it.

backed upown territorymidfieldopp. territoryred zoneOC unrecorded2004–090000+7

passed moreran morewithin noise (95% range includes 0)

Pass rate, stint by stint

Where each stint’s offense sat between run-first and pass-first, and how far it moved from one season to the next, against the FBS-wide average of 41% pass. The band is that stint’s real season-to-season range, not a fixed-width box.

Pass rate — share of offensive plays that were pass attemptsfirst covered seasonmost recent covered seasonfull season-to-season range (3+ covered seasons)

How much that is, against every other stint

Season-to-season pass-rate range for all 449 FBS coaching stints with at least three covered seasons, 2004–2025.

Typical stint7.010.3 median14.8middle half of all stints

USC8.2pt#290 of 449 · a typical amount

Building the roster

Three numbers on how he actually stocks a roster, from signing day to draft day.

1Roster ownership
2Where he recruits
3The NFL pipeline

Roster ownership

This coach's entire tenure (2001-2009) predates 2021, when transfer-portal tracking begins in this database. Portal usage cannot be measured for this tenure at all -- this is not the same as '0% portal'.

“His own” means the player arrived while he was head coach; “inherited” means a predecessor brought him in.

Where he recruits

CATop state

is his biggest recruiting state: 74 of 111 signees (67%) across his 2001–2009 tenure, drawn from 18 states in all. Next: FL (5).

Where his signees came from, 2001–2009 (111 high-school, JUCO and prep signees)

70% of his signees come from CA and its 3 border states (AZ 3, NV 1).

By region

West

South

Midwest

Northeast

Feeder school Long Beach Poly 7

The map counts signed recruits across his tenure; the distance figures cover his current roster, transfers and walk-ons included. Two different groups, kept separate on purpose.

The NFL pipeline

60Drafted

players drafted into the NFL off his teams here. None can be traced to who brought them in — there’s no roster record for these players here. 14 went in the first round.

0 roster-verified · 60 estimated

Most recent picks first

Year	Pick	Player	Pos	NFL team	Note
2010	R2.17	Taylor Mays	Safety	San Francisco 49ers	Estimated
2010	R2.32	Charles Brown	Offensive Tackle	New Orleans Saints	Estimated
2010	R3.13	Damian Williams	Wide Receiver	Tennessee Titans	Estimated
2010	R3.30	Kevin Thomas	Cornerback	Indianapolis Colts	Estimated
2010	R4.02	Everson Griffen	Defensive End	Minnesota Vikings	Estimated
2010	R4.14	Joe McKnight	Running Back	New York Jets	Estimated
2010	R6.16	Anthony McCoy	Tight End	Seattle Seahawks	Estimated
2009	R1.05	Mark Sanchez	Quarterback	New York Jets	Estimated

Year	Pick	Player	Pos	NFL team	Note
2009	R1.15	Brian Cushing	Outside Linebacker	Houston Texans	Estimated
2009	R1.26	Clay Matthews	Outside Linebacker	Green Bay Packers	Estimated
2009	R2.06	Rey Maualuga	Inside Linebacker	Cincinnati Bengals	Estimated
2009	R2.24	Fili Moala	Defensive Tackle	Indianapolis Colts	Estimated
2009	R3.23	Patrick Turner	Wide Receiver	Miami Dolphins	Estimated
2009	R4.04	Kaluka Maiava	Outside Linebacker	Cleveland Browns	Estimated
2009	R4.17	Kyle Moore	Defensive End	Tampa Bay Buccaneers	Estimated
2009	R5.36	David Buehler	Place Kicker	Dallas Cowboys	Estimated
2009	R6.10	Cary Harris	Cornerback	Buffalo Bills	Estimated
2009	R6.16	Kevin Ellison	Safety	San Diego Chargers	Estimated
2008	R1.07	Sedrick Ellis	Defensive Tackle	New Orleans Saints	Estimated
2008	R1.09	Keith Rivers	Outside Linebacker	Cincinnati Bengals	Estimated
2008	R1.21	Sam Baker	Offensive Tackle	Atlanta Falcons	Estimated
2008	R1.28	Lawrence Jackson	Defensive End	Seattle Seahawks	Estimated
2008	R2.08	Chilo Rachal	Offensive Guard	San Francisco 49ers	Estimated
2008	R2.17	Fred Davis	Tight End	Washington Redskins	Estimated
2008	R2.32	Terrell Thomas	Cornerback	New York Giants	Estimated
2008	R5.02	John David Booty	Quarterback	Minnesota Vikings	Estimated
2008	R5.20	Thomas Williams	Outside Linebacker	Jacksonville Jaguars	Estimated
2008	R7.06	Chauncey Washington	Running Back	Jacksonville Jaguars	Estimated
2007	R2.13	Dwayne Jarrett	Wide Receiver	Carolina Panthers	Estimated
2007	R2.19	Steve Smith	Wide Receiver	New York Giants	Estimated
2007	R2.27	Ryan Kalil	Center	Carolina Panthers	Estimated
2007	R5.06	Dallas Sartz	Linebacker	Washington Redskins	Estimated
2007	R7.01	Oscar Lua	Linebacker	New England Patriots	Estimated
2006	R1.02	Reggie Bush	Running Back	New Orleans Saints	Estimated
2006	R1.10	Matt Leinart	Quarterback	Arizona Cardinals	Estimated
2006	R2.07	Winston Justice	Offensive Tackle	Philadelphia Eagles	Estimated
2006	R2.09	Deuce Lutui	Offensive Guard	Arizona Cardinals	Estimated
2006	R2.13	LenDale White	Running Back	Tennessee Titans	Estimated
2006	R3.27	Frostee Rucker	Defensive End	Cincinnati Bengals	Estimated
2006	R3.29	Dominique Byrd	Tight End	St. Louis Rams	Estimated
2006	R4.04	Darnell Bing	Linebacker	Oakland Raiders	Estimated
2006	R5.30	David Kirtman	Running Back	Seattle Seahawks	Estimated
2006	R6.35	LaJuan Ramsey	Defensive Tackle	Philadelphia Eagles	Estimated
2006	R7.09	Fred Matua	Offensive Guard	Detroit Lions	Estimated
2005	R1.10	Mike Williams	Wide Receiver	Detroit Lions	Estimated
2005	R1.31	Mike Patterson	Defensive Tackle	Philadelphia Eagles	Estimated
2005	R2.05	Shaun Cody	Defensive End	Detroit Lions	Estimated
2005	R2.13	Lofa Tatupu	Linebacker	Seattle Seahawks	Estimated
2005	R7.16	Matt Cassel	Quarterback	New England Patriots	Estimated
2004	R1.20	Kenechi Udeze	Defensive End	Minnesota Vikings	Estimated
2004	R2.20	Jacob Rogers	Offensive Tackle	Dallas Cowboys	Estimated
2004	R2.30	Keary Colbert	Wide Receiver	Carolina Panthers	Estimated
2004	R4.06	Will Poole	Defensive Back	Miami Dolphins	Estimated
2003	R1.01	Carson Palmer	Quarterback	Cincinnati Bengals	Estimated
2003	R1.16	Troy Polamalu	Defensive Back	Pittsburgh Steelers	Estimated
2003	R3.32	Justin Fargas	Running Back	Oakland Raiders	Estimated
2003	R6.30	Kareem Kelly	Wide Receiver	New Orleans Saints	Estimated
2003	R7.04	Malaefou MacKenzie	Running Back	Jacksonville Jaguars	Estimated
2002	R3.20	Kris Richard	Defensive Back	Seattle Seahawks	Estimated
2002	R6.03	Chris Cash	Defensive Back	Detroit Lions	Estimated

A pick counts toward his tenure when the player’s final college season was one he coached, a checkable rule rather than a claim about who developed the player. A blank note means the player is on a verified roster and arrived on his watch. “Estimated” means no roster record, so the final season is assumed to be the year before the draft.

Career

Coaching career

2 national titles

NFL head coach: Jets 1994, Patriots 1997–99, Seahawks 2010–23, Raiders 2025 · 173-134–1, 11-11 in the playoffs · 1 Super Bowl title source

See USC’s full coaching history →

The arc of his career is on Now.

Transformer raised the program into the sport's top tier, or higher within it

2001–2009

USC Transformer

Power Program I → Blue Blood

Closest comparable run: Art Briles’s Baylor run (2008–2015)

Pete Carroll took USC from Power Program I to Blue Blood — 2 Dynasty seasons.

+32.1 pts over 9 seasons · top 1% of 6-9-season tenures (368 in sample)

1st-best USC tenure of 17 by the numbers.

Followed Paul Hackett (1998–2000) · succeeded by Lane Kiffin (2010–2013).

System Shift, on departure

Season	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009
Record & result
Record	6-6	11-2	12-1	13-0	12-1	11-2	11-2	12-1	9-4
Postseason	L bowl	W bowl	W bowl	W bowl	L bowl	W bowl	W bowl	W bowl	W bowl
Outcome — opponent-adjusted efficiency percentile
Offense	—	—	—	79	100	85	86	97	76
Defense	—	—	—	86	16	74	98	99	36
Tendencies — play-by-play, neutral script
1st-down pass%	—	—	—	50.3	57.5	61.2	49.1	53.1	45.7
Red-zone pass%	—	—	—	43.4	45.3	58.7	51.3	51.3	43.0
4th-down go%opp. territory	—	—	—	34.4	55.2	52.1	33.3	32.4	27.0

Where the roster comes from, by position

Grows Tight end from high school

100%

#164 of 188 stints

Grows Edge from high school

100%

#191 of 208 stints

Postseason detail2001: Lost to Utah 6-10 Bowl2002: Beat Iowa 38-17 Orange Bowl2003: Beat Michigan 28-14 Rose Bowl Presented By Citi2004: Beat Oklahoma 55-19 Orange Bowl2005: Lost to Texas 38-41 The Rose Bowl Game presented by Citi2006: Beat Michigan 32-18 Rose Bowl At Pasadena Ca2007: Beat Illinois 49-17 Bowl2008: Beat Penn State 38-24 The Rose Bowl Game Presented By Citi2009: Beat Boston College 24-13 Bowl

97-19

Win count

Some of this coach’s wins were later vacated by the NCAA or a conference — a real part of the record, shown alongside it rather than left out.

Sources: this site's own coach_seasons data, Wikipedia: Pete Carroll

Selector agreement

The AP and Coaches’ polls split on the national champion in 1 season of this coach’s career — shown as each selector’s own pick, not a single consensus title.

All-time wins

Wins at programs this site tracks, 1936–present — one consistent count for every coach, not each program’s own historically reported total.

3rd all-time at USC

Was he good?

Only one of the usual three angles is measurable for this era — raised the program.

Raised the program

+32.1 pts at USC · #19 of 1290 · top quarter