Pete Carroll is back in the NFL after taking a year off. The 73-year-old has accepted the offer extended by the Las Vegas Raiders to be their next head coach, the fourth different lead job that he has landed during his long career in the league. Carroll brings a winning pedigree to a team in need of a turnaround, and also carries a long-standing rivalry that will be renewed twice a year in the AFC West.
Pete Carroll, Jim Harbaugh Become Rivals Once Again
It began during his time at the University of Southern California. Pete Carroll spent nine years as the head coach of the Trojans beginning in 2001, and won multiple National Championships during his time with the school. Near the tail end of his time with USC, there was a coach at a rival school who was rising in the ranks, as Jim Harbaugh was making a name for himself as the leader of the football team at Stanford.
The two sides met three times during Carroll’s tenure at USC, and a rivalry was born. In Harbaugh’s first year at the helm, his 1-3 Stanford team pulled off an impressive upset of the no. 2 ranked Trojans, marking his first big victory with his new program. USC got payback the next year when they were able to defeat Stanford in their 2008 meeting, but there seemed to be some hard feelings during the final collegiate meeting between the two sides.
Pete Carroll and Jim Harbaugh, who had plenty of battles in the NFC West with Seattle and San Francisco, as well as in college at USC and Stanford, are now set to face off again—this time in the AFC West, with Carroll in Las Vegas and Harbaugh in Los Angeles. pic.twitter.com/2CSeh71MCv
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 24, 2025
A late-season game in 2009 saw the 25th ranked Cardinal take down the 11th ranked Trojans in a blow out. Carroll, apparently irked by Harbaugh’s team running up the score in a 55-21 defeat, asked, “What’s your deal?” when the two met at mid-field after the contest, and it was obvious that bad blood was brewing.
Carroll would leave the school after that season, taking the lead job with the Seattle Seahawks starting in 2010. Just one year later, Harbaugh moved up the road from Stanford to take an NFL coaching job of his own, accepting an offer from the San Francisco 49ers, placing him in the same division as Carroll, and ensuring that the two would meet at least twice a year for the foreseeable future.
Harbaugh Has Been Matched With Carroll At Nearly Every Stop
The Seahawks/49ers rivalry was one of the NFL’s best during the era. Both were regularly in championship contention, and met in one of the more memorable playoff games in recent history. The 2013 NFC Championship was played between the two division rivals, which was won by Carroll’s Seahawks in dramatic fashion, and wound up being another heartbreaking chapter in the 49ers quest for a Super Bowl title.
So the Pete Carroll/Jim Harbaugh rivalry is back on pic.twitter.com/l5AmbcQzYW
— Antwan V. Staley (@antwanstaley) January 24, 2025
Harbaugh’s time with the 49ers ended abruptly after the 2014 campaign, while Carroll continued to coach in Seattle until 2023.
But the two are now back in the same division, and will face off twice a year as members of the AFC West.
Harbaugh rejoined the NFL prior to last season, taking the head position with the Los Angeles Chargers and leading them to the playoffs during his first year at the helm. They went 2-0 against the Raiders in 2024, something that Pete Carroll will certainly be looking to change now that he is in charge in Las Vegas.
