Pete Carroll–Jim Harbaugh rivalry

Last updated

PeteCarroll.JPG
Jim Harbaugh at 2010 Stanford football open house 3.JPG
Pete Carroll (left, pictured 2004) and Jim Harbaugh (pictured 2010)

American football coaches Pete Carroll and Jim Harbaugh have had a noted rivalry, having coached teams against each other in both college football and the National Football League (NFL).

Contents

The rivalry started in 2007 when Harbaugh became the head coach of the Stanford Cardinal football team, which competed in the Pac-10 Conference against the Carroll-led USC Trojans football team. The two later competed regularly against each other in the NFL's NFC West division, with Carroll coaching the Seattle Seahawks and Harbaugh coaching the San Francisco 49ers. As of the 2025 NFL season, the rivalry is expected to continue, with Carroll coaching the Las Vegas Raiders and Harbaugh coaching the Los Angeles Chargers of the AFC West.

The rivalry has been well-documented in several sources. [1] [2] In 2013, sports columnist Mike Freeman of Bleacher Report called it "the best rivalry in the NFL", [3] while sportscaster Adam Schein called them both each other's "greatest rival" in a 2014 article for NFL.com. [4]

Background

Pete Carroll was hired as the head coach of the USC Trojans football team in December 2000. [5] Prior to this, he had held several coaching positions in both college football and the National Football League (NFL), serving as the head coach for the New England Patriots and the New York Jets for several years in the 1990s. [5] In December 2006, Jim Harbaugh was hired as the head coach of the Stanford Cardinal football team. [6] Harbaugh had had experience as both a quarterback—both in college for the Michigan Wolverines football team and with multiple teams in the NFL—and a coach, most recently leading the San Diego Toreros football team in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I-AA. [6] With the hire, Carroll and Harbaugh would compete against each other, as both teams were members of the Pac-10 Conference and played against each other annually as part of a longstanding rivalry. [7]

While Harbaugh was a starting quarterback in the NFL, he competed in eight games against teams that had Carroll on their coaching staff. [8] Teams with Carroll on their staff recorded a win-loss record of 5–3 in these games. [8]

Rivalry

Pac-10 Conference

As head coaches, the two had their first game against each other in the 2007 season, when the Trojans hosted the Cardinal. [8] USC was experiencing a 35-game winning streak at home and were expected to have a blowout victory, with spread betting odds favoring the Trojans a point spread of between 39 and 41.5 points. [8] However, the Cardinal defeated the Trojans 24–23 in one of the largest point-spread upsets in college football history. [8] [9] The following season, Stanford hosted USC in a game won by the Trojans 45–23. [10] According to David Leon Moore of USA Today , the game saw "some odd gamesmanship" in the closing moments. [10] In garbage time, Carroll attempted to ice the kicker during a field goal attempt from Stanford. [10] Following this, Harbaugh opted against repeating the field goal attempt and instead directed the team to score another touchdown, which they did. [10]

In 2009, Carroll's and Harbaugh's teams met for the first time with both having winning records. [9] In a blowout win, Stanford defeated USC with a final score of 55–21. [9] Towards the end of the game, Harbaugh's team attempted to run up the score by attempting a two-point conversion instead of an extra point kick. [9] As a result, during the coaches' post-game handshake at midfield, Carroll asked Harbaugh, "What's your deal? You all right?", to which Harbaugh replied, "Yeah, I'm good. What's your deal?". [10] Carroll then turned and said "Nice game". [10] According to Marcel Davis of Bleacher Report , this post-game interaction " put the microscope on every one of their meetings". [9] At the end of the season, Carroll stepped down as the Trojans' head coach. [10] In a 2014 article on the two coaches, Moore stated, "Harbaugh's upstart Stanford program helped end Carroll's University of Southern California dynasty". [10]

NFC West

Carroll departed from USC in January 2010, [11] accepting an offer to become the head coach for the NFL's Seattle Seahawks. [10] Meanwhile, Harbaugh remained the Cardinal's head coach for the 2010 season before accepting a head coaching position with the NFL's San Francisco 49ers. [10] As in their college coaching careers, the two were guaranteed to meet each other on an annual basis, as both teams were in the NFC West division. [10] As a result, the rivalry would recommence for the 2011 NFL season. [9] In both teams' season openers and the first time that the two coaches had faced each other in the NFL, Harbaugh's 49ers defeated Carroll's Seahawks 33–17. [9] Carroll's first win against Harbaugh would come the following season. [9]

While the 49ers were one of the most successful teams in the NFC West during their first few seasons under Harbaugh, Davis reported early in the 2013 season that Carroll's Seahawks had supplanted them as the division's premier team. [9] In the 2013–14 NFL playoffs, the two teams met in the NFC Championship Game. [10] The Seahawks won with a score of 23–17, advancing to Super Bowl XLVIII. [12] In June 2014, during a town hall meeting, Carroll responded to a reporter's question about his rivalry with Harbaugh by saying, "I think Jim's a great coach. I've watched him in college, I've watched him in San Francisco. He's done a great job molding the style of play and he's a big force in our division … and we love beating him." [13] This NFC West rivalry would last through the 2014 season, after which Harbaugh accepted the head coaching position for the Michigan Wolverines football team. [14] Carroll would work with the Seahawks until retiring after the 2023 season. [2]

AFC West

Prior to the start of the 2024 season, Harbaugh returned to the NFL when he accepted the head coaching position for the Los Angeles Chargers. [2] Following that season, the Las Vegas Raiders announced that they had hired Carroll as their new head coach, to start in the 2025 season. [15] As both teams compete in the AFC West division, Reuters reported on the hiring by saying that Carroll would "resume a long rivalry" with Harbaugh. [15]

Results

Pete Carroll vs. Jim Harbaugh Game-by-Game Results
SeasonDateResultsLocationSeriesNotes
2007 October 6Cardinal 24–23Los AngelesHarbaugh 1–0 2007 Stanford vs. USC football game: First meeting between the two as head coaches. [16]
2008 November 15Trojans 45–23StanfordTied 1–1
2009 November 14Cardinal 55–21Los AngelesHarbaugh 2–1
2011 September 1149ers 33–17San FranciscoHarbaugh 3–1
December 2449ers 19–17SeattleHarbaugh 4–1
2012 October 1849ers 13–6San FranciscoHarbaugh 5–1
December 23Seahawks 42–13SeattleHarbaugh 5–2
2013 September 15Seahawks 29–3SeattleHarbaugh 5–3
December 849ers 19–17San FranciscoHarbaugh 6–3
2013–14 playoffs January 19Seahawks 23–17SeattleHarbaugh 6–4 The Tip (American football): Only playoffs matchup between the two.
2014 November 27Seahawks 19–3Santa ClaraHarbaugh 6–5
December 14Seahawks 17–7SeattleTied 6–6
2025 September 15TBDParadiseTBD
November 30TBDInglewoodTBD

References

  1. ↑ "Pete Carroll: I'll miss competing with Jim Harbaugh". NBCSports.com . February 20, 2015. Archived from the original on July 23, 2025. Retrieved July 23, 2025.
  2. 1 2 3 Farrar, Doug (January 24, 2025). "Having Pete Carroll and Jim Harbaugh As Rivals Again Is What Football Is All About". Athlon Sports . Parade Media. Archived from the original on July 23, 2025. Retrieved July 23, 2025.
  3. ↑ Freeman, Mike (September 13, 2013). "Hatred Between Jim Harbaugh and Pete Carroll Is Real, Everlasting". Bleacher Report . Turner Sports. Archived from the original on January 25, 2025. Retrieved July 23, 2025.
  4. ↑ Schein, Adam (January 13, 2014). "Jim Harbaugh's 49ers vs. Pete Carroll's Seahawks: A true rivalry". NFL.com . Archived from the original on October 5, 2024. Retrieved July 23, 2025.
  5. 1 2 Nadel, John (December 15, 2000). "USC Hires Carroll". ABC News . Archived from the original on November 17, 2014. Retrieved July 23, 2025.
  6. 1 2 Wilner, Jon (December 19, 2006). "A Huge Gamble: Stanford Hires Jim Harbaugh". The Mercury News . Bay Area News Group. ISSN   0747-2099. OCLC   145122249. Archived from the original on February 10, 2025. Retrieved July 23, 2025.
  7. ↑ Kazliner, Kasey (September 8, 2023). "The USC-Stanford football rivalry: A 118-year-old tradition ending". Daily Trojan . Archived from the original on October 26, 2023. Retrieved July 23, 2025.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 Kirk, Jason (July 31, 2017). "Harbaugh vs. Carroll started with the biggest upset ever". SB Nation . Vox Media. Archived from the original on February 1, 2025. Retrieved July 23, 2025.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Davis, Marcel (October 21, 2013). "Greatest Moments in Jim Harbaugh-Pete Carroll Rivalry". Bleacher Report . Turner Sports. Archived from the original on December 21, 2022. Retrieved July 23, 2025.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Moore, David Leon (January 17, 2014). "What's the deal between Pete Carroll and Jim Harbaugh? Competition, baby". USA Today . Contributions from Jim Corbett and Tom Pelissero. Gannett. ISSN   0734-7456. OCLC   8799626. Archived from the original on July 23, 2024. Retrieved July 23, 2025.
  11. ↑ Kartje, Ryan (August 21, 2024). "USC confirms former coach Pete Carroll is returning ... to teach" . Los Angeles Times . ISSN   2165-1736. OCLC   3638237. Archived from the original on June 24, 2025. Retrieved July 23, 2025.
  12. ↑ Verderame, Matt (January 20, 2014). "Seattle beats 'hated rival' to advance". SB Nation . Vox Media. Archived from the original on November 28, 2023. Retrieved July 24, 2025.
  13. ↑ Brinson, Will (June 5, 2014). "Pete Carroll on Jim Harbaugh: 'We love beating him'". CBSSports.com . Archived from the original on July 23, 2025. Retrieved July 23, 2025.
  14. ↑ Rhim, Kris (January 24, 2024). "Jim Harbaugh leaves Michigan to coach Chargers". ESPN.com . Archived from the original on April 24, 2025. Retrieved July 24, 2025.
  15. 1 2 "Reports: Raiders to name Pete Carroll head coach". Reuters . January 24, 2025. Archived from the original on July 23, 2025. Retrieved July 23, 2025.
  16. ↑ "Stanford 24-23 USC (Oct 6, 2007) Final Score". ESPN.com . Archived from the original on October 1, 2024. Retrieved July 24, 2025.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.