Peter Clay Carroll is an American football executive and former coach who is an advisor for the Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League (NFL). He was previously the head football coach at the University of Southern California (USC) from 2001 to 2009 and the head coach of the Seahawks from 2010 to 2023. Carroll is the third and most recent head coach to win a college football national championship and a Super Bowl along with Jimmy Johnson and Barry Switzer.
Michael Lockett Garrett is an American former football running back who played in the National Football League (NFL) and the American Football League (AFL) for eight seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Diego Chargers. He played college football for the USC Trojans, where he won the Heisman Trophy in 1965.
Matthew Stephen Leinart is an American former football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for seven seasons. He played college football for the USC Trojans, where he won the Heisman Trophy and led his team to an undefeated season as a junior. Selected tenth overall by the Arizona Cardinals in the 2006 NFL draft, Leinart primarily served as Kurt Warner's backup for four seasons. He spent his final three seasons in a backup role for the Houston Texans and the Oakland Raiders. Leinart was inducted to the College Football Hall of Fame in 2017.
Reginald Alfred Bush III is an American former professional football running back who was an on-air college football analyst for Fox Sports. He played college football for the USC Trojans, earning consensus All-American honors twice and winning the Heisman Trophy as the most outstanding player in the nation. Bush is widely regarded as one of the greatest college football players of all time.
Richard Gerald Neuheisel Jr. is an American football analyst, coach, and former player. He served as the head football coach at the University of Colorado Boulder from 1995 to 1999, at the University of Washington from 1999 to 2002, and at his alma mater, the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), from 2008 to 2011, compiling a career college football coaching record of 87–59. From 2005 to 2007, Neuheisel was an assistant coach with the Baltimore Ravens of the National Football League (NFL), as quarterbacks coach for two seasons and offensive coordinator for one. He formerly served as head coach for the Arizona Hotshots of the Alliance of American Football (AAF) before the collapse of the league. Before coaching, Neuheisel played quarterback for the UCLA Bruins from 1980 to 1983, then spent two seasons with the San Antonio Gunslingers of the United States Football League (USFL) before splitting the 1987 NFL season between the San Diego Chargers and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The USC Trojans football program represents the University of Southern California in the sport of American football. The Trojans compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Big Ten Conference.
Lane Monte Kiffin is an American football coach who is the head coach at Ole Miss. Kiffin was the offensive coordinator at USC from 2005 to 2006, head coach of the National Football League's Oakland Raiders from 2007 to 2008, head coach at the University of Tennessee in 2009, and at USC from 2010 to 2013. He was the youngest head coach in modern NFL history at the time when he joined the Raiders, and, for a time, was the youngest head coach of a BCS Conference team in college football. Kiffin was the offensive coordinator at the University of Alabama from 2014 until 2016, when he was hired to be the head coach at Florida Atlantic, a position he held until December 2019, when he became the head coach at Ole Miss.
The 2006 Rose Bowl Game, played on January 4, 2006, at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, was an American college football bowl game that served as the BCS National Championship Game for the 2005 NCAA Division I-A football season. It featured the only two unbeaten teams of the season: the defending Rose Bowl champion and reigning Big 12 Conference champion Texas Longhorns played Pacific-10 Conference titleholders and two-time defending AP national champions, the USC Trojans. Texas would defeat USC 41–38 to capture its fourth football championship in program history and first consensus national title since 1969. The game was a back-and-forth contest; Texas's victory was not secured until the game's final nineteen seconds. Vince Young, the Texas quarterback, and Michael Huff, a Texas safety, were named the offensive and defensive Rose Bowl Players of the Game. ESPN named Young's fourth-down, game-winning touchdown run the fifth-highest rated play in college football history. The game is the highest-rated BCS game in TV history with 21.7% of households watching it, and is often considered the greatest Rose Bowl game of all time, as well as the greatest college football game ever played.
The 2005 USC vs. Notre Dame football game was a regular season game that took place on October 15, 2005 at Notre Dame Stadium. The game between perennial rivals USC and Notre Dame was played for the Jeweled Shillelagh. The game was preceded by much pre-game hype, including a visit by College GameDay. In what became known as the "Bush Push", the game ended with quarterback Matt Leinart being pushed by running back Reggie Bush into the end zone for the winning touchdown. His push was illegal assistance under the laws of the game but it was not called a foul by the officials.
The 2005 USC Trojans football team represented the University of Southern California in the 2005 NCAA Division I-A football season, winning the Pacific-10 Conference (Pac-10), and playing for the NCAA Division I-A national championship. The team was coached by Pete Carroll, led on offense by quarterback and 2004 Heisman Trophy winner Matt Leinart, and played their home games in the Los Angeles Coliseum.
The 2005 Orange Bowl was the BCS National Championship Game of the 2004 NCAA Division I-A football season and was played on January 4, 2005, at Pro Player Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida. The game matched the USC Trojans against the Oklahoma Sooners. Both teams entered with undefeated, 12–0 records. Despite only being a 1-point favorite, USC defeated Oklahoma by a score of 55–19, led by quarterback Matt Leinart. ESPN named Leinart's performance as one of the top-10 performances in the first ten years of the BCS system.
Joseph Nathan McKnight Jr. was an American professional football player who was a running back and return specialist in the National Football League (NFL) and Canadian Football League (CFL).
The 2007 USC Trojans football team represented the University of Southern California during the 2007 NCAA Division I FBS football season, winning a share of the Pacific-10 Conference (Pac-10) championship and winning the 2008 Rose Bowl. The team was coached by Pete Carroll and played its home games at the Los Angeles Coliseum.
The 2004 USC Trojans football team represented the University of Southern California in the 2004 NCAA Division I-A football season. The 2004 Trojans football team won the 2004 BCS National Championship by winning the 2005 Orange Bowl, that year's BCS National Championship Game. The team also won the AP title for the second year in a row. It was the Trojans' first unanimous national championship since 1972, and the second time a team had gone wire-to-wire, with the Trojans holding the number 1 spot in the polls all season. The team was coached by Pete Carroll in his fourth year with the Trojans, and played their home games in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The team is widely considered one of the greatest college football teams of all time.
The 2008 USC Trojans football team represented the University of Southern California during the 2008 NCAA Division I-A football season. The team was coached by Pete Carroll and played their home games at the Los Angeles Coliseum.
The Notre Dame–USC football rivalry is an American college football rivalry between the Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team of the University of Notre Dame and USC Trojans football team of the University of Southern California, customarily played on the Saturday following Thanksgiving Day when the game is in Los Angeles or on the second or third Saturday of October when the game is in South Bend, Indiana.
The 2010 Pacific-10 Conference football season began on September 2, 2010 with a victory by USC at Hawaii. Conference play began on September 11 with Stanford shutting out UCLA 35–0 in Pasadena on ESPN.
The 2010 USC Trojans football team represented the University of Southern California in the 2010 NCAA Division I FBS college football season. The Trojans were led by head coach Lane Kiffin, who was in his 1st season. They played their home games at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum as members of the Pacific-10 Conference.
In the University of Southern California athletics scandal, the University of Southern California (USC) was investigated and punished for NCAA rules violations in the Trojan football, men's basketball and women's tennis programs.
The 2011 USC Trojans football team represented the University of Southern California in the 2011 NCAA Division I FBS college football season. The Trojans were led by head coach Lane Kiffin in his second season. They played their home games at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and are members of the South Division of the Pac-12 Conference. After a triple-overtime loss to Stanford, the Trojans won their last four games, including a 50–0 win over rival UCLA in the regular-season finale. USC ended their season ranked No. 6 in the AP Poll with a 10–2 record overall and finished first in the South Division with a 7–2 record in Pac-12 play. However, as part of a post-season ban mandated by the NCAA, the Trojans could not participate in the conference championship game or play in a bowl game. USC concluded their season with two thousand-yard receivers, a thousand-yard rusher, and a 3,000-yard passer for the first time since the 2005 season, when Kiffin served as offensive coordinator.
