After a brief, two-year hiatus, National Championship and Super Bowl-winning head coach Pete Carroll is set to return to the sidelines.
In January, Carroll agreed to take over the reins as head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders — likely to be the final stop on his lengthy coaching career. As Carroll has built up quite a legacy, both in college and the NFL, it’s easy to forget that he spent one season with Ohio State as the secondary coach — and like many of the stops along his coaching career, he helped the Buckeyes to a tremendous season.
A member of Earle Bruce’s staff at Iowa State in 1978, Carroll followed the Cyclones’ coach to Columbus in 1979 after the dismissal of legendary head Woody Hayes. Filling the same role as he did in Ames, Iowa, Carroll helped shape the Ohio State secondary — and the Buckeye defense as a whole — into one of the most dominant units in the country.
With Bruce leading the way, and Carroll in the secondary room, the Buckeyes raced out to an 11-0 regular season — capped off by a Big Ten clinching 18-15 victory over Michigan, in which safety Todd Bell scooped up a blocked punt and returned it for the game-winning touchdown during the fourth quarter.
With a Big Ten title and victory over Michigan in tow, Ohio State held the No. 1 spot in the AP Poll at the end of the regular season and earned a trip to the Rose Bowl, where the Buckeyes ran into the No. 3 USC Trojans, the program where Carroll would cement his legacy in college football.
The Trojans entered the Rose Bowl with Heisman Trophy winner Charles White, along with four future Pro Football Hall of Famers in Marcus Allen, Ronnie Lott, Bruce Matthews and Anthony Munoz, on their roster. Still, the Buckeyes found themselves with a lead late in the fourth quarter with a national championship just minutes away. But, White led the Trojans on an 83-yard game-winning drive to snatch the title from the Buckeyes’ hands — and ultimately hand it to No. 2 Alabama, who beat Arkansas in the Sugar Bowl — in a 17-16 decision.
The Ohio State defense held opponents to 10.5 points per game, the seventh-lowest mark in the nation that season. Carroll developed his unit into a ball-hawking group, with the Buckeyes tallying 18 interceptions on the season, including one pick-six. During a six-week stretch in the middle of the season, the Buckeyes did not allow their opponents to reach double-digit scoring and secured a pair of shutouts against Michigan State and Wisconsin.
After the outstanding season from his unit, Carroll became a highly sought-after up-and-comer in the college football landscape. Following Ohio State’s Rose Bowl loss, Carroll earned his first coordinator job, becoming the defensive coordinator for North Carolina State, a role he would hold for three seasons before returning to his alma mater, Pacific University, to serve in the same position in 1983. From there, Carroll’s star continued to shine and he enjoyed head coaching stints with the New York Jets, New England Patriots, USC Trojans and Seattle Seahawks.
Carroll’s emergence in the coaching profession followed the trend of many other former assistants of Bruce, including Nick Saban, Urban Meyer and Jim Tressel.
While Carroll served under Bruce during his brief time at Ohio State, it was a short conversation with Hayes in the parking lot of St. John Arena that stuck out the most to him about his experience as a Buckeye.
“I saw Coach Hayes walking down the sidewalk across the parking lot. I’d never seen him before. So I just dropped everything and took off, ran across the parking lot, and met him about halfway down,” Carroll recalled. “We walked for about 10 minutes. And he knew who I was. I was all thrilled. He even knew that I was one of the new coaches. We talked football. That was my one chance I had to visit with him.
"To me, that was a really special moment with a guy that was a great impact to our football college game and everything that stands for football.”
