LOS ANGELES -- With a projection of his "Win Forever" philosophy serving as a backdrop, Pete Carroll stood in front of a class of nearly 60 students inside a basement lecture hall on USC's campus.
The 73-year-old paced back and forth, his arms animating his words, exuding a contagious zeal as he spoke.
"Practice is everything," Carroll said, diving into the tenets of his philosophy. "If you want something, you've got to get good at it. ... You have to find a way to make time, make scheduling, set priorities, get your s--t so that you can be available to get good at what you want to get good at."
Carroll, casually dressed in a sand-colored linen button-down shirt, grey jeans and matching sneakers, sounded every bit like a fired-up football coach getting his players ready to take the field.
But for two hours each Thursday evening during USC's spring semester, Carroll transitions from coach to first-time professor, trading a football field for a classroom in hopes of turning a game plan that has helped him win a Super Bowl with the Seattle Seahawks and two national championships at USC into something tangible for his students.
"One thing I've told Pete myself is this class is not a class for me," Shadi Angotti, a biological sciences major, said. "It's an escape. It's something I look forward to the whole week."
The feeling seems to be mutual for Carroll, who, three days earlier at the annual NFL league meeting in Palm Beach, Florida, sat with reporters to answer myriad questions, including one about his current interests.
"The class I'm teaching at USC," he said, "and all of the opportunities to communicate and also to receive information from young people at school as well as the people that have become part of that class, too."
The course, offered through USC's Marshall School of Business, is called "The Game is Life," and Carroll teaches it alongside Varun Soni, dean of Religious and Spiritual Life, and David Belasco, adjunct professor of entrepreneurship. The class syllabus says the intent is "to train students to perform at their highest level in all aspects of their careers and life."
"I care deeply about the conversations we've had and the lessons they've sparked," Elina Khoshnivas, a junior business major, said.
COMPETITION IS AT the core of Carroll's philosophy, so it's little surprise that interested students were required to fill out an application that included questions about what made them a competitor. The course had a pool of 300 applicants. Students come from different majors and have diverse career aspirations, from musicians, to dancers, entrepreneurs, to athletes and accountants. AP women's basketball player of the year JuJu Watkins, although absent on this day because of her recent knee injury, is also in the class.
Carroll has formed a connection with students five decades younger, many of whom weren't born when he led USC to national titles in 2003 and 2004, and know of him because of his success with the Seahawks, or as one student admitted, after watching a documentary about Carroll's USC teams.
"He just somehow can find a way to connect with every single [one of us]," Mia Triolo, a communications major and lacrosse player, said.
Carroll presents real-life examples of resilience, leaning on his experiences of being fired as coach of the New York Jets and New England Patriots. He also stresses commitment -- like the one he made to teach this course a month before he was named coach of the Las Vegas Raiders.
"He's the epitome of the game is life," Angotti said. "Everything he's been through, what he's learned, he's the perfect professor."
"To hear the true passion that he speaks with and vulnerability has been so crazy," said Drew Liddell, a business major.
Students arrive early and stay late. Even as Carroll enters the room alongside actor Rainn Wilson, who played Dwight Schrute on "The Office," Carroll is the main attraction.
During the first 15 minutes of class, students break out into small groups, where they'll often hold a hoop-shooting contest (there's a portable basketball hoop sitting in the front of the room), get to know each other, and discuss a topic of the day, as rapper Mac Miller's "Weekend" plays on the lecture hall speakers. Carroll roams the room like he does a sideline, greeted by hugs and handshakes. Students are eager to share their achievements or struggles from the week, while seeking his advice.
"He gives his absolute best to every single person that he comes into contact with," Alexis Niblock, a senior business major and lacrosse player, said.
Carroll takes time to recap the previous class, when Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr was the latest guest speaker in a lineup that included actor Jason Sudeikis, author Deepak Chopra, and Olympic gold medalists April Ross and Rai Benjamin. He calls on students by name to contribute their takeaways.
Carroll then turns his attention to today's lesson: resilience.
"Through the hard work, the connection of passion, realizing that you can overcome stuff," Carroll said. "Resilience is about having hope. If you've lost hope, you ain't bouncing back. You're done."
He calls on Michelle, a student whom he remembered had to give a speech, to ask how it went. She recounted her experience and considered it a victory. Her classmates are happy for her, and give a round of applause. Carroll joins them.
NOTICEABLY THROUGHOUT THE course, laptops remain in backpacks and cell phones are nowhere in sight, as students scribble notes inside a class-issued notebook. When Carroll speaks, the energy in the room is palpable.
At one point, he introduces another personal story -- sharing how, in five days, he'll be meeting his Raiders squad for the first time.
"I have my first meeting with the team. They're going to come into a room like this and I am going to 'wow' their ass," Carroll said as his students' faces across the room lit into smiles.
"We leave class fired up," Niblock said. "I'm always writing stuff down."
Carroll yields the floor to Wilson, who echoes the day's lesson of resilience by sharing his experience of rejection and finding his path to success in the entertainment industry.
Class wraps on a 40-minute question-and-answer session where Carroll, Wilson and Soni share the floor and provide earnest responses.
One student seeks advice on handling her first job offer and salary negotiation. Another student, an aspiring performing artist, asks about work-life balance. Someone else asks what passion and fulfillment mean and for any definition of it.
Through all of the lessons, Carroll offers one admission that might be challenging for one to match.
"I'm really ultimately unrealistically optimistic," he said.
Time runs out as hands remain in the air. A new class begins to file into the lecture hall as this one trickles out.
Carroll moves with a herd around him. Several students are eager to share their latest victory or seek Carroll's guidance on their next move.
"If we didn't get kicked out of there, we'd have been there for another 30 minutes," Carroll said, "and it's what it's been like. It's been really special."
Carroll slowly walks toward the elevators, saying he has to attend former USC quarterback Matt Leinart's event then catch a return flight to Las Vegas.
The elevator doors open and another student's walk turns into a jog, to jump in before the doors shut.
One more chance to talk to Professor Carroll before he morphs back to Coach.