Question: What makes Coach Carroll's philosophy so applicable, understandable and easy for players to grasp hold of?

Answer: He lives it, first of all. But also his uncanny ability to suspend judgment is big — to give information, give reinforcement while always withholding judgment, because judgment is the most dangerous thing you could do to ourselves and to other people. That's a single theme that's a thread that weaves through everything he does.

For example, when he's talking to a player who just threw an interception, he could say, “That's a dumb play.” But the player already knew that. But the other kind of information is something like, “where was your concentration?”, “what was the play call?”, “what did you see?” Everything is descriptive. You're describing what happened instead of judging it. That way, there's no good or bad, it's just what happened. That's Pete, that's how he does it, and he wants his coaches to operate in that manner. You pay attention to the things that are important.

Question:  Coach Carroll's philosophy always seems to be growing and adding new wrinkles. How vital is that to his success?

Answer:  It's very important because then you're not standing still. The player needs to grow and improve, and the coach needs to grow and improve. He's motivated, he's curious, he's a random thinker. He has as many interests outside of football as he does in the game.

One of his mentors, Bill Walsh, was also that way — that ability to suspend judgment and be very peripheral in their interests. He gets into it deep and is very intrigued by it, and that's very typical of a guy who's wide-ranging. Typically a person who's wide-ranging, it makes him much more interesting, more efficient, and he's able to focus on the task at hand.

Question:  What is Coach Carroll's strongest characteristic as a leader?

Answer:  Not only is he optimistic, but he identifies the task that needs to be taken care of and he's able to focus on those tasks. Optimism when it's combined with task-specific stuff that he's able to do, then you're able to get so close to your potential.

Question:  How important is Coach Carroll's living-in-the-moment mentality?

Answer:  Staying present is the highest order of consciousness, we learned that centuries ago. In training and performing, doing this right now, for us to stay in the present, is absolutely essential. You've got to look at the future in the present.

Question:  One of Coach Carroll's least favorite words is “goals.” Is that good or bad to have such an aversion to “goals”?

Answer:  It depends how we use them. If we use them as a target — to win the Pac-10, to go to the Rose Bowl — that's a goal. And then just leave it there. Now today we have Competition Tuesday, that's what we're doing today. That makes sure we're taking care of business and doing the things we need to do to get to where we want to go. But it's right now.

Goals can be very important when they're sitting out there, but it's the action plans, the things we do on a consistent basis that are the heart and soul of any goal-setting program. In that way, goals are very powerful.

Question:  Coach Carroll seems to be able to articulate his philosophy better than most. How much does that contribute to his success?

Answer:  It's absolutely essential for a coach to understand what his philosophy is, and Pete understands that and he can articulate it. Coaches aren't asked that question often enough, and it's important to understand what it is, and he sure does.

Question:  Many teams struggle to maintain excellence over a long period of time. How has Coach Carroll been able to gain this consistent level of success at USC?

Answer:  He talked about that in the team meeting [Sunday], how teams aren't able to do that because they listen to too much information instead of getting back into the present and saying, “This is competition Tuesday and let's make sure we treat it that way because what we do in practice will allow us to maintain this consistency.”

So we can't worry about what anyone says, what the newspapers say, we need to take care of the business at hand, which is to prepare ourselves for the competition. There's no big game, just the game, the game that we have, which is Oregon State.

Teams get distracted by national publicity saying, “This is the biggest game of the year.” No, it's just the game. Every game is a big game, just like every shot in golf is an important shot. No one shot is more important than another. The situation and timing might suggest to everyone else that this is the most important shot of their life, but the most important shot or the most important game is the one you're going to play now.

So Pete does that, consistently. There's a consistency to what he does. So, then, he has a chance to be consistently great.