September 21, 2009 5:00 PM
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Pete Carroll's Winning Coaching Style
One of those e-mails, sent to the L.A. Times, read, "What was it about Pete Carroll that made you want to hire him for the head coaching job? Was it his complete lack of recruiting ties to the West Coast? His limited college coaching experience? His reputation for being soft on players and not a good motivator?"
Carroll's reaction? "Isn't that a beautiful thing? It's a beautiful thing. I love runnin' into those guys. They come up. It's like their final confession now. You know, they, 'Coach, I was one of those guys that sent the fax.' 'Oh, it's okay. It's all right, you know. You didn't know. I understand,' you know. "
At USC, Carroll finally found his calling - his boyish, enthusiastic style that seemed too soft for the NFL has been a perfect fit with younger athletes. He is now one of the highest paid college football coaches in the country, earning an estimated $4 million a year.
Carroll says one of the real secrets to his success can be found on the practice field.
"A great coach once said that the best players don't always win, the players that play the best do. That's why we work so hard. That's why we train so hard. That's why we focus so much on practicing better than anybody's ever practiced before," Carroll said.
"Better than anybody else has ever practiced before?" Pitts asked.
"That's the whole idea, you know, you want to do things better than it's ever been done before or don't you," Carroll explained.
He makes practice as much like a real game as possible - that includes piping in fake crowd noise during a scrimmage, letting fans in the stands, and learning to stop for TV commercials.
Unlike more traditional coaches, Carroll doesn't tear down his players, he builds them up.
We did see him get tough on a player when a fight broke out. "C'mon Christian we don't ever do stuff like that never, never do stuff like that. You are out of the football game. Go put your helmet down… God dawg it," he told a player.
"One of our players, you know, punched a guy, you know trying to get away from him. I ripped his tail pretty good. But I needed to get right back to him and teach him what just happened, you know," Carroll explained.
"We don't fight. Fighting is nothing in this game, it's no aspect in this game. It's just not okay, c'mon," he told the player.
That's what he calls a teachable moment. Take a mistake and learn from it.
It's part of a philosophy that he calls "Win Forever."
Asked what "win forever" means to him, Carroll said, "It's about finding out how good you could become at something and then making it come to life."
Carroll sees that as his life's work: teach young people, not just ball players, to seize every opportunity and make the most of it.
That's why, during football season, and more often in the off season, this high profile celebrity coach goes into some of the most violent neighborhoods in Los Angeles recruiting not star athletes but gang members in an effort to end gang violence.
He started these night time trips in 2006. There were nearly 300 gang related murders in L.A. that year alone. "The need was so obvious. Kids getting killed in the streets is just not okay. It's not all right," he told Pitts.
Two days after the Trojans beat Ohio State, he took 60 Minutes to Watts, reluctant to let us bring our cameras because he didn't want the young people he met to think he was looking for publicity or exploiting them. He usually travels with no entourage and no security. This housing project is ruled by one of L.A.'s most notorious gangs, the Crips.
Copyright 2009 CBS. All rights reserved. Carroll's reaction? "Isn't that a beautiful thing? It's a beautiful thing. I love runnin' into those guys. They come up. It's like their final confession now. You know, they, 'Coach, I was one of those guys that sent the fax.' 'Oh, it's okay. It's all right, you know. You didn't know. I understand,' you know. "
At USC, Carroll finally found his calling - his boyish, enthusiastic style that seemed too soft for the NFL has been a perfect fit with younger athletes. He is now one of the highest paid college football coaches in the country, earning an estimated $4 million a year.
Carroll says one of the real secrets to his success can be found on the practice field.
"A great coach once said that the best players don't always win, the players that play the best do. That's why we work so hard. That's why we train so hard. That's why we focus so much on practicing better than anybody's ever practiced before," Carroll said.
"Better than anybody else has ever practiced before?" Pitts asked.
"That's the whole idea, you know, you want to do things better than it's ever been done before or don't you," Carroll explained.
He makes practice as much like a real game as possible - that includes piping in fake crowd noise during a scrimmage, letting fans in the stands, and learning to stop for TV commercials.
Unlike more traditional coaches, Carroll doesn't tear down his players, he builds them up.
We did see him get tough on a player when a fight broke out. "C'mon Christian we don't ever do stuff like that never, never do stuff like that. You are out of the football game. Go put your helmet down… God dawg it," he told a player.
"One of our players, you know, punched a guy, you know trying to get away from him. I ripped his tail pretty good. But I needed to get right back to him and teach him what just happened, you know," Carroll explained.
"We don't fight. Fighting is nothing in this game, it's no aspect in this game. It's just not okay, c'mon," he told the player.
That's what he calls a teachable moment. Take a mistake and learn from it.
It's part of a philosophy that he calls "Win Forever."
Asked what "win forever" means to him, Carroll said, "It's about finding out how good you could become at something and then making it come to life."
Carroll sees that as his life's work: teach young people, not just ball players, to seize every opportunity and make the most of it.
That's why, during football season, and more often in the off season, this high profile celebrity coach goes into some of the most violent neighborhoods in Los Angeles recruiting not star athletes but gang members in an effort to end gang violence.
He started these night time trips in 2006. There were nearly 300 gang related murders in L.A. that year alone. "The need was so obvious. Kids getting killed in the streets is just not okay. It's not all right," he told Pitts.
Two days after the Trojans beat Ohio State, he took 60 Minutes to Watts, reluctant to let us bring our cameras because he didn't want the young people he met to think he was looking for publicity or exploiting them. He usually travels with no entourage and no security. This housing project is ruled by one of L.A.'s most notorious gangs, the Crips.
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