By December 2000, I had gone through an enormous process of self-discovery and created a vision and philosophy. I was excited and ready to present my approach to any athletic director or owner who would listen. More important, I was as confident in myself as I had ever been.
My next team would be built around the goal of maximizing everyone’s potential. We would strive to “do things better than they have ever been done before” with competition as our central theme. With my thoughts down on paper in a new way, I felt more ready, more prepared, and more focused than I had ever been before. When my next coaching opportunity came along, I knew exactly how I intended to approach every aspect of building a new program. All that remained was to find a job where I could put it all to the test.
There were only a few job opportunities that year that truly interested me. One morning, my longtime friend and lawyer, Gary Uberstine, called. “Pete, the University of North Carolina has an opening. Do you want to go for it?”
I was fired up, so my response was an overwhelming yes, as UNC had a long-standing athletic tradition and was in a great location. After showing a strong interest in the job, we were told that their athletic department was not interested in offering an interview. Their reason was my lack of recent college coaching experience.
Not to be discouraged, we forged ahead and hoped another attractive opportunity would come along. We waited and stayed positive, resolved to stick to the plan we had set. Finally, the phone rang. This time it was a school near the ocean but on the opposite coast. The next thing I knew, I was on my way to meet with the athletic director at USC.
It was easy to recognize him when I arrived—after all, I’d grown up with a poster of him on my wall. Mike Garrett was USC’s first Heisman Trophy winner in 1965 and went on to have a fantastic professional career with the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Diego Chargers. He was someone I had always held in very high regard. Mike was an explosive and hard-nosed back, the first in a long line of legendary running backs whose performances resulted in the University of Southern California being dubbed “Tailback U.”
After his NFL career, Mike quickly made his mark outside football and earned a law degree. He returned to USC to become its athletic director in 1993. When his office called requesting the interview, I knew that the very proud and storied football program was off course and that the pressure was on Mike to find the right coach to get it back on track.
Before I traveled to California, I studied the other candidates who were being interviewed to figure out what I was up against. I thought back to some advice given to me years earlier by the legendary Jim Valvano, who was the head basketball coach at North Carolina State when I was the defensive coordinator there. Then, I had been in the process of preparing to interview for the head coaching job at UOP. Coach Valvano called me to his office one Sunday morning to talk about the interviewing process and work on my strategy. As we sat there for over four hours, he taught me a number of interviewing tactics that I will never forget.
Coach Valvano told me that my goal should be to walk out of the interview with “no negatives.” Every comment, phrase, or story must be positive, and I had to be prepared to talk only about things that put me in the best light. No matter what the topic, it was my job to turn every answer into a response that highlighted my strong points. Like his point guard, who controlled the court, or my middle linebacker, who controlled our defense, I had to control the interview. He taught me that if they asked a question that I couldn’t answer, then I shouldn’t answer it but instead find a way to turn the question to something I could talk about comfortably, positively, and honestly. He explained the importance of being disciplined in that setting and avoiding any and all negative thoughts. If I spoke with positivity and confidence, it would be evident that I believed in myself, and that belief was what the interviewer would be looking for. Coach Valvano’s advice, like so much else in life, came down to practice: The bottom line was that if I was to control the interview, I would have to be prepared on so many levels that I could speak about a variety of subjects with conviction and strength no matter which way the conversation went.
I did not end up getting the head coaching job at UOP. Bobby Cope, a longtime friend and mentor did, and I joined Bobby as his offensive coordinator. Next time around, the advice from Coach Valvano ran through my head once again as I prepared for my upcoming interview with USC at the Sheraton Hotel near the airport. Not only was I ready to present my new personal and coaching philosophy, but I was also confident knowing that Coach Valvano was there in spirit.
I walked into the Sheraton Hotel and sat down with Mike and then senior associate athletic director Daryl Gross, with whom I had worked at the New York Jets. A large table sat in the middle of the room with two notepads on it. Mike explained their situation and why he believed USC had recently begun to slide. He took me through his game plan for his search for a new coach and made it clear right up front that he was not worried about the media during the process. He was focused on finding the right guy for the job, regardless of how long it took; what we were there to talk about that day was whether or not I might be that person.
As I listened to Mike, I knew with more and more certainty that I was in the right place. I couldn’t help but feel a growing eagerness to present what I had been developing over the past few months. I began by explaining what I thought had occurred in New York and New England. As Mike asked me questions, I didn’t always respond in a way that answered the question directly, but I responded in a way that conveyed every ounce of my vision and philosophy.
When it came time for me to present my vision and plan, I stated my intentions in the clearest and boldest way that I could think of.
“Mike, our goal is simple: to do things better than they have ever been done before.”
As I prepared to elaborate, I could tell that both Mike and Daryl were intrigued. I took them through my philosophical approach, discussing everything from the central theme of competition that would be synonymous with the program, the importance of practice, defensive schemes, recruiting, adjusting to the college game, handling the Los Angeles media, and what I felt it would take to get USC back on track to be the program it had been and deserved to be. With each statement I gave, I felt more confident. The more confident I felt, the more excited I became.
As the interview came to an end, Mike asked me what I would say in my first press conference and our first team meeting. As I began to answer him, I felt as though I already was the head football coach at USC and they just had to formally offer me the job. After Mike, Daryl, and I had shaken hands and I was leaving the Sheraton, I felt great. I knew that I had just delivered a comprehensive explanation of how I would lead their storied program, but more important, I knew that I had just presented who I was as a person and a football coach in a comprehensive and completely authentic way for the first time in my life.
I spent the next few days in the beach area, relaxing by the water and enjoying the LA environment. In fact, I was on the beach when the phone call came in the afternoon of December 15, 2000. It was official—I was the new head coach of one of the most successful and storied programs in the history of college football.
We knew that my selection would be met with a fair amount of criticism. After all, I was an NFL coach with two firings on my résumé, no recent college experience, and unfamiliarity with Pac-10 football. I certainly wasn’t the first choice of a lot of fans—and for many I wasn’t even on the radar at all. The buzz had surrounded three successful college coaches. None of them seemed to want the job, but I think the general expectation among the fans and boosters was that they were going to get one of the names they knew. When I was announced, it really caught people off guard—and understandably so. The coach who had just been fired at USC was a former NFL coach, and because it all sounded so similar to them, there was a real firestorm. I was definitely coming in with a lot to prove in the eyes of the community.
I knew that my first public appearance at the USC press conference would be crucial in setting the stage for future success. I had learned many lessons during my years facing very tough media markets in both New York and New England, and I was ready for anything.
Because I was personally so clear about the direction of USC football and really feeling confident in the style and philosophy I intended to bring to the program, I actually couldn’t wait for the press conference to begin, even though I knew the stakes were incredibly high. I just laid out my philosophy for the program for all the world to hear. I told the assembled press, “Talk is cheap right now—we have to get to work. My teams are going to play hard, they’re going to play with enthusiasm, they’re going to play with great intensity.” When they asked me how long it would take to win, I simply said, “We’ll be good when we’re good. My goal is to win right now.”
I heard later that some of my comments seemed a bit bold and stern, but I was just living the philosophy that I had laid out months earlier for myself and my future teams. I wasn’t worried about the transition from the NFL to college because I had been coaching college kids for years—I just got them when they were a few years older. All I could think of was that I was about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime. After an entire career spent learning the game of football, I finally had a comprehensive, authentic philosophy that came straight from my heart and now had the opportunity to put it into motion. The real test of my Win Forever philosophy would be what happened once it was applied.
In my nine years at USC, we worked hard at applying the approach and stuck to the core beliefs that we could and would do things better than they have ever been done before. We competed in everything we did, from practice to teaching to showing up early. We worked to gain confidence and erase fear by practicing for every contingency. And we stayed constantly focused on maximizing the potential of everyone in the organization. We applied ourselves and our philosophy diligently, and we started to win. I cannot even describe how grateful I felt and how fortunate I was to lead that historic program.