One day during Shawn Howe’s time at USC, he went to the beach with some buddies and ran into Pete Carroll.

Carroll left his head football coaching job at USC for the same position with the Seattle Seahawks in 2010, one year before Howe became a graduate assistant at USC (Howe also served as a defensive analyst for the Trojans from 2019-20). Despite the lack of overlap, Carroll recognized Howe and struck up a conversation.

Carroll, a former college and NFL defensive coordinator, shared a nugget of wisdom that still resonates with Howe.

“On third down, that's where every coordinator wants to make his mark. That's where everybody wants to try to be the best coach. That's where you want to try to draw up the most elaborate schemes,” Carroll said, according to Howe. “We recruited guys who co

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