Last week, the Las Vegas Raiders hired Pete Carroll as their next head coach. Over the last two decades, Carroll has had quite the history with LA Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh. Now, the two are reunited after many years apart in the AFC West.
The two first became rivals at the collegiate level. Jim Harbaugh was hired as Stanford head coach in December of 2006 to set up a rebuild. He was coming off of enormous success at San Diego at the time.
In his first season as head coach in 2007, Harbaugh squared off against Pete Carroll's USC squad. Entering the game, Stanford was a whopping 41-point underdog. In what remains one of the biggest upsets in college football history, Harbaugh's Cardinal won 24-23.
The next season, Carroll got one back on Harbaugh after USC trounced Stanford in 2008. In 2009 however, Harbaugh got his revenge in Carroll's final season at USC. In the infamous "what's your deal" game, Stanford blew out USC by a final score of 55-21.
Cameras and mics caught a rather tense exchange between the two Pac-10 coaches after the game.
Harbaugh points to the USC players jogging to the locker room while saying, "look at em all running in" prior to his exchange of pleasantries with Carroll. That game would be the end of their rivalry in college. The Seattle Seahawks hired Carroll the following season after he had spent nine seasons at USC.
A few years later, Harbaugh was then hired as the head coach of the San Francisco 49ers. In his first two seasons, Harbaugh got the best of his rival in the NFC West. The Niners went 3-1 against Carroll's Seahawks in those two years and won two division titles. The 49ers made two NFC Championship game appearances and a Super Bowl appearance in which the Harbaugh brothers famously faced off.
Harbaugh would not stay on top of the NFL rivalry forever though. Carroll's Seahawks won the division in 2013 and 2014 as Harbaugh went 1-3 against Seattle in the regular season. Seattle and San Francisco also faced off in the NFC Championship in the 2013 NFL Playoffs. Carroll's squad got the better of Harbaugh's as Richard Sherman tipped a pass intended for Michael Crabtree, prompting this famous interview.
Harbaugh's 2014 season wasn't bad for San Francisco, but it was the first non-winning season of his tenure at 8-8. He and the Niners proceeded to part ways following the team's final regular season game. Just days after his final season with the Niners ended, Harbaugh was named head coach of the Michigan Wolverines. Nearly a decade later, he got his CFP National Title before coming back to the NFL with he Chargers.
After a decade of their rivalry being dormant, Pete Carroll was introduced as head coach of the Raiders on Monday. As mentioned earlier, their rivalry will be reignited as the Chargers and Raiders square off twice a year.
Adding more tension to the matchup is their head-to-head record. Each coach stands at six wins against the other. Harbaugh went 2-1 at Stanford against Carroll, but Carroll went 5-4 vs. Harbaugh's Niners. More history will be made, and perhaps a few rubber matches are necessary to settle their beef.