USC football: Pete Carroll reluctantly revisits ‘What’s your deal?’

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With Jim Harbaugh having leftStanford for the San Francisco 49ers, football fans are looking forward to the times Harbaugh goes up against the Seattle Seahawks and former USC coach Pete Carroll.

Their famous ‘What’s your deal?’ postgame exchange after Stanford routed USC, 55-21, at the Coliseum in 2009 is the stuff of legend.

Matt Barrows of the Sacramento Bee caught up with Carroll at the Senior Bowl and asked him about Harbaugh. You can read the complete post here.

Some highlights:

Carroll told Barrows he has no beef with Harbaugh and cannot understand why anyone would think otherwise. ‘If you write that, it’s because you think that,’ Carroll said. ‘Because it’s not true.’

Carroll told Barrows he had no recollection of the incident: ‘You’ll have to talk to Jim about that. I don’t know anything about it. I don’t care about it. It means nothing to me. That meant nothing to me. The other coaches get to do whatever they want, and I don’t hold anything against them. I’m not one of those guys who is looking for issues with guys. They can do whatever they want to. I don’t even remember the circumstances other than we were getting our butts kicked. Other than that I don’t know.’

Carroll told Barrows he expects a competitive rivalry to continue in the NFL: ‘He’s a really good coach, and he’s going to bring them a spirit and an enthusiasm the 49ers fans are going to like. I don’t know him one way or the other. I think he’s a really good coach, and I really respect him.’

--Gary Klein