Pete Carroll is stepping down as the Seattle Seahawks head coach, the organization announced Wednesday.
Club chairwoman Jody Allen announced that the team and Carroll have "amicably" agreed to "evolve" his role from head coach to an organizational advisor.
The 72-year-old exits the head coach's chair as the best coach in Seahawks history, going 137-89-1 with five NFC West titles, 10 playoff appearances, and the team's only Super Bowl victory. In 2014, Seattle came one play shy of becoming the only team since the 2003-04 Patriots to win back-to-back Super Bowls.
Carroll joined the club in 2010 as head coach and VP of football operations after a dominant 9-year run at USC. He went 97-19 with the Trojans, leading the program to back-to-back AP national championships (and one play away from 3-peat) with at least a share of seven straight Pac-10 championships and seven straight AP top-4 finishes.
Carroll is one of three head coaches to win a college national championship and a Super Bowl.
The Seattle tenure represented a reclamation for Carroll at the NFL level. He went 6-10 in a 1-season tenure with the New York Jets, then 27-21 in three seasons with the New England Patriots.
Carroll will be remembered for his boundless energy, exemplified by his incessant gum-chewing. Even at 72, the future Hall of Famer had more energy than anyone in the stadium -- every game, for 14 straight seasons.
With Carroll stepping away from coaching but remaining in the organization, Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn should be regarded as the front-runner to replace him. Quinn, who also came agonizingly close to a championship in his 6-year run as the Atlanta Falcons head coach, has interviewed for a number of head coaching positions recently and served as the defensive coordinator for Carroll's Super Bowl teams in Seattle.
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