In a recent announcement, now-former University of Southern California coach Pete Carroll is coming back to the NFL to coach the Seattle Seahawks, tendering his resignation to USC this past Monday morning.

Carroll will be receiving a lot for relocating northward – sources say his contract will be $35 million for five years. But more than that, Carroll will also find himself with a significant amount of clout within the Seahawks’ organization, including input on the hiring process for the team’s new General Manager. It’s also been made clear by team CEO Tom Lieweke that Carroll would be on equal footing with that GM, whomever it ends up being.

Having a say in the decision was part of the conditions Carroll stipulated for coming on board with Seattle. “He didn’t want to be the general manager,” Leiweke said. “But he wanted to make sure we hired the best GM we could. We need to have a collaborative approach.”

The 58-year-old Carroll comes to Seattle with a 33-31 record built over 16 years in the NFL: From 1984-1999 Carroll held two head coaching positions. The New York Jets in 1994, only lasting one season after New York went 6-10. New England named him head coach in 1997, winning the AFC in his first season, but was fired after missing the playoffs in 1999.

More successful at the college level, Carroll build a 97-19 record in nine years at USC, including two national titles and a share of seven Pac-10 championships.

Winning just over nine games in the previous season, Seattle is hoping Carroll can recreate some of that success for their organization. Though USC saw some problems in 2009, it was a given that Carroll’s Trojans would win at least nine games in a season just as a rule, they were that good. To bring the Seahawks to that level is what Carroll calls his overriding goal.

“I hope we can do things better than they’ve ever been done around here before,” Carroll said. “There are extraordinarily high expectations, and I love living in that world. I love setting our sights so far out and our standards so high that maybe it doesn’t even seem feasible.”

Ongoing speculation says that Carroll’s departure from USC precludes NCAA sanctions pending the results of an investigation into compliance issues. It’s currently in question whether Trojan star players Joe McKnight and Reggie Bush received special treatment.

Carroll dismisses such talk, claiming non-involvement.

“I’m confident it will all work out,” he said.