What's your deal?: Harbaugh and Carroll meet again

[travisduncan]

One of the biggest storylines headed into's Sunday's opener is a re-match between Jim Harbaugh and Pete Carroll.

Regardless of what either coach says, the competition and rivalry between the two coaches is real, goes back several years, and even more heightened this week because both have a lot to prove on the NFL level.

The rivalry between the two began when the Cardinal ruined USC's national title hopes in 2007 with a 23-21 win. In 2008, USC took care of Stanford 45-23 with plenty of scoring in the 4th quarter.

The rivalry took a somewhat comical turn back in 2009, when Jimmy H's Cardinal defeated a down USC team 55-21.

The Cardinal continued to pour it on well into the 4th quarter with a sizable lead.

As the two coaches met at centerfield to exchange handshakes after the game, Pete Carroll asked Harbaugh "What's your Deal?"

To which Harbaugh replied "What your deal?"

Carroll, as is his style, said after that game that it was just about "competition", something to the effect of "if you didn't know about competing you just can never understand."

This week Harbaugh, as well as Carroll, played coy when asked about the re-match

Said the 49ers coach, "Is there intrigue? Not really. I think we're both locked in to what we're trying to do."

He added, "Yeah I know, the old ‘coaches going at it', ‘tune it to see what the coaches are going to say to each other prior to the game and after the game'. Anything that's been said before has been pretty well documented and over-documented. In the end, it's an 11-on-11 game and is it really that exciting? Is it that intriguing to find out what they're going to talk about? What's relevant is that this game will be determined by the players."

Harbaugh added that he is not necessarily friends with Carroll but that he respect him as a coach.

Carroll confirmed that when speaking with the media Wednesday.

He said, "We don’t know each other very well. We’ve never been in the same settings at all. We just played against each other a couple times. I got a chance to visit with him at the league meetings and all that. We don’t have common backgrounds at all"

Finally when asked what he will say to Carroll when they meet before or after the game, Harbaugh said "Tune in."

Carroll said, "That’s right, you better listen very carefully. I want to see a lot of boom mics when we’re talking out there. Get the straight scoop finally about what’s really up."