Pete Carroll says he has no beef with Jim Harbaugh

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Pete Carroll has no beef with Jim Harbaugh, and the Seahawks coach can't understand why anyone would think otherwise. "If you write that, it's because you think that," Carroll said Tuesday at the Senior Bowl. "Because it's not true."

A casual observer might conclude the two men aren't all that fond of one another given what transpired between them in 2009. At the time, Carroll's USC Trojans were seven-time Pac-10 champions and had thumped Harbaugh's Stanford squad 45-23 the previous year. In 2009, however, Stanford not only blew the doors off of USC, Harbaugh called for a gratuitous two-point conversion late in the game after Stanford's seventh touchdown.

The final score was Stanford 55, USC 21 and the two head coaches had a testy exchange at midfield afterward. "What's your deal?" Carroll complained to Harbaugh. "What's your deal?" Harbaugh said in return.

Carroll, however, had no recollection Tuesday about the midfield meeting. "You'll have to talk to Jim about that," he said. "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."

(Stanford nose tackle Sione Fua definitely remembers the exchange. He said that "What's your deal?" became a catch phrase in the Cardinal locker room. "We'd pass him in the hallway and it was like, "What's your deal, Harbaugh?" Fua also noted that Stanford's marketing department used "What's your deal" to sell tickets in 2010.

What Carroll remembers most is having a strong rivalry with Harbaugh in the Pac 10, and he said he expects that will continue in the NFC West. "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," he said. "I don't know him one way or the other. I think he's a really good coach, and I really respect him."

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