Carson Palmer reflects on his time at USC, the Trojans' coaching search, Drake London and Jaxson Dart

Carson Palmer, the newest USC addition to the College Football Hall of Fame, will be honored throughout Saturday night’s game between USC and Utah. USC will present the Heisman winner with a framed Hall of Fame plaque between the first and second quarters. Video highlights will run on the scoreboard throughout the game. And most importantly, to Palmer at least, he will lead the team out of the Coliseum tunnel to start the game.

Palmer spent time with USC media on Monday and touched on a number of topics, including his most vivid memories of playing at USC and a few things that stand out about the program now.

Carson Palmer on what this enshrinement means to him

“I don’t think I went to USC with the goal of being a hall of famer. I went to USC with the goal of getting an education, playing for, I think, the best university and the best football program in the country. I went with the goal of winning a national championship. I think I thought about being an All-American, but really was just focused more on team goals. It never crossed my mind, wanting to eventually get into the Hall of Fame. I thought, you go and play your best and let your play speak for itself.

And then as I got out of college and got into the NFL, and now that I’ve retired from the NFL, I Realize the enormity of it and what an amazing, amazing blessing it is. Some of the names on that list are the names I grew up watching and the names I idolized. But I don’t think I ever really put myself in the same breath as the Ronnie Lotts, and Anthony Munoz, and the list goes on and on and on. As I’ve gotten away from the game and had a chance to sit back and really kind of reflect on everything, I realize just how amazing of an accomplishment this is and truly feel blessed.”

Palmer on leading the team out of the tunnel

I went to the Colorado game two years ago. It was my first time back. Obviously, the NFL season runs along with the college season, so it was my first chance to be back at the Coliseum. Although, I did get to play at the Coliseum against the Rams when I was a Cardinal. It was the last game of the season, Week 17, and I wanted to retire. I thought I was done at that moment. We went to the Coliseum. I had a bunch of family and friends there. We beat the Rams. We blew them out. I had my kids on the field. We took pictures like I was retiring, so everybody in Arizona freaked out and thought that was my farewell, which it didn’t end up being.

But I’m excited to be at the game. I love going to the games. I love watching them on TV, obviously. But I’m most excited to run out of the tunnel. I talked to Mr. Bohn the athletic director and the coach, Donte, the other day. I don’t know if I’m getting recognized during halftime or what. I forgot everything he said about everything else when he said, ‘Do you want to lead us out of the tunnel?’ I started thinking about that and getting pumped up for that and thinking about having my son down there with me. I’m obviously honored to be honored at halftime, but I’m really excited to lead the team out of the tunnel.”

Palmer on his favorite USC memories

“I get asked all the time about my favorite game memories—which Notre Dame game, which UCLA game, bowl games and all that—and honestly I remember bits and parts of the games. Very little though. The other day there was a stat, somebody had thrown for a bunch of yards and beat a record I had about Notre Dame. And I started thinking about that game and I don’t even really remember that game. I remember the faces and the teammates and the coaches and the equipment staff and the medical staff, the doctors, Double T (Tim Tessalone). I remember so much more about the people and the relationships and the interactions I had with USC people, let alone actual plays or wins or losses.

It’s more about that family atmosphere. The Trojan Family. And you don’t realize how powerful the Trojan Family is and how important it is to be a part of that until you’re gone. When you’re in it, you’re so focused on class and lifting and meetings and games and practice. But when you have a chance to step back and think about the relationships you built over a five-year period, those are what stand out. All my teammates, the guys I lived with at 1013 on 24^th street, and just everybody that was involved with the university at that time when I was there, from the athletic director all the way down to the guys who are cleaning up the locker room as we were getting done with practice on a day-to-day basis. Those memories and those faces and relationships, far outweigh the experiences I had on the field.

Because the game was the game. You prepare for the game and you do your best to go out and play well. But you spend every day and every moment in practice and meetings, or getting checked out by the medical staff, or whatever those circumstances are—getting prepped by Double T for a press conference after practice. Those relationships and those friendships are the things that I’ll never forget. The games, you can go back and watch them. You can go back and refresh your memory and watch a TV copy of the USC – Notre Dame game from 2002 and refresh those memories, and they’ll come back. But those have gone. Those have faded off. What hasn’t faded off are the relationships and the friendships I had with the Trojan Family.”

Palmer on what he’s doing now

“Now I’m living in Idaho. I’ve got a partner. We’re at the office right now. We’re doing some real estate development here in town. I have to leave at 3. I’m coaching the seventh-grade football team that my son plays on down in Hailey. Big game tomorrow. We’re going down to Twin Falls and playing the Twin Fall Tigers, so that’s a huge, huge game. We’re 1-2 right now. So we’ve got to get back to .500 tomorrow.”

Palmer on whether his broken collarbone at USC was a ‘blessing in disguise’

“I think everything happens for a reason. I don’t know if I would categorize that as a blessing in disguise. I needed the reps at that time in my career. I didn’t need to stand on the sideline and watch. I’d already gotten my feet wet playing as a true freshman and that was my true sophomore year. I think it was Game 2, maybe Game 3 of my true sophomore year. At that point in any quarterback’s career, you need reps. You need game reps. You need to get in the pocket, have to deliver the ball accurately while you’re getting hit in the mouth. And so I lost out on that whole year. I did gain a whole year of maturity and get, I think what you’re probably referencing, is I did come back for my fifth year and have my best year personally. So maybe it was, but at that moment in my career, I would have never agreed that was a blessing in disguise. I thought I was going to come back that year.

I thought my bone was going to miraculously heal a lot faster than anybody else’s broken bone in history. And so I was using that time to learn as much as I could, but I thought I was going to get back and play at the end of the year at some point. Unfortunately, bones don’t just miraculously heal when you pray about them and hope them to. Maybe looking back, having that extra year was great because it gave us a chance to build that team and continue to build that program that Pete [Carroll] had just started out, and got us to a BCS game. But at that moment in time, there was a lot of frustration and disappointment. Because when you get hurt early in the year, you worked so hard to get to that moment. It’s not like you just started working out and getting ready for the season at the beginning of training camp. There’s a whole year that goes into it. So when you’re a young 18, 19-year-old kid like I was at that point, you can’t help but think about all the investment the prior six, seven, eight months to get ready for that season that is just gone because you can’t play anymore.”

Palmer on his philanthropic efforts

“The Fill the Stadium initiative is something that came about during Covid and Compassion International is a non-profit that takes donations. They raise money at charity events, concert venues, football games, a lot of very public spaces. And that money goes to children all over the planet in extremely impoverished situations—kids that don’t have doctors, don’t have parents, don’t have food, don’t have shelter, don’t have clothing. And so that organization raises money and gives people like myself and anybody on this call an opportunity to log onto Compassion International and adopt children. You can actually choose children from all over the planet in different situations and you can give money that goes to all those things—food, shelter, clothing, medical supplies, that these kids otherwise would not have any access to.

And so I had been planning, pre-Covid, a trip for our family to go to Guatemala and build houses, teach kids who Jesus was, provide anything we could. And just go and see these children, experience these environments and create more awareness to get these people to donate to the cause. So obviously Covid shut down all world travel and it shut down our family’s mission trip at that time. The director at the time, of Compassion, had thought about this idea that all these football stadiums with college football and NFL games are going to be sitting empty, because of Covid. A typical family spends $400-500 for a family of four—parking, tickets, hot dogs, pretzels, Gatorades, whatever it may be. So we were trying to stoke a fire under those people who were missing an opportunity to take their family and friends to a game, and use that money and donate it to a cause called Fill the Stadium. And then Fill the Stadium would take that money and that money would go directly to these kids all over the planet.”

Palmer on his USC fandom and thoughts on Drake London

“I follow it pretty closely. I’m going to the game this weekend and I’d catch any game that I could while I was playing. Like I said, it was tough when we were playing on the road in the NFL because you travel on Saturdays, so I’d be on the plane following the score alerts on my phone and catch games. Especially on the East Coast, the night games were late, so it’d be tough to catch. But always will be, always have been a fan of ‘SC, even before I decided to go there. So I stayed very involved from a fan’s perspective. And as far as throwing the ball to Drake London, I was pretty fortunate. Drake London is obviously a phenomenal talent, but I played with Mike Williams, Kareem Kelly and Keary Colbert, and I can go on and on and on down the list. I was really fortunate to play with some really great wide receivers while I was there.

But Drake, man he’s this new breed of big, physical talent. You see guys who I played against like Megatron, Calvin Johnson, who has that frame at 6-foot-4, kind of power forward-style frame. It seems like he’s that kind of athlete that has that pull-away speed. And we keep seeing him catch all these jump balls and back-shoulder throws, but he’s got the ability to get over the top of a DB and catch the long ball in stride. I think the sky’s the limit. Obviously, he’s still a younger player and he’s got some time left. I hope he stays at ‘SC for a couple more years. I doubt that’s the case. I don’t know his exact age. But he looks like the next possible Megatron in my opinion.”

Palmer on the USC coaching search

“I hope we get the coach of our future and not a 3-4 year stop for somebody. I hope we can find the guy that can be here for the next decade-plus. I love where we’re sitting. We were the first to open up that seat, so we’ve got the first crack at everybody. There was some talk, are you going fire coach Helton in Week 1, Week 2, Week 6, at the end of the season? I believe this is the right strategy. I’ve seen it. When I was playing in the NFL and coaches would get fired early, you could see within the organizations that I played for, the talk amongst the coaches and amongst the staff. So the word is out.

People know that job is available and I think it’s a pretty universal opinion that it’s probably the best job in college football. If not, it’s definitely in the top three, absolutely in the top five. So we’ve got a head start on everybody. I’m sure that the USC staff is vetting every potential possibility for that spot. And like I said, it’s just good to know that job is out there, for NFL guys, for college guys, for guys who are maybe in retirement and thinking about making a comeback. They’ve got time to be vetted, to be interviewed, to start building a staff, to go into that meeting with the athletic director and the school president. So all of those wheels are turning and I think that’s an advantageous position for us to be in right now.”

Palmer on true freshman quarterback Jaxson Dart’s performance against Washington State

“Loved watching that. That was a really exciting game to watch. I know that was his first crack at it and unfortunately, he didn’t come out healthy. But future’s bright. He made a lot of plays that you haven’t seen Kedon Slovis make. He’s very dynamic. He’s very good outside the pocket. And to go into that environment—I’ve been there—it’s not an easy place to play. The wind, weather is always funky. It’s always a weird atmosphere. There’s always a lot fewer, for some reason, Trojan fans on the road in that stadium. It’s just a loud, hostile atmosphere. So being a young guy and you don’t know if you’re going to play. You’re hoping you play, but you’re also kind of hoping you don’t play, because maybe you’re not ready. He looked like he was hoping he could play, from the jump. He went in and executed and played at a high level, and I’m looking forward to him getting another shot at it.”

Palmer on veterans helping turn the program around when Pete Carroll arrived

“It was just such a great group for Pete to come into. I really think having that kind of leadership. when you take over a team, you take it over because it didn’t win very many games the year before or the year before that. So he was coming into a team that wasn’t very good but had some great leadership. There are so many guys that are a part of that in that junior and senior class his first year that, with Pete’s energy and all the things that make Pete, help his success. One of them is just a buy-in by the players. That leadership bought into all of Pete’s kind of fun, kind of hokey, corny, fun but positive stuff. you’ve gotta have that kind of leadership buy into that style and that group, the guys you mentioned, and there’s 20 more that were part of that junior and senior group, that was just a great way for the young guys to come in and see the older guys doing it right.”