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Jason Sudeikis Shares Insights With Pete Carroll’s ‘Game is Life’ Class

Jason Sudeikis Shares Insights With Pete Carroll’s ‘Game is Life’ Class

Ted Lasso and SNL star Jason Sudeikis visited Coach Pete Carroll’s undergraduate course to inspire students with lessons on confidence and perseverance.

by: Alexander Bernard
03.20.25
Jason Sudeikis and Pete Carroll in class

Jason Sudeikis and Pete Carroll speak to Marshall students in BUAD 498.

[USC Photo / Grayson Adler]

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On March 13, USC Marshall students in BUAD 498: Game is Life were treated to a surprise guest: Jason Sudeikis.

The Ted Lasso and Saturday Night Live star joined course instructors — Pete Carroll, former USC football coach and current Las Vegas Raiders head coach; Varun Soni, USC Dean of Religious and Spiritual Life; and David Belasco, adjunct professor of entrepreneurship — for a wide-ranging discussion on self-belief, resilience, and the mentorship lessons Sudeikis learned playing the on-screen coach.

“A great mentor is someone that sees something in you that you are unable to see in yourself based on your baggage,” Sudeikis said. “I’ve had the good fortune of people seeing things in me that my imagination didn’t allow me to see because of my own baggage.”

Sudeikis’ message falls in line with the course’s weekly lessons, reinforcing Carroll’s “Win Forever” philosophy. Each class, Carroll, Soni, and Belasco encourage students to compete and pursue excellence by incorporating mind, body, and spirit into all facets of life and work.

“If you’re competing to do something, remember we’re talking about striving for excellence,” Carroll said. “That’s what competing really is — it isn’t about winning and losing. That’s not what it is. It is about striving to find the best version, the best answer, the best explanation for what’s important to you.”

True to his live performance roots, Sudeikis couldn’t help but make an entrance, shouting “Hey, Coach!” to Carroll from the back of the auditorium before tossing a football to the legendary coach.

“Real coach, fake coach,” Sudeikis said on stage, respectively referring to Carroll and the titular soccer coach Sudeikis plays on the show Ted Lasso.

The pair were joined by Belasco for a discussion centered around the similarities between Sudeikis’ fictional Ted Lasso character and Carroll’s real-life coaching philosophy — embodied by a motto passed down from Carroll’s mother.

“It didn’t matter how bad [it got], it doesn’t matter what you think — ‘something good is about to happen’” Carroll recited. “I’ve been living with that my whole life, and so it became part of my coaching.”

Like Carroll, Sudeikis’ approach to Lasso centered around belief in himself and in those around him. As the trio moved through different subjects, including teamwork, encouragement, and authenticity, the class watched clips from Ted Lasso, in which the character exemplifies these principles.

“[Ted Lasso] is not a true one-to-one embodiment of who I am or how I live my life. It is wish fulfillment,” Sudeikis said. “I feel like Ted is a superhero … [he] is the kind of person I’d want to be at all times, the kind of dad I’d want to be, the kind of partner I’d want to be or improv teacher or writer or what-not. [He’s] also the kind of coach I’ve always wanted and have had in certain moments.”

The pair motivated the class to reach to be the versions of themselves that they can be, but emphasized that true excellence only comes when people know who they are and embrace their unique selves.

[Ted Lasso] is the most personal thing that I’ve ever been a part of, and yet I also don’t believe that I’m any more special than anyone else … All I know is towards Coach’s point: if you can try to be the best version of yourself, then you're going to be an original.

— Jason Sudeikis

“The more personal a story is, the more real, the more authentic,” Sudeikis said, paraphrasing Martin Scorsese. “[Ted Lasso] is the most personal thing that I’ve ever been a part of, and yet I also don’t believe that I’m any more special than anyone else … All I know is towards Coach’s point: if you can try to be the best version of yourself, then you’re going to be an original.”

According to Carroll, that sentiment is the crux of The Game is Life. While most people wait until they’re older to discover “who they are,” Carroll, Soni, and Belasco are guiding USC Marshall students to find their passions now and pursue them with unbridled enthusiasm.

“We’re here to try to help you [all] figure out how to find you and how to find your version of being you,” Carroll said.

The group opened up the discussion for questions from students, including Ezra Frech, a USC Marshall student and two-time Paralympic gold medalist. Frech referenced his own work normalizing disability and asked Sudeikis what the actor considered to be his personal purpose. Connecting with Frech, Sudeikis recalled putting on a show to raise money to buy his friend a prosthetic leg.

“To answer your question, I think part of my purpose is to help my friends,” Sudeikis said to the Paralympic champion. “Our purposes are harmonizing.”

At the end of the class, Sudeikis and Carroll were joined on stage by Lindsay Gottlieb, coach of the USC women’s basketball team. She presented Sudeikis, a long time fan of women’s basketball, with a basketball signed by the entire team and a pair of Juju Watkins jerseys for his children.

Gottlieb also took the opportunity to share her admiration for Carroll.

“Coach Carroll, we’ve never met, but you are my real life coaching hero. I believe that I’m the head coach here because of you,” Gottlieb said, remarking on Carroll’s proclivity for creating joy in USC locker rooms.

Gottlieb continued by addressing Sudeikis and his passion for women’s sports.

“I hope you guys know that he was a women’s basketball fan here and many places before it was the cool thing to be,” Gottlieb said. “So thank you. The way you show up for the community, the way you show up for people and just being here is super amazing.”

Sudeikis stayed long after class to take pictures, answer questions, and share a moment with students.

The visit follows several exciting classroom experiences in BUAD 498, including a lecture from bestselling author and new age guru Deepak Chopra and a class trip to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

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