Ferrell as Jackie Moon in the upcoming film Semi Pro

Of USC’s most notable alumni, there’s no one quite like Will. With Will Ferrell’s new basketball movie Semi-Pro on the way, Sports Illustrated’s Arash Markazi sat down to interview him about the new flick, USC, basketball and more… Here’s an excerpt from the interview, when Pete Carroll dressed Ferrell up in Trojan uniform a couple years back, and introduced him to the team as a new walk on tight end.

So, they drove me out in the golf cart and they were practicing for the Rose Bowl against Michigan for the national championship and I could see the guys looking and thinking, “Who is this guy?” Then I stepped out and took off my helmet and they all start laughing. We then ran a play. We ran a go-pattern, yeah, I know the terms, it was just down the sideline and [Matt] Leinart threw the ball, but he kind of underthrew me so I had to sort of lay back. It was silent for a second and then when I made the catch and I got a weird, pathetic cheer. Caroll was just laughing and he said, “I was afraid [Darnell Bing] was going to lay you out.”

Check out the interview in its entirety at SI.com.