Seattle fans are demanding a great deal more, though. And in this process we're seeing another college coach seek to morph into a successful pro coach.
Granted, Pete Carroll has coached in the pros before. Carroll coached the New England Patriots in the Drew Bledsoe, pre-Tom Brady era when they couldn't quite break through. Bledsoe was erratic. Eventually he got beat out by Tony Romo in Dallas and has faded into obscurity.
Carroll retreated to the college ranks at the University of Southern California where he had abundant success. Now he has percolated to the pro level again.
Carroll was a leading candidate to take over the Minnesota Vikings at the time Denny Green was hired. You know, Denny Green of "The Bears are the team we thought they would be!" fame, and "We let 'em off the hook!"
Green presided over a choke for the ages when his Arizona Cardinals lost to the Chicago Bears in an early-season prime time game. The Cardinals might have won that game if their quarterback, Matt Leinart, had just protected the lead by taking a knee on every first through third down.
The state of Arizona has bigger concerns now than the state of its football team. The "show me your papers" state might slip into serious disarray and decay. Kurt Warner has retired as the Cardinals' quarterback. It looks like Leinart, the lefty from USC, will get another shot. And Carroll, the seasoned coach who found a comfortable home at USC for a long time, is going to try his luck at the pro level again.
Will Mr. Carroll end up with a "Peter Principle" tag? If his regime in Seattle sputters, he may end up being remembered like a predecessor of his at USC: John McKay. There were many New Year's Days when I'd watch McKay on TV patrol the sidelines in Pasadena, California. Eventually he was signed to usher the Tampa Bay Buccaneers into existence. He was humbled. He didn't take it very well either.
McKay grew into a gruff, "glass half empty" person who contradicted the image he groomed with the USC Trojans. He openly questioned how he could be expected to win with a team full of discards. Not cool. It was harder for expansion teams to start out well in those days.
At the time, I questioned why the Bucs would take a runningback with their very first prime draft pick. It was probably because of marketing. That runningback had marquee value (Ricky Bell).
It would have been more prudent to trade the very highest picks and stock up with middle-rounders. Seattle chose that route and seemed to reach respectability faster.
Tampa Bay wasn't just bad, they were a joke (even on the "Gong Show" where Chuck Barris would say "Take it away Tampa Bay"). McKay could have steered that ship better.
We'll see if Pete Carroll does better in his second stint in the pros. He won't want his first name to be synonymous with "The Peter Principle" - the idea of reaching your ultimate level of incompetence.
Carroll takes the reins of a Seattle team that not only has been mediocre over the recent past, they've been boring. All the more reason to wince at those uniforms. The Seahawks made the Super Bowl toward the end of Mike Holmgren's tenure there, and Holmgren had at his side former University of Minnesota-Morris coach Jim Lind. Lind was the tight ends coach. Lind coached at UMM in the mid-1980s and rode the gravy train that was the UMM Cougar football program at that time.
It was sad ultimately to see UMM football drop from cock-of-the-walk status to complete doormat. Lind was long gone by the time the latter status set in. A losing streak stretched to where national media attention of the most unwanted kind was drawn. The nightmare finally ended as UMM found a new conference home and can now hold its own.
Holmgren is now calling the shots for the Cleveland Browns. The Browns have gotten beaten up just like the Seahawks. Naturally everyone cannot win in the NFL. There is no guarantee that Carroll and Holmgren will be able to work any special magic.
Vikings fans should know there is no absolute guarantee their team will finish above .500. Relying on a quarterback in his 40s, one with an eccentric off-season reputation, doesn't seem like a prescription for confidence.
I recall Sid Hartman, the famous and long-of-tooth scribe for the Minneapolis dead-tree newspaper, being a cheerleader for Carroll when he seemed on the verge of becoming the Vikings coach. At least that was the appearance.
Green got the nod instead and initially he was called the "new sheriff." As time went on he seemed whiny and he had an abrasive relationship with the press that grew tiresome.
Remember the "donut" game?
Green was very much an up-and-down coach who had too much trouble winning in the clutch. His Vikings started out a season 6-0 only to miss the playoffs. The biggest down note was when the Vikes made the NFC championship game only to be crushed as if by a steamroller by the New York Giants who had Kerry Collins at quarterback. It became known as the "donut game." The Vikings scored zero points which equates with "donut." A Patrick Reusse column in the Minneapolis paper inspired that description.
We can probably all remember where we were when we sat transfixed by that debacle.
Green brought his shaky tendencies to Arizona and was eventually shown the door there. His abrasiveness with the press came through again after the big choke on national TV against the Bears. The only consolation is that the abrasiveness can translate to a nice beer commercial.
Our Vikings took a defensive back with their top pick in the draft. All defensive backs look alike to me. The typical fan doesn't spend a lot of time evaluating defensive backs. We take them for granted. They depend on a good pass rush to do their job. I get the impression that middle-round draft picks often become diamonds in the rough when it comes to the secondary.
We hope that Chris Cook, out of Virginia, lives up to his billing as a prime pick for the secondary.
I will quote someone else, anonymously, in regard to the Vikes' second draft selection, who I assume raised eyebrows among many for the wrong reason. I have alluded to racial profiling, in a backhanded way, in connection to Arizona (the state, not the team) in this post. Now we'll profile runningbacks this way and suggest that a Caucasian is indeed unusual surfacing in the second round for this position. At least that's what my friend noted.
The Vikings chose a Stanford player who we hope can perform contrary to the "White Men Can't Jump" stereotype. He's Toby Gerhart.
From the fourth round down we're pretty much talking a crapshoot, so we'll just hope some overperformers surface here. We find two defensive and four offensive players here.
And what is Pete Carroll up to, to try to prove again that he can hold his own in the pros? He's seeking familiarity. He's reunited with LenDale White who is a former USC Trojan. White got beat out by Chris Johnson in Tennessee. Seattle traded draft picks to get White. Carroll obtained Leon Washington, former all-pro kick return man, also in exchange for draft picks. The moves seem rather underwhelming.
Time will tell as with all trades and draft selections. My opinion is that the Seahawks will rebound if they permanently retire that all-dark-blue abomination of a uniform.
-Brian Williams - morris mn Minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
Granted, Pete Carroll has coached in the pros before. Carroll coached the New England Patriots in the Drew Bledsoe, pre-Tom Brady era when they couldn't quite break through. Bledsoe was erratic. Eventually he got beat out by Tony Romo in Dallas and has faded into obscurity.
Carroll retreated to the college ranks at the University of Southern California where he had abundant success. Now he has percolated to the pro level again.
Carroll was a leading candidate to take over the Minnesota Vikings at the time Denny Green was hired. You know, Denny Green of "The Bears are the team we thought they would be!" fame, and "We let 'em off the hook!"
Green presided over a choke for the ages when his Arizona Cardinals lost to the Chicago Bears in an early-season prime time game. The Cardinals might have won that game if their quarterback, Matt Leinart, had just protected the lead by taking a knee on every first through third down.
The state of Arizona has bigger concerns now than the state of its football team. The "show me your papers" state might slip into serious disarray and decay. Kurt Warner has retired as the Cardinals' quarterback. It looks like Leinart, the lefty from USC, will get another shot. And Carroll, the seasoned coach who found a comfortable home at USC for a long time, is going to try his luck at the pro level again.
Will Mr. Carroll end up with a "Peter Principle" tag? If his regime in Seattle sputters, he may end up being remembered like a predecessor of his at USC: John McKay. There were many New Year's Days when I'd watch McKay on TV patrol the sidelines in Pasadena, California. Eventually he was signed to usher the Tampa Bay Buccaneers into existence. He was humbled. He didn't take it very well either.
McKay grew into a gruff, "glass half empty" person who contradicted the image he groomed with the USC Trojans. He openly questioned how he could be expected to win with a team full of discards. Not cool. It was harder for expansion teams to start out well in those days.
At the time, I questioned why the Bucs would take a runningback with their very first prime draft pick. It was probably because of marketing. That runningback had marquee value (Ricky Bell).
It would have been more prudent to trade the very highest picks and stock up with middle-rounders. Seattle chose that route and seemed to reach respectability faster.
Tampa Bay wasn't just bad, they were a joke (even on the "Gong Show" where Chuck Barris would say "Take it away Tampa Bay"). McKay could have steered that ship better.
We'll see if Pete Carroll does better in his second stint in the pros. He won't want his first name to be synonymous with "The Peter Principle" - the idea of reaching your ultimate level of incompetence.
Carroll takes the reins of a Seattle team that not only has been mediocre over the recent past, they've been boring. All the more reason to wince at those uniforms. The Seahawks made the Super Bowl toward the end of Mike Holmgren's tenure there, and Holmgren had at his side former University of Minnesota-Morris coach Jim Lind. Lind was the tight ends coach. Lind coached at UMM in the mid-1980s and rode the gravy train that was the UMM Cougar football program at that time.
It was sad ultimately to see UMM football drop from cock-of-the-walk status to complete doormat. Lind was long gone by the time the latter status set in. A losing streak stretched to where national media attention of the most unwanted kind was drawn. The nightmare finally ended as UMM found a new conference home and can now hold its own.
Holmgren is now calling the shots for the Cleveland Browns. The Browns have gotten beaten up just like the Seahawks. Naturally everyone cannot win in the NFL. There is no guarantee that Carroll and Holmgren will be able to work any special magic.
Vikings fans should know there is no absolute guarantee their team will finish above .500. Relying on a quarterback in his 40s, one with an eccentric off-season reputation, doesn't seem like a prescription for confidence.
I recall Sid Hartman, the famous and long-of-tooth scribe for the Minneapolis dead-tree newspaper, being a cheerleader for Carroll when he seemed on the verge of becoming the Vikings coach. At least that was the appearance.
Green got the nod instead and initially he was called the "new sheriff." As time went on he seemed whiny and he had an abrasive relationship with the press that grew tiresome.
Remember the "donut" game?
Green was very much an up-and-down coach who had too much trouble winning in the clutch. His Vikings started out a season 6-0 only to miss the playoffs. The biggest down note was when the Vikes made the NFC championship game only to be crushed as if by a steamroller by the New York Giants who had Kerry Collins at quarterback. It became known as the "donut game." The Vikings scored zero points which equates with "donut." A Patrick Reusse column in the Minneapolis paper inspired that description.
We can probably all remember where we were when we sat transfixed by that debacle.
Green brought his shaky tendencies to Arizona and was eventually shown the door there. His abrasiveness with the press came through again after the big choke on national TV against the Bears. The only consolation is that the abrasiveness can translate to a nice beer commercial.
Our Vikings took a defensive back with their top pick in the draft. All defensive backs look alike to me. The typical fan doesn't spend a lot of time evaluating defensive backs. We take them for granted. They depend on a good pass rush to do their job. I get the impression that middle-round draft picks often become diamonds in the rough when it comes to the secondary.
We hope that Chris Cook, out of Virginia, lives up to his billing as a prime pick for the secondary.
I will quote someone else, anonymously, in regard to the Vikes' second draft selection, who I assume raised eyebrows among many for the wrong reason. I have alluded to racial profiling, in a backhanded way, in connection to Arizona (the state, not the team) in this post. Now we'll profile runningbacks this way and suggest that a Caucasian is indeed unusual surfacing in the second round for this position. At least that's what my friend noted.
The Vikings chose a Stanford player who we hope can perform contrary to the "White Men Can't Jump" stereotype. He's Toby Gerhart.
From the fourth round down we're pretty much talking a crapshoot, so we'll just hope some overperformers surface here. We find two defensive and four offensive players here.
And what is Pete Carroll up to, to try to prove again that he can hold his own in the pros? He's seeking familiarity. He's reunited with LenDale White who is a former USC Trojan. White got beat out by Chris Johnson in Tennessee. Seattle traded draft picks to get White. Carroll obtained Leon Washington, former all-pro kick return man, also in exchange for draft picks. The moves seem rather underwhelming.
Time will tell as with all trades and draft selections. My opinion is that the Seahawks will rebound if they permanently retire that all-dark-blue abomination of a uniform.
-Brian Williams - morris mn Minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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