It’s official! Former USC head coach Pete Carroll will take the same position with the Seattle Seahawks. Carroll’s hiring comes just one week after the firing of the Seahawks last head coach Jim Mora, who finished his first and only year with a 5-11 record and third place in the final NFC West standings. Seattle has yet to hire a General Manager, as Seahawks owner Paul Allen is trying to find someone that can collaborate with Carroll. It seems like only yesterday that the Seahawks were dominating their division year after year. But in reality, it’s been 3 long years since Seattle went to the playoffs for five straight years, one of those where starting quarterback Matt Hasselbeck got the ball in overtime and “didn’t score”.
Now that the Arizona Cardinals rule the division, and the San Francisco 49ers making great strides to improve, will Pete Carroll be able to bring his Southern California magic to north Seattle?
In his first stint with the NFL, spanning four seasons and two teams [The New York Jets and The New England Patriots], Carroll finished 33-31. In 1997, his first season with the Patriots, Carroll went 10-6 and won the AFC East. In the same year, Carroll also won his first playoff game, before being upset by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the next round. Other college coaches have had mild success.
National Championship winning head coach Nick Saban had his go at the NFL with the Miami Dolphins in 2005-06. Saban went 15-17 in his two seasons, and bolted for University of Alabama the first chance he got. Other coaches couldn’t handle the heat.
Bobby Petrino took over as the Atlanta Falcons head coach in the beginning of the 2007 season, only to quit after 13 games to go back to the college ranks and coach the University of Arkansas. This will hold true, and Pete Carroll’s second go around will be nothing like his last.
Calling his first stint in the NFL a success would be asinine and foolish. Carroll sees and knows this. It’s the challenge, just as he had said in his press conference. But biting off this challenge will be a little more than Carroll can chew. Excusing the massive injuries to the offensive line this year, the challenge comes in staffing this undermanned team.
Julius Jones, the Seahawks leading rusher, only went for only 662 yards. In case you are not in front of a stat sheet, there were 30 other running backs (including LaDainian Tomlinson, whose use was reduced this year) rushed for more yards. It has been said in this league over and over again: If you can’t establish the run, you are in trouble.
Wide receiver TJ Houchamazilla… TJ Hooshamenszebra… all right all right, wide receiver TJ Houshmandzadeh wasn’t exactly the big ticket that he was supposed to be, going for 911 yards and only three touchdowns.
The Seattle defense wasn’t spectacular, rating in the bottom half of the league in points allowed (24.4, 26th), overall yards allowed (356.4, 24th) and pass yards allowed (245.4, 30th). And we haven’t even got into the inconsistency of Matt Hasselbeck, who made it to the super bowl once, lost, and hasn’t looked close since.
Don’t give me personal stats for Hasselbeck either. If you are an NFL quarterback there is only one stat that matters: how many rings you have. At this point, Hasselbeck has a big goose egg in that column, and until he proves he can make it, I have no reason to believe that he will. So I guess Carroll has an easy job, he only has to fix the offense and the defense. That’s not too much, right?
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