So it sounds like the Seahawks are pretty serious about Pete Carroll. He is not only going to be the head coach, but he is also the "Executive Vice President of Football Operations." It sounds like a fancy title that means absolutely nothing, but I'm not so sure that will be the case.
Tod Leiweke has reported that Carroll we take part in all of the GM interviews and the new candidate will need Carroll's "100% approval" before hiring. That sounds like a lot of power to me.
I don't follow college football that much, so I really don't know much about Carroll or his tenure at USC. I have read his stats, the 97-19 record, and heard about how his initial head coaching jobs in the 90's were widely viewed as failures. While his NFL record is mediocre, I really don't know how coaching teams to the playoffs two years in a row with the Patriots can be seen as failures. Nevertheless, I don't know him or even really "of" him. I've only heard and read what the media is telling me now.
Is he the guy for the job? A lot of people have opinions on that subject. I have no idea. I don't really have high hopes. I can say that much. The last Seattle coach to come from college was Dennis Erickson. A few DWI's and losing seasons later, he was gone.
Despite Carroll's "rah rah" mentality, I'm feeling pretty melancholy about the whole thing. I think that I still mourning the loss of Mike Holmgren. He took a team that nobody even noticed and turned it into a respectable organization. The fact of the matter is that he knew what he was doing.
How did the Seahawks repay him? By stripping him of his GM powers, and then dismissing him when he clearly wanted to come back to the front office. He said that it was not about the money. He wanted to run an organization. The Browns were willing to do that. Why weren't the Seattle Seahawks?
I'll tell you why, the Seahawks front office ego got too large. When Holmgren came in and turned things around, they let him do all of the dirty work and then decided they wanted in on it. Not dissimilar to how you might ask someone to do something for you that you don't know how to do. They get you started and then you jump in there, "Lemme do it! Lemme do it!" and take over.
Holmgren inherited a Jon Kitna and Ricky Watters team and turned it into a Matt Hasselbeck and Shaun Alexander team. He brought those guys in.
People might point to the fact that the year the Seahawks went to the Superbowl was the year that Ruskell joined the team. Ruskell didn't push the Seahawks over the edge and take them to the big game. He rode on Holmgren's shoulders into Detroit for Superbowl XL that year.
Holmgren laid the foundation of that team in the first four years he was GM and coach. He turned the Seahawks into a respectable organization. Bob Whitsitt, Tim Ruskell, and Tod Leiweke have all tried to stand on his shoulders and take credit for his greatness. They were unsuccessful. The Browns might not be the ideal franchise to inherit, but they really are greener pastures than the ones in Seattle. He was smart not to come back to a team that disrespected him despite everything he did to build it.
It makes me sick that the Seahawks front office wants to take credit for the past ten years of relative success. It wasn't any of them that did it. It was Mike Holmgren. They screwed over the best thing that ever happened to that team.
Will Carroll the next Mike Holmgren? I don't know, but I definitely wouldn't hold my breath.
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