Seahawks hire Dunn to coach running backs

The Seattle Seahawks have hired Kasey Dunn, a graduate of North Kitsap High School in Poulsbo, as their running backs coach.

Dunn replaces Stump Mitchell, who departed for the Washington Redskins to join Jim Zorn's staff.

Dunn fills out the team's coaching staff, which was depleted when Mike Holmgren announced a week after the 2007-08 season ended that he would retire after the upcoming season.

Former Seahawks fullback Mack Strong and former Redskins running backs coach Earnest Byner also interviewed for the job. But Holmgren said a few weeks ago that it is difficult to get somebody to commit to a position for the long term knowing that Holmgren would retire after the season.

Byner has since been hired by Tennessee, while Strong continues to recuperate from surgery to repair the neck injury that forced him to retire.

Dunn held a minority internship with the Seahawks in 1993, and was with Washington State from 1998-2002, serving as the Cougars' running backs coach, assistant head coach and special teams coordinator.

This, however, will be Dunn's first NFL job. He spent the first 15 years of his coaching career at eight different college programs, including Washington State and Arizona.

Last season, he was the wide receivers coach at Maryland.

He will take over a backfield that has two new running backs as Julius Jones and T.J. Duckett signed multi-year contracts with the Seahawks in the past week.

The future of Shaun Alexander remains uncertain, though Alexander's agent told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he wanted to speak with the Seahawks in the coming days to discuss Alexander's future.