Coach literally running Seahawks now

By GREGG BELL | The Associated Press • Published April 09, 2009

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RENTON — Patrick Kerney knew this was coming.

Seattle’s two-time Pro Bowl defensive end played in Atlanta from 2004-06 when Jim Mora was the Falcons’ coach. For months, Kerney has been telling his current Seahawks teammates what to expect in the first practices with their new head man.

“Be in great shape,” he’s said with a chuckle while he’s been rehabilitating from shoulder surgery. “Be ready to run.”

The indefatigable Mora spends many early mornings running up a ridiculously steep mountain near his suburban Seattle home. This week, he spent a voluntary minicamp barking at linebacker Lance Laury to run to the ball — even though the ball was 30 yards away, on the other side of the field.

The 47-year-old with the face and fire of a man half that age stood in the defense’s huddle and jabbed his fist to the ground in rapid-fire succession, to emphasize how fast he wants his Seahawks to play. He demanded that his assistants coach on the way back to the huddle after plays — while on the run, of course.

Thursday, he shouted at cornerback Josh Wilson to get his helmet on. Apparently, Mora considered it off because a chin strap wasn’t strapped.

He, not an assistant, blew a whistle to end every play. He stepped between the two huddles, facing and talking to and yelling at the defense because defense is in his pedigree. Mora joked that he needed the whistle to keep his hyped-up players from running off the field, over a neighboring hill and onto the freeway that runs beside the team’s headquarters.

All this rah-rah enthusiasm. All this running. Is this April — or August?

Is this the NFL? Or the Pac-10?

“I don’t like to use the analogy of college versus pro. I think it’s just coaching, you know? It’s coaching players. It’s just our way,” said the son of former Saints and Colts coach Jim E. Mora. The younger Mora grew up around practice fields at the University of Washington, when his dad was an assistant there under Don James in the 1970s.

It’s a jarring change from Mike Holmgren. The 60-year-old patriarch is now riding motorcycles around his Phoenix-area home, leaving the resurrection of a 4-12 flop in 2008 to Mora.

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