Pete Carroll: Seahawks need to ‘recapture the work ethic’ from last season
Feb 3, 2014; New York, NY, USA; Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll during the winning team press conference the day after Super Bowl XLVIII at Sheraton New York Times Square. Mandatory Credit: Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports
Pete Carroll knows winning another Super Bowl next season isn’t going to be easy, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to be impossible.
In fact, it’s very possible, Carroll argues, as long as the Seahawks can play as hard and as motivated as they did last season.
“The most important thing that will happen is if we can recapture the work ethic that made us what we are,” Carroll said on the MMQB. “Nothing else really matters.”
The Seahawks played their 2013 campaign on a higher level than anyone could have imagined, tying a franchise record with 13 regular season wins while getting to the Super Bowl for just the second time in franchise history.
More importantly, last year’s Seahawks brought home the Lombardi Trophy for the first time in Seattle’s history.
Carroll can take a lot of that credit for pushing his players in ways they might not have imagined prior to last season. That is, if they hadn’t played with him in seasons prior.
Make no mistake, if a player isn’t playing at his best, Carroll will replace him — if that means winning.
“If a guy’s not having the best offseason of his life, he’s going to get beat out, I think. That’s kind of the way we roll.”
Carroll has experience winning back-to-back championships, just not in the NFL.
When he was the head coach at USC, Carroll led the Trojans to the 2003 National Championship and the since-vacated 2004 National Championship, winning both of them and creating a legacy at Southern California.
Now he has a chance to create a new legacy in Seattle.
The Seahawks are being looked to as a team who may repeat as Super Bowl champions next season, something that hasn’t happened since the New England Patriots won back-to-back titles a decade ago.
It’s never too early to start preparing, in Carroll’s eyes.
He has the Seahawks in the driver’s seat to create something very special in Seattle. For Carroll, next year’s drive has already begun.