Seahawks in the Super Bowl, part two: (r)ode to joy

The Seahawks didn’t know it, but help was on the way

Seattle desperately needed a new direction, and they got just that when they hired former USC head coach Pete Carroll. Carroll is generally acclaimed as the best coach in Seahawks history. I concur completely, as does site expert Lee Vowell in a totally not pre-agreed ranking, even though we both had the same top three. Pick the three that made the playoffs; not too difficult, really.

Carroll had four years under his belt as a head coach in the NFL before he jumped back to the college ranks. He inherited a bad Jets offense in 1994 and couldn’t fix them in the year he was given. After two years as the 49ers defensive coordinator, he took over the head job for the Patriots. Three years of diminishing returns (10-6, 9-7, 8-8) got him the axe from New England at the end of the 1999 season.

People tend to forget that the Patriots went 5-11 under the genius touch of Bill Belichick when he followed Carroll in 2000. Rookie Tom Brady was on that team and threw all of three passes. It wasn’t until the following year that the all-time genius Belichick replaced Drew Bledsoe with Brady. Even then, it was only because Bledsoe was nearly killed by a torn blood vessel in his chest. Some genius; “Hey kid, my other quarterback is nearly dead. Get in there.”

Back to Carroll. As the head coach at the University of Southern California, Carroll wasted little time in getting the program back on track. After an inaugural 6-6 season in 2001, the Trojans racked up seven straight years of double-digit wins. In his nine years at USC, Carroll’s record was 97-19, won seven bowl games and a national championship. Yes, I know about 2005, but this is a happy story.