Jim Mora to Coach Some Team in Seattle Area
Jim Mora will coach the Seattle Seahawks next year if he doesn’t coach the Washington Huskies, who he’ll coach if he doesn’t coach the Seahawks, and if that doesn’t work out, well ... he’s working on his LSAT and his GMAT, because you never can have too many degrees these days.↵↵He has options: that’s what I’m trying to say, options that maybe shouldn’t be waggled at a guy with a middling record as a head coach at the pro level, and who has a record of publicly angling for other jobs while holding current positions. Yes, he was joking when he said he’d take the University of Washington job while he was still head coach of the Falcons. Likewise, if I were to say I’d like to spank the waitress serving my wife and I dinner, I may be kidding, but I certainly can’t say that to my wife. Also, you shouldn’t say those kind of things out loud, and certainly while the waitress is standing right there pouring you a new cup of coffee. That’s an “inside thought,” and you should keep it to yourself.↵
↵↵Also, the troubling pattern of ogling after pro coaches for college slots continues despite the preponderance of evidence showing that NFL coaches, after average to bad careers in the league, continue on to the college ranks and become mediocre college coaches, too. Dave Wannstedt is 24-22 at Pitt. Chan Gailey is back in the NFL after mastering the art of going 7-5 every year at Georgia Tech. Bill Callahan is with the Jets as an offensive line coach after flopping at Nebraska. NFL assistant Karl Dorrell muddled around at UCLA before his eventual termination. Mike Sherman is just getting started at Texas A&M, but it has been an ugly start for the Aggies as they sit in the bottom of the Big 12 South.↵
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↵Yet the Pete Carroll Experience (Now in PSYCHEDELIC AWESOMEVISION) continues to bamboozle ADs into picking up the hefty contracts of NFL assistants annually. Few fail to note that Carroll changed his approach completely from his days with the Patriots, a process he's talked about at length as being integral to his success at USC. Carroll changed everything he did as a coach from the floor up, a spectacular change mid-career few people are really capable of pulling off successfully. (See Hall's Rules, Number 2: "People never change. Don't expect them to.") Mora is a relative infant in coaching terms; the odds of him thinking he needs to change anything are minimal at best, especially since what he's done thus far has a pro team and a college team dangling head coaching jobs at him left and right.↵
↵↵He will have to change to be a successful college coach, and if thousands of years of human history are any indication, he won’t, and he’ll be on his way out in three or four years with torch-bearing boosters chasing him down the road. Additionally, if he keeps creeping on the Seahawks, he may find himself deposed as heir apparent while also missing out on the UW job, a spot coveted by luminaries like Mike Leach and Pat Hill. (Both have interviewed for the job already.) Both have been successful head coaches at the college level already, and have displayed the ability to rebuild programs. ↵
↵↵Or the Huskies could hire someone currently stringing along everyone from his Blackberry, who has three years experience squandering the pre-dogfight talents of Michael Vick on his resume. Your choice, Washington.↵
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This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.
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