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Danny O'Neil covers the Seahawks for The Seattle Times.

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February 6, 2008 11:07 PM

Second-chance points

It's a little different now. Jim Mora has been on the Seahawks coaching staff a year now, and I think there was a pretty strong feeling that if he was still on the staff when Mike Holmgren decided to call it quits, well, he'd be the logical choice. Well, Holmgren decided he's going to call it quits after this year (or his wife, Kathy, decided he's going to call it quits) and Mora's still on the Seahawks staff and after Wednesday's announcement, he's not only the logical option, he's the official one.

The tea-leaf readers have spent the last 24 hours saying, "I told you so." There is a fairly vocal group that pointed to the win totals that declined each season as an example of why this isn't a decision for fans to rejoice over. Finally, there are those local fans bemoaning the fact he won't be headed to Montlake any time soon to coach the Huskies.

Well, there's a full 12 months worth of time to speculate about his Seahawks' head-coaching tenure. For now, I'll posit one observation about evaluations of Mora's previous tenure. It wasn't too shabby. He had a winning record in the regular season, 26-22. He reached the conference championship game his first year. It's hardly the kind of record that usually results in a dismissal though the radio interview with KJR-AM in which he talked about the Washington job probably played a role in poisoning the well for him in Atlanta, so to speak.

But recent NFL history has also shown that coaches improve in their second NFL job. Look no further than this past weekend's Super Bowl. Tom Coughlin won it and the Giants are the second team he's been head coach with after previously working in Jacksonville. The Patriots' Bill Belichick? The Patriots are his second head-coaching gig, too. He was fired in Cleveland before that franchise relocated.

Being the abacus-toting nerd that I am, I'll see if I can put some numbers behind that hunch that coaches have a better go at things their second time around and get back to you in the weeks ahead.

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Posted by Ben

2:03 PM, Feb 07, 2008

I think when you get the opportunity to bring in a guy like Mora, especially ahead of time, to be groomed as the next head coach, only good things can happen.

It makes for a very smooth tranisition after Holmgren is gone. And getting it out now helps the team when free agency begins.

Mora has been tabbed as being very good at speaking with the next generation of fooball players. He's had some success when he was down in Atlanta. And he's been shown how we do things around here until it's time for him to take over.

Just look at what he did for our secondary last year. Marcus Trufant turned in the performance of his career and is taking off for Hawaii this year. I was expecting an upgrade, but not a complete overhaul. The guy is good at what he does. But I'm still curious about what he can bring to the offense.

Mora is also a Seattle native. And he's said that's important to him and his family. I have always been one for rooting for the hometown guy myself.

I think we will be fine when Jim takes over the reins. I know that Tim Ruskell and the ownership believe that he will do great things here. If anything it should be easier to win for him here with the class that Ruskell brings in with his football players.

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