The Seahawks need a big change, some new blood, something to pull them out of the funk they’ve been in for the past few years.  Pete Carroll will provide that.  He has coached at the University of Southern California for the past nine years. In those nine seasons, he led USC to 97 victories, with only 19 losses.

Some argue that college ball is all about recruiting.  It is true that Carroll has coached some of the best at USC. But I don’t buy it. No matter how good you are at recruiting, how talented the rest of your staff is, or who your players are, there is no way a team can pull off a 97 – 19 record without a good coach.

Carroll brought USC two national championships and seven consecutive Pac-10 titles.  If he is half as successful in Seattle as he was in California, the Seahawks will be in great shape.

I realize it’s always a risky move to hire a college coach as head coach of an NFL team.  However, the rumors that college coaches are never successful in the NFL are not true.

Even over the last 25 years, quite a number of coaches straight out of college ball have repeatedly taken their NFL teams to the playoffs.

Dennis Green set the record for most points in a season in 1998 with the Minnesota Vikings. Before coaching for them, Green had been head coach at Stanford University.

Jimmy Johnson coached for the University of Miami before he was asked to be head coach of the Dallas Cowboys.  He won two Super Bowls with them.

Steve Mariucci, a California coach like Carroll, had a 57 – 39 record with the 49ers, finishing first in the NFC West during his first and last years in San Francisco.

Carroll isn’t some scared newbie NFL coach either.  He coached in the NFL for four years before coaching at USC.  He was the head coach for the New York Jets for one year and coached the New England Patriots for three years.

Although his record with the Patriots wasn’t fabulous, it wasn’t terrible either.  He was 33 – 31, which is better than former Seahawks coach Jim Mora’s career record.

Mora has been coaching in the NFL since 1985, which just goes to show that a long NFL career doesn’t automatically mean sucess.

Carroll’s statistics were only average in the NFL, but he earned great respect from his players. According to an article by Danny O’Neal, Carroll’s former players were full of praise.

“[Carroll] just really understood how defenses were supposed to be run,” Lawyer Milloy said.  “He put players in the right position according to their skill level.”

Milloy played for Carroll for the three years he coached the Patriots.  The Patriot quarterback at the time was Drew Bledsoe.  He also raved about Carroll’s coaching.

“If in fact [Carroll] does end up in Seattle, I predict that would be a situation that would be very, very successful,” Bledsoe said.

When Carroll returned to college football and accepted the coaching position at USC, Trojan fan were outraged.  They held protests.  They said he knew too much about the NFL, and not enough about college ball.

Carrols critics should decide which it is.  He can’t be too experienced with  both the NFL and college ball.

Carroll came through for the Trojans. There is no reason he can’t do the same for the Seahawks.

I’m not saying he’s a prophet who will bring us out of the darkness to become the best football team in NFL history.  I’m not even saying we’ll get a Super Bowl trophy this year.  It’s a coach’s job to see that a team reaches their full potential.  The Seahawks deserve that chance to show what they can do. They just need a push in the right direction, and that’s what Carroll will give them.

I eagerly await the Seahawks’ first game this year, and then Carl, we shall see who’s right about Pete Carroll.