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Sleepless in Seattle Holmgren endures roller coaster first year with Seahawks
Posted: Wednesday January 19, 2000 11:10 AM
KIRKLAND, Wash. (CNNSI.com) -- Even though the Seahawks lost their playoff game to the Miami Dolphins, Mike Holmgren's first season in Seattle would have to be considered a success. Under Holmgren, the Seahawks had their first winning season since 1990 and made it to the playoffs for the first time since 1988. That won't be good enough for Holmgren, though, according to one of his longtime assistant coaches. Holmgren wanted to be on the winning side in Sunday's game against the Dolphins to feel good about himself. Holmgren's insides boiled in the week leading up to the game, said Tom Lovat, who has been Holmgren's offensive line coach since Holmgren's first season in Green Bay in 1992. "Mike's a competitive guy. He's always intense. He's as intense an individual as I've ever been around," Lovat said. The last six weeks were not easy for Holmgren. After an 8-2 start, the Seahawks had a 1-5 finish. They were beaten 19-9 last Sunday by the Jets and made the playoffs only when Joe Nedney's field goal soared through the uprights for Oakland in Kansas City in overtime. After losing the second of four straight games, Holmgren accused his defensive linemen of "stealing" their paychecks after a lackluster effort in Oakland. Other than that, Holmgren was mostly calm and collected. "He handled it well," Lovat said. "He's been through streaks where he's been a little more upset. But I think he knows we're building a team here and you don't want to lose them." For the seventh straight year, Holmgren has a team in the playoffs. The only time Holmgren missed the playoffs as a head coach was in his first season in Green Bay in 1992. With the Packers, Holmgren got into two Super Bowls and won one of them. Holmgren's intensity has picked up this week, Lovat said. "Mike wants to win every game," Lovat said. "But I guess when you get to the bigger game, and the playoffs are probably in that category, his RPMs are probably a little more." Holmgren has taken a Seahawks team that got Dennis Erickson fired with an 8-8 record last season into the franchise's first playoff home game since 1984. The Seahawks are slight favorites to beat Dan Marino and the Dolphins and advance in the playoffs to a game next Sunday in Indianapolis. At Seahawks practices, Holmgren has been at his intense best. Considering his team's sagging imagine of itself, he has been positive and soothing to his players. Still, he has had a lot of bite with his comments, too. "It's going to be noisy," Holmgren told young cornerback Shawn Springs of Sunday's final game in the Kingdome. "Good timing. That's just right," he said to backup running back Ahman Green, who has been on the receiving end of some stinging criticism from Holmgren this season. "What were you going to do?" Holmgren warned linebacker Darrin Smith after he intercepted a pass and appeared ready to lateral the ball to another defender, something he doesn't want to see happen in the Dolphins' game. In Green Bay, coach Ray Rhodes and all his assistants were fired after one season as the successors to Holmgren and his coaching staff. It's apparent Lovat, 61, thinks Holmgren and his coaching staff weren't appreciated enough in Green Bay. "It's interesting that they're asking for a tough team now in Green Bay," he said. "Well, we were a physical team although I don't think we got the credit for being that way. We were a finesse, West Coast team, but there were some playoffs where we had to take the ball and drive 80 yards and we did it." Lovat said the firing of Rhodes and his staff after one season was unfair. "Nobody has enough time in a year," he said. "But there must be something that's underlying there that we don't know."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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