RENTON — Jim Mora started his first press conference as head coach of the Seattle Seahawks by saying that he’s not Mike Holmgren.
Then he went on to prove it.
The Seahawks’ new coach spent most of his 60-minute press conference showing the energy of an eager child with a new toy. He told stories of his days in San Francisco — not the glory years, as Holmgren was known to reference, but the Steve Mariucci era. And when it came to X’s and O’s, Mora spoke at length, and in detail, about the Seahawks’ defense.
At one point, Mora even went into a high-pitched impersonation of former Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin.
Mike Holmgren he is not. But Mora was eager to start a new era in Seattle sports.
“I’ve been in the league for 25 years, and I have been involved in football since the day I was born,” said Mora, whose father of the same first name was a longtime head coach in the NFL. “Football has paid for every meal I have ever eaten, every stitch of clothes I’ve ever put on my body, every movie I’ve ever gone to, every tank of gas I have ever filled my car with.
“Football has paid for that. It’s a passion of mine. It’s what I do, it’s what I am.”
In a press conference that came 11 months after he was officially hired, the Seahawks’ seventh head coach finally spoke about his new job on Tuesday afternoon. Speaking in front of a packed house that spoke to both Mora’s local interest and the lack of sports news in the city this time of year, Mora promised to deliver a winner to the city where he attended high school and college.
“We need to take back the NFC West,” he said. “Our goal never changes from being the Super Bowl champions. Every single year, that will be our goal.
“We’re not going to rebuild, we’re not going to reload, we’re not going to say: ‘Hey, this is going to be a bad year; we can see it before it starts.’ Every single year is about winning the world championship.”
During an hour-long press conference that saw Mora field 25 questions while team president Tim Ruskell and CEO Tod Leweike looked on in relative silence, the 47-year-old coach was asked about his coaching philosophies and changes to his staff but was not pressed on his flirtations with the University of Washington nor his Jan. 2007 firing as head coach of the Atlanta Falcons.
Mostly, Mora spoke of the future rather than the past on Tuesday.
He started by complimenting Holmgren and talking about how fortunate he was to spend two years watching him. Mora later spoke of how his coaching style differs from that of Holmgren.
While Holmgren spent most of his time working almost exclusively with the offense, the defense-minded Mora said he is a more hands-on coach in all three aspects of the game.
“I will be in every special teams meeting,” he said. “I will be on the field for every special teams practice, blowing the whistle to start a drill, blowing the whistle when we’re working our kickoff coverage stuff, be involved in the drills and the coaching on special teams. I will spend time in offensive meetings, in game plan meetings, in group-install meetings, in individual meetings.
“But I’ll spend most of my time with the defense. I intend to be very, very involved with the defense. It’s my passion.”
As for the defensive plan, Mora said that he plans to be more aggressive on defense this year. He was vague when asked who would make the defensive calls but said that new offensive coordinator Greg Knapp will call plays on that side of the ball.
Mora vowed that the Seahawks will be a better running team on offense, citing a statistic about Knapp’s offenses being among the top 10 in that category in each of his nine years as an offensive coordinator.
For much of Tuesday’s press conference, Mora showed the energy that won over Ruskell and was a factor in the Seahawks naming him as Holmgren’s eventual successor last February. Since then, Mora has stayed in the shadows and had not spoken publicly of his promotion.
He said Tuesday that he hadn’t even moved into Holmgren’s office yet.
“I’ve been in there a couple times, and there’s this big black chair sitting there, and I have not put my butt in it,” he said. “Nor will I, until this press conference is over. I have too (much) respect for the chair and the man that used to sit in it to go up there and sit in that chair.”
Eventually, Mora will not only sit in Holmgren’s seat but also try to fill his shoes.
“Those are incredibly big shoes to fill, but I’m going to be me,” Mora said. “I have to be me. I think people that fail in this business when they follow someone that has been legendary, (who) is great, sometimes do it because they try to be that person.
“While I’ve learned great lessons from Mike that I’ll apply as I move forward, I think the important thing is that I’m myself.”
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