KIRKLAND – He could be back in Georgia, preparing the Atlanta Falcons for his fourth season as an NFL head coach.
He could be in South Florida, cleaning up Nick Saban’s leftovers while trying to put the Miami Dolphins back on the map.
Or he could be trying his hand at the college game, poring through tapes of some school’s spring game while trying to figure out which high school players to recruit for the future.
But to see and hear Jim Mora this week, it’s apparent that there is no place he would rather be than back in the Pacific Northwest, coaching the Seattle Seahawks’ defensive backs.
“To be quite frank, it’s kind of a dream for me, it really is,” the Seahawks’ most high-profile assistant coach said Wednesday as he stood under sunny skies after a minicamp practice. “It’s great to be back here. I love it.”
The former Falcons coach met with the media for the first time Wednesday, professing his love for the city where he attended college, expressing his regret for the well-publicized comments about the University of Washington job, and explaining why he opted to accept a position as a Seahawks’ assistant coach instead of one as the Dolphins’ head coach.
“I get a chance to work with Mike Holmgren, who is probably going to go to the Hall of Fame some day,” Mora said. “And if I ever do get another (head) coaching job, it’s another great coach I’ve been exposed to.”
The graduate of Interlake High School in Bellevue and the UW later added that Seattle “just feels (like) where I belong.”
Mora was fired by the Falcons after making comments on a Seattle radio station five months ago, when he referred to the UW head-coaching position as his dream job and added that he would take that job “even if (the Falcons) were in a playoff running.”
Again on Wednesday, Mora expressed regret for those comments and said that he has since had a conversation with UW coach Tyrone Willingham to clear the air.
“Since Tyrone got that job, I’ve been nothing but 100 percent supportive of him,” Mora said Wednesday, “and I felt really bad that in any way I took away from what he is trying to do here, or made it seem like I wanted his job. Because I don’t.
“I want him to have success, and I expressed that to him. And we’ve talked on a couple occasions since.”
Mora has maintained a high energy level throughout the camp, and he was in jovial spirits when meeting with the media Wednesday. At one point, he even joked about the hoopla that surrounded his Dec. 14 comments by saying, “I’ve never ever hidden my love for the Great Northwest,” laughing, and adding, “as we all know.”
While Mora won’t get in any more trouble for professing his love for this part of the country, he still has to be careful about what he does and says in public. There have been people outside the organization who wondered out loud whether his decision to come here had something to do with the future head-coaching job.
Holmgren turns 59 next month, leading to questions about whether Mora is being groomed to be his eventual successor.
“Really, I’m just excited about being a Seahawk, being back in Seattle,” Mora responded when asked that question Wednesday. “I don’t think you can predict the future. I’m not going to live for the future.
“… I’d be lying to you if I told you I wasn’t interested in being a head coach again, having gotten a taste of it. But right now I’m extremely excited about the situation I’m in.”
Mora’s excitement has been obvious this camp. He runs from drill to drill, throws passes to defensive backs, and continues to shout encouraging words to players on both sides of the ball.
As linebacker Lofa Tatupu observed earlier this week: “I think he has some snaps in him. He wants to go out there and play just as much as everybody else (does).”
Mora might miss being a head coach, but it sure hasn’t looked like it during the past week.
“I loved being a head coach; I hope at some point to get that chance again,” he said. “But one of the things about being a head coach is you do miss the dirty work: the hands-on, having a group of 10 guys you work with intimately all the time.
“And to get that chance again, it’s kind of refreshed me, revived me. It brings that passion back out.”
Notes: Wide receiver Deion Branch was back at practice Wednesday after missing the previous day because of an outside commitment. Running back Shaun Alexander and offensive lineman Sean Locklear were both gone for the second consecutive day while attending to off-the-field matters. … One of the stars of the current camp has been wide receiver Chris Jones, a Jackson State product who spent parts of the past two seasons on Minnesota’s practice squad. Jones has made several diving receptions at the Seahawks’ camp.
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