Scott Linehan still counts the photograph among his most treasured possessions. There he is, a 140-pound high school freshman, standing between Seattle Seahawks stars Jim Zorn and Steve Largent.
That was then, when Linehan was a Seahawks fan growing up in the Yakima Valley, and this is now, when Linehan will be going against the Seahawks as head coach of the St. Louis Rams.
“I don’t really go there much anymore,” the 43-year-old, first-time coach said of his memories as a Seahawks fan. “I’m a Ram now. It certainly piques your interest a little more because of where you’re from. (But) I don’t get too caught up in that. We’ve got a pretty busy schedule on a daily basis around here.”
As the Sunnyside native and former University of Washington assistant prepares to face the Seahawks this Sunday, the small town where he was raised might be divided. He said he has plenty of friends and relatives who are big-time Seahawks fans, but their allegience might have to take a one-week hiatus.
“They’re not this week,” Linehan said of Sunnyside, a 14,000-person town 35 miles outside of Yakima. “… That’s what they tell me. I hope so.”
The pride of Sunnyside – Linehan lists 1960s UW offensive lineman Jake Kupp as his hometown’s most famous product – is preparing his new team for the one he grew up watching.
Linehan said he dreamed of playing for the Seahawks even before posing for that photograph at the Northwest Football Camp. His days as a player ended after a solid career as the University of Idaho’s quarterback, and he turned to coaching shortly thereafter.
“I really believe that’s what he wanted to do,” said Seahawks assistant Keith Gilbertson, who coached Linehan for three years at Idaho. “He’s a coach’s kid, and he comes from a football family. I really thought he’d be terrific.”
The early reports are pretty good, based on the Rams’ 4-1 start. The former Minnesota Vikings and Miami Dolphins assistant has made an immediate impact in his first year as a head coach at any level.
Running back Steven Jackson referred to Linehan as “a breath of fresh air.”
Wide receiver Dane Looker, who also played under Linehan for two seasons at the UW, said the new coach has given the Rams a quiet confidence.
“He’s always been a guy who exudes a lot of confidence,” Looker said. “Being that he was a first-time head coach, on a team with so many veterans, it could have been a little intimidating. But he never seemed intimidated at all.”
That Linehan never served as a head coach before this year seems to be lost on his current players. He started coaching under John L. Smith at Idaho in 1989, moved up to the University of Washington in 1994 and spent five years as an assistant under Jim Lambright before moving on to Louisville in 1999.
(Coincidentally, Linehan and his former college coach missed each other by one year in Moscow and Montlake, leading the 58-year-old Gilbertson to quip: “If I keep coaching long enough, maybe I’ll get a chance to coach with his children.”)
Linehan’s big break came in 2002, when Minnesota Vikings head coach Mike Tice offered him a job in the NFL. Linehan spent three years with the Vikings, and another with the Dolphins, before the Rams named him their 22nd head coach – and third in less than a year – last January.
At the time of Linehan’s hiring, owner Georgia Frontiere told the St. Louis Times-Dispatch: “He told me of his plans for the Rams, and it made me want to start the season right away.”
Linehan isn’t resting on his laurels despite the quick start to the 2006 season.
“It is too early,” he said. “We have played five games, and we are fortunate to be 4-1; we really are. I think everybody probably knows that. We have a long, long way to go.”
People from all over the Pacific Northwest are rooting for Linehan to continue to have success. Everett native Dennis Erickson, who is in his second stint as Idaho’s head coach, spent a year coaching Linehan back in the mid-1980s.
“It’s fun to watch him on the sidelines, (to) watch him roam around and know that he has a knot in his stomach,” Erickson told The Spokesman-Review of Spokane this week. “I’ve been on those sidelines before. It’s fun to see him be successful.”
Gilbertson remembers Linehan as a tough player who injured his throwing shoulder in the spring practice before his senior year, but played the entire season anyway.
“He was a great kid to coach, and (had) a great understanding of the game,” Gilbertson said. “He liked to compete. He was terrific. He was a great college football player.”
The always-humble Linehan remembers his career a little differently. He can look back at that photo of himself standing between two Seahawks legends and smile at the future pro career he envisioned.
“To anyone who’s watched me play,” he said, “it was definitely a dream.”
It might not be as a player, or even as a Seahawk, but in one sense Linehan’s NFL dream has come true.
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