RENTON, Wash. (AP) -Houston Texans assistant coach and two-time Super Bowl winner Alex Gibbs has agreed to join Pete Carroll’s Seahawks staff.
“I know I am going to be coaching the offensive line for Seattle,” Gibbs told KRIV-TV in Houston. “Other than that I don’t know anything else. If I’m the assistant head coach fine. If I’m not, fine. I know I am going to coach the offensive line.”
Gibbs got to know Carroll while he was the coach at Southern California from 2001 until Monday.
“He and I have talked about this for a long time, but I didn’t think it would happen,” Gibbs said.
Gibbs told the station Carroll brought him to USC to be a consultant in 2002.
at USC. I helped coach the coaches at USC. We coached off of film, not the field. I didn’t work with any players.”
Adding the 68-year-old Gibbs is a coup for Carroll. Gibbs is known as a guru on the zone run-blocking scheme, which Carroll wants to make the basis for his Seahawks offense.
“It’ll be one of the great achievements in our early process of putting this thing together,” Carroll said, before he had a chance to talk to Gibbs again on Tuesday. “He’s a fantastic football coach and I can’t wait to get out of here so I can go call him and see where we are in that.”
Gibbs, who joined the Texans in 2008, began coaching in the league with Denver from 1984-87. He assisted with the Raiders (1988-89), Chargers (1990-91), Colts (1992) and Chiefs (1993-94) before returning to the Broncos for his greatest successes, from 1995-2003. He won consecutive Super Bowl championships in 1998 and ’99.
Terrell Davis was the NFL MVP in 1998, rushing for 2,008 yards and 21 touchdowns inside Gibbs’ blocking schemes.
Jim Mora, whom Seattle fired on Friday to clear the way for Carroll’s return to the NFL, hired Gibbs on his first coaching staff in Atlanta in 2004. Gibbs left when Mora was fired by the Falcons following the 2006 season. He then spent two seasons out of the league before joining the Texans.
o install Gibbs’ blocking system. That failed. Seattle was 26th in the league in rushing in 2009, averaging fewer than 98 yards per game.
Now Carroll is replacing the disciple with the guru.
“We have to run the football to be successful in our division first, and then in the NFL. You have to,” Carroll said, during a rambling, excited opening monologue of 11 minutes, 42 seconds that began his introductory news conference at Seahawks headquarters. “It will affect everything that follows. It’ll affect defense. It’ll affect our passing game. It’ll help our quarterback.
“It’ll give us the kind of mindset in the approach that we all love, to back when we follow this game of football. So I’m really excited about that.”
USC offensive coordinator Jeremy Bates is also coming with Carroll to Seattle, presumably to fill the same role with the Seahawks. Trojans linebackers coach Ken Norton Jr. and offensive line coach Pat Ruel are also expected to follow their old boss to the Northwest.
Carroll, who is also interviewing general manager candidates for the Seahawks this week, said he will have announcements on his staff in the coming days.
Gibbs said leaving Texans coach Gary Kubiak wasn’t easy.
“I enjoyed working with Gary,” Gibbs said. “He is one of my favorite people ever. He is a great young head coach. The Texans are really close (to winning consistently) and I wish them nothing but the best.”
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