Dallas Clark: Maybe the best story from the Ferentz era

Edgar Cervantes (left), Robert Gallery (70) and Maurice Brown (9) celebrate with Iowa's Dallas Clark after a touchdown against Northwestern at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City Saturday, Nov. 9, 2002. (Gazette file)

By Marc Morehouse

May 22, 2012

Kirk Ferentz has been head coach for the Hawkeyes for 14 years now. That’s a long time and that’s a lot of great stories.

Bob Sanders rings out. Robert Gallery isn’t bad, either. Certainly, Nate Kaeding, Colin Cole and Pat Angerer. I’m not going to go over them all (Abdul Hodge/Chad Greenway). There’s no way I’d mention all the ones that have moved you (Mitch King/Matt Kroul) through the years.

I go back to Dallas Clark’s story, a lot.

The 33-year-old signed what could well be his final NFL deal on Monday, linking up with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Here’s the story (didn’t call them “posts” back then and I’m not even sure this ever found its way to the internet) I wrote when Clark announced he was leaving Iowa early for the NFL draft (nine seasons with Indianapolis and had 427 career receptions for 4,887 yards, 46 touchdowns and a Super Bowl ring).

Headline: No what-ifs: Clark opts for the NFL

IOWA CITY – Dallas Clark arrived at Iowa with a broken collarbone, a murky promise of a spot as a walk-on and darned near no money.

He leaves as one of Iowa’s all-time best tight ends and, if he cleans up well for NFL scouts, a wealthy young man.

Clark, everyone’s all-American this season, announced Wednesday he will skip his senior season and enter April’s NFL draft.

“Before I even decided, whatever decision I made it was going to be 100 percent, never looking back,” Clark said. ”I’m not going to live in the world of ‘what ifs, what ifs.’ If I get drafted in the fifth round or if I got hurt, this is my life and I’m going to live with the rewards and consequences. I feel great about this opportunity and my decision.”

Iowa went 2-for-3 in Hawkeyes shunning the NFL Wednesday.

Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz, who interviewed for the Jacksonville Jaguars opening last week, dropped out of the running and received a raise, UI Athletics Director Bob Bowlsby said.

Offensive tackle Robert Gallery, who considered skipping his senior year next year, will remain a Hawkeye.

“I’m staying,” Gallery said. “I’m not filing papers (to the NFL offices), and I’m not looking back. This is the right decision for me. I belong at Iowa for another year.”

[Iowa has struck out on the senior O-lineman the last two times out with Bryan Bulaga and Riley Reiff, but they made the right decisions for them and that's all that matters. Ferentz will tell you that, too.]

Clark, a junior from Livermore, is the first Iowa player to skip a year of eligiblity since tight end Jonathan Hayes passed up the 1985 season for the draft.

Clark, 23, said he’ll remain on campus this semester to train but won’t enroll in classes. He said he intends to finish his degree and pursue a teaching career.

Clark kept himself composed and thanked Ferentz, strength coach Chris Doyle, tight ends coach Reese Morgan, Bowlsby and his family.

“It’s been a really hard decision, one of the toughest I think I’ll make,” Clark said. “I know that it’s probably going to upset a lot of people I’m not coming back. But I thought a lot about it. This is the right thing for me. At this point in my life, I have to look out for my best interests.”

Clark’s story is nothing short of incredible. He began his Iowa football life in 1998 as a part-time student with a broken collarbone. Former Iowa coach Hayden Fry promised Clark a chance to make the team and came through on the promise.

“We’ve got to put Hayden in there, because it was Hayden who gave him a chance,” said Doug Clark, Dallas’ dad.

Clark became a full-time student and a full-fledged team member in January ’99. But two days before the season opener against Nebraska – Ferentz’s first game as head coach – Clark had an emergency appendectomy.

The first two semesters in ’98 were particularly difficult.

His mom, Jan, died two days before he graduated from Twin Rivers High School. With two sons finishing college, Doug Clark had a tough time helping his youngest son make ends meet.

“Maybe we didn’t have the greatest stuff, but we enjoyed what we had and it worked,” Doug Clark said. “But I do know that any kid in America who says he can’t support college, I can testify he can.”

[A timely quote, IMO.]

Dallas Clark basically lived on his own that first year.

“It was really hard,” said Clark, who has some $15,000 in student loans. “I just didn’t feel like a college freshman, because I had so many responsibilities.

“I was by myself, so I had to handle that. I had to grow up. I didn’t get to enjoy the finer things at college. But to play even just one game at Kinnick Stadium, it was all worth it.”

Before being awarded a full scholarship in fall ’01, Clark played football, took classes and worked. He held a summer job with UI grounds services, which included mowing Kinnick Stadium.

[I asked this because I remember being at the complex for something and seeing Clark taking a ride in a John Deere Gator with work gloves on. Biggest whiplash juxtaposition in Iowa football history.]

“I woke up at 6 a.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday,” said Clark, who started as an outside linebacker and made a splash on special teams before moving to tight end in spring 2001. “I mowed Kinnick Stadium and mowed the baseball stadium, both softball fields, both soccer fields. I fixed sprinkler heads. I mowed the complex. That helped me pay the bills.”

[Oh yeah, he was an outside linebacker for a while at Iowa.]

He mowed Kinnick, then he owned Kinnick.

The deadline for underclassmen to file for draft eligibility was Wednesday at 5 p.m. Players then get 72-hour window to reconsider.

Clark is definitely going. Gallery is definitely staying.

Gallery, a 6-foot-7, 305-pounder, would have been a mid-round selection this year.

“I talked to a lot of NFL people and everyone said late first round or early second, but I had already made up my mind,” Gallery said. “I want to be the top offensive tackle in the draft next year. I want to help this team achieve next year.”

[He was to the tune of a $60 million deal. Gallery also is in the twilight of his career. He'll play with the Patriots this season.]

Clark said his age was a factor. He’ll be 24 in June. Next year would have been his sixth year at Iowa.

Clark talked to NFL scouts from the Ravens, Patriots and Colts. He sees himself as a “solid second-rounder.”

[Colts?]

ESPN’s Mel Kiper rated Clark as the No. 3 junior tight end in the nation.

Late first-round picks get contracts in the $5 million to $7 million range with signing bonuses of about $1.5 million.

Third-rounders get contracts in the $2 million range with signing bonuses of about $700,000.

“I think Dallas is going to be a guy they can split out, use as a slot receiver, a lot like the Giants use (Jeremy) Shockey,” said Marv Cook, a former all-American tight end at Iowa who had a Pro Bowl career in the NFL.

“I think he’ll be great in motion, being able to get in trips and work the three-man, West Coast-style offense with another tight end. I think he’ll be able to contend for a starting job right now.”

[Man, Marv nailed it.]

Clark’s career as a Hawkeye
Career Highlights

1998 – Red-shirted after joining the team as a walk-on.

1999 – Did not see any game action. Missed second half of season with an injury.

2000 – Earned coaches appreciation award for special teams play. Saw action on special teams and at linebacker in all 12 games.

2001 – Made switch to tight end, starting 10 games and playing in all 12. Earned honorable mention all-Big Ten by coaches and media. Had two TD catches against Miami (Ohio) and had seven receptions for 116 yards against Penn State.

2002 – Winner of John Mackey Award as nation’s top tight end. First team all-American by Associated Press, Walter Camp Foundation, American Football Coaches Association and Football Writers Association of America. First team all-Big Ten. Big Ten offensive player of the week after Purdue game when he caught three passes for 116 yards and two touchdowns (a 95-yarder and the game-winner in the closing seconds).

Colin Cole makes "big stops" against Saints

January 10, 2011

Ten Things I Think I Think

I think this is what I liked about wild-card weekend:

Colin Cole, Brandon Mebane of the Seahawks. Big stops for four quarters.

Improve your football IQ

By Clare Farnsworth

October 22, 2010

That’s the goal of the Football 101 workshop that will be held Saturday at VMAC and is being sponsored by the Seahawks Women’s Association – including Michaela Bradley, wife of the team’s defensive coordinator.

Michaela Bradley’s football IQ should be off the charts.

After all, she has one brother, Dave Marion, who was an All-American offensive lineman at North Dakota State and another, Steve, who also played for the Bison. Oh, and she is married to Seahawks defensive coordinator Gus Bradley.

But just because Michaela Bradley has football in her blood doesn’t mean it’s always on her brain.

“I had to be somewhat in tune to the game, because it was so much a part of our life,” Michaela said Thursday. “We’d go to the games, where it was junior high, high school or college. That’s just what we did.

“But understanding football is like learning a foreign language.”

Especially when you husband speaks it so fluently.

“I had to ask him the other day about the Bears game (on Sunday), and how do you know when you blitz as much as you do? I just don’t get that,” Michaela said. “He was trying to explain it and then he just looked at me and said, ‘Never mind.’ ”

That’s why Michaela has decided to co-chair the Football 101 workshop on Saturday that is being hosted by the Seattle Seahawks Women’s Association at Virginia Mason Athletic Center.

“Women who watch football every Sunday with their husbands that really don’t have an idea, they can come to this and it gives them a better insight,” Bradley said. “I can learn from this, too, because it’s not like Gus and I sit down and talk about A-gaps and B-gaps.

“So it will be great for everyone on Saturday to walk away with a greater amount of knowledge.”

On hand to impart their knowledge of the game will be middle linebacker Lofa Tatupu and his wife, Rachael; nose tackle Colin Cole and his wife, Kaye, the other co-chair of the event; former Seahawks linebacker Dave Wyman; and former offensive tackle Ray Roberts. Jen Mueller, the sideline reporter for the radio broadcasts of Seahawks games, will serve as the emcee.

“The Football 101 workshop is twofold,” Kaye Cole said. “Not only will fans have the opportunity to sharpen their football IQ, but also learn about the myriad set of complex demands, stressors and challenges associated with being diagnosed with breast cancer.”

The workshop is being held in conjunction with the NFL’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and proceeds from the event will benefit the Pink Daisy Project and the Young Survival Coalition.

Michaela Bradley and Kaye Cole also can share experiences of what it’s like to be married to an NFL coach and player.

“It’s a commitment to your husband’s job and supporting them, and recognizing the fact that you are somewhat on your own for a period of time,” said Michaela Bradley, who has four young children – Carter, Anna, Eli and Ella.

“You just have to roll with it.”

She got an idea what the lifestyle would be like as soon as she and Gus stayed dating. That was when Bradley returned to North Dakota State in 1996 after a five-year stay at Fort Lewis College. Bradley, who also played at North Dakota State, had been a graduate assistant in 1990-91 – when coached Steve Marion.

“I remember my brother saying, ‘Hey, you’ll never guess who’s back at North Dakota State?’,” Michaela recalled. “And I said, ‘Who?’ He said, ‘Gus Bradley.’

“I said, ‘Oh, I’ve got to talk to him, he’s the happiest guy I’ve ever met.’ ”

They met. They dated. And 10 months later they were engaged. But only after a dating process that Michaela laughingly likens to an interview process.

“I think I had 10 questions on our first date: Am I independent? Can I raise children by myself? Do you think you can be an OK coach’s wife?” Michaela said. “I’m thinking to myself, ‘I’m 24 years old, I have no idea; but yes, yes and yes.’

“That’s when we knew it would work out OK, and it’s been awesome.”

Asked about his wife’s football IQ, Gus Bradley cracked, “Let’s not get it confused that just because she had brothers that played that she’s got a high football IQ. She understands it somewhat, just what the game involves.

“But when it gets to X’s and O’s, she’s like anybody else.”

Which is just another reason why Michaela Bradley is looking forward to Saturday’s Football 101 workshop.

New scheme gives DT Cole bigger impact

San Francisco running back Frank Gore is stood up at the line of scrimmage by Seattle tackle Colin Cole in first half action.

By ERIC D. WILLIAMS

October 3, 2010

Seahawks: 3-4 alignment puts former nose guard in center of run-stopping plans

Renton - Early against San Francisco in the season opener, running back Frank Gore bounced outside and broke free with nothing but daylight between him and the end zone.

Gore was headed for a sure touchdown before Seattle Seahawks defensive tackle Colin Cole swooped up the Niners’ running back, holding him to a 6-yard gain instead.

“I know Frank was upset about it, but had (Cole) not been there that was six points,” Seattle middle linebacker Lofa Tatupu said. “Those kinds of plays are special. … He’s been playing amazing lately, and I just hope he keeps it up.”

The play was an example of the new freedom Cole has been given in Seattle’s 3-4 hybrid scheme, resulting in higher productivity for the 6-foot-2, 330-pound former nose guard brought in before the 2009 season to help the Seahawks’ run defense.

Cole is tied for sixth on the team with 11 tackles, and has a pass deflection. He said the team has shifted him from a penetrating nose guard playing in the gap to a two-gap player head up on the center, allowing him to read the running plays and move to the ball to make a tackle.

“It’s just the way the scheme is made up,” Cole said. “I’ve always played with the mentality of being able to play sideline to sideline and get out on some of those plays. So it’s just the fact that now kind of being at the line of scrimmage and being able to have one guy on me helps me find the ball better, especially being over the center. The center usually brings you to the ball for the most part.”

Cole’s change in focus was part of Seahawks coach Pete Carroll’s emphasis on getting bigger inside to stop the run and force offenses into third-and-long passing situations.

Seattle was solid against the run last season, finishing 15th overall (98 yards a game). But the Seahawks have raised their level of play in 2010, and are fifth overall against the rush (67.7 yards per game).

“Stopping the run is always going to be an important part of the program,” Seahawks defensive line coach Dan Quinn said. “For me, it’s how good you can play the techniques, which is something we’re going to continue to work hard to do, and to have great pride in that. I think when you have a good run defense, it opens up other opportunities for you.”

Along with Cole, Brandon Mebane has been a force inside. But the Cal product has been limited this week with a calf injury and might not be available today.

So it will be important for the Seahawks to lean on their depth inside.

He’s a sole man

In the middle of the Seahawks’ fifth-ranked run defense is Colin Cole, a nose tackle who was once told he didn’t have what it takes to play in the NFL. Look who’s smiling now.

By Clare Farnsworth

September 23, 2010

As Colin Cole was being led to the hallway outside the Seahawks’ locker room, he had no idea what awaited him: TV cameras. And lights. And reporters. And tape recorders.

Not the reception the team’s nose tackle usually gets. While he draws crowds on the field, the life of an interior lineman can be one of solitude when it comes to media attention. Then, the first question he was asked Wednesday concerned his shoes, not the way Cole has been clogging the middle for a run defense that ranks fifth in the league after two games.

“Without a doubt. There’s no question about that,” offered the affable Cole, who was wearing a pair on beyond-neon sneakers, when asked if he has the snazziest shoes on the team. “My shoe game is better than most.”

More to the point, this sole brother’s on-field game has been as noticeable as his shoes.

Entering Sunday’s game against the San Diego Chargers at Qwest Field, the Seahawks’ defense is allowing averages of 57 rushing yards per game and 2.0 yards per carry. And Cole has been right in the middle of most of that good stuff. He leads all the linemen with nine tackles, but even more important is the way his disruptive, space-eating presence has allowed others to make plays.

“When centers block him, he doesn’t move very much,” coach Pete Carroll said of Cole, whose 335 pounds are packed upon his 6-foot-2 frame to create a body that was made to play nose tackle.

“He needs to control the line of scrimmage and not get knocked back. He doesn’t have to run sideline to sideline to make his plays; he makes his plays in the box.”

The box is that area between the tackles on the line of scrimmage where only the strong survive, and it takes even more to thrive.

“He’s been very effective in the first couple of games and really given us good play,” Carroll said of the nose tackle he inherited in January when he signed on to be the Seahawks coach. “The style really suits his makeup. He’s very physical at the point, doesn’t get knocked around and also has good instincts to find the football.”

That style Carroll referred to is “a combination of 3-4 principles with 4-3 personnel,” as Carroll puts it.

That style also fits Cole as well as his flashy shoes. He also was the nose tackle in his first season with the Seahawks, but that was in 4-3 personnel with 4-3 principles. Now, Cole is closer to being the true nose tackle he was born to be.

“The defense the way it is right now kinds of allows me to move around a little bit and get singled up a little bit,” Cole said. “So I’m able to move laterally and locate the ball a little bit better. Last year, I was in a gap so it was easier for those guys to get two blockers on me and just kind of stay on me.

“That made it a lot harder to get to the ball. Now, with the two-gap scheme, as well as sliding head-up over the center, he brings me to the play most of the time. It’s pretty good to play off him, especially when I’m single-blocked, and make plays. Last week and the week before that, I was able to make a couple plays outside of what of a normal nose tackle is able to do.”

Obviously Cole is not doing everything by himself. There’s also three-technique tackle Brandon Mebane , who’s also bigger than he was last year but still as active; five-technique end Red Bryant , a 323-pound converted tackle; “Leo” end Chris Clemons , who has played the run better than advertised for a rush-end; Junior Siavii and Kentwan Balmer , two more big, active players who have been used in the line rotation; middle linebacker Lofa Tatupu , the metronome of the defense; active outside ’backers Aaron Curry and David Hawthorne ; strong safety Lawyer Milloy , who will turn 37 in November but is playing like he’s going to be 27; free safety Earl Thomas ; and cornerbacks Marcus Trufant and Kelly Jennings .

“We’re really making the holes small and making it hard for guys to be able to get in there and run up the middle,” Cole said when asked for the Seahawks’ secret to their run defense after two games.

“Most people want to establish the middle running game. But we’ve been able to squeeze off holes and whatever’s been outside guys have been able to scrape over the top – we’ve got fast linebackers who are able to scrape over the top and get to things.”

The way the Seahawks are playing, especially against the run, is hard to overlook.

“The first thing that’s always stood out to me about their defense is they’re fast,” Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers said during a conference call interview. “They really fly around. Even more so, to go with that fast, this year’s team (has) that size inside.

“They’re big and obviously playing really well against the run. They have really stuffed the run the past (couple) weeks, so it’s going to be a challenge certainly to run the ball.”

It’s all by design. Carroll and John Schneider wanted to get bigger, without sacrificing any speed on defense.

“We look for big guys to hold the point,” Carroll said. “So you need bulky, big, strong guys. That’s why it’s important for Colin Cole to be part of this defense in the middle.

“We thought we could get big. We were preparing for our division, as well – a division that likes to run the football with big backs and tough backs. We thought that would all fit together so that’s why we went that way.”

No one is happier than Cole. This is a guy who signed with the Minnesota Vikings as a free agent after not being selected in the 2003 draft. He spent time on the practice squads of the Vikings and Detroit Lions that season, only to be released. He was on the Green Bay Packers’ practice squad in 2004, before being signed to the active roster in late November. From 2005-08, he started eight games for the Packers.

So when the Seahawks went after him in free agency last year, his first reaction was: Where do I sign?

“It means the world to me,” Cole said of being not only wanted but appreciated. “I was actually sitting back last night talking with my wife about this whole situation, and thinking of where I’ve come from.”

That discussion was interrupted by a commentator on TV.

“It was the same gentleman who told me I wouldn’t make it in this league and I’m not good enough,” Cole said. “To have the opportunity to do well these first two weeks, obviously I’m happy.”

That commentator obviously didn’t account for the soul of this sole man.

“Any time you get a chance to make some tackles and make some plays, and cause some disruption, it’s a lot of fun,” Cole said. “And going above and beyond what I’m expected to do is exciting to me.”

For the love of football

By Clare Farnsworth

October 16, 2009

When Colin Cole met his wife, Kaye, her knowledge of football was an instant attraction. Now she will put it to good use in Saturday’s “Football 101” workshop.

When Colin and Kaye Cole first started dating, there was an immediate attraction.

“When I met her, she knew a lot about football,” said Colin Cole , the Seahawks’ nose tackle. “And that’s one of the main reasons that she and I clicked so well, because I don’t have to worry about having to go another room to watch football.

“She wants to be there to watch it, too.”

Kaye Cole grew up in what she calls “a football family.” Her father was a Dallas Cowboys fan. She was a San Francisco 49ers fan. Her brother played the sport.

“Kaye is a big fan, and she just loves it,” Colin said.

Kaye is putting that football background to good use Saturday, when the Seahawks Women’s Association is holding a “Football 101” workshop at Virginia Mason Athletic Center.

There are still a few spots open for the workshop, which begins at noon and runs until 5 p.m. Registrations are being taken at Seahawks.com.

The event will be broken into four quarters and feature presentations by three former players – Dave Wyman, Ray Roberts and Eddie McMillen. Paul Johns, who also played for the Seahawks and is now the team’s assistant director of community outreach, will serve as the MC. There also will be autograph and “postgame” sessions, the later to include a raffle.

“What we’re trying to impart to everyone is that you can have no football knowledge or you can have a little bit of football knowledge, and you can come to the ‘Football 101’ workshop and get the technical side of what’s going on,” said Kaye, who is a co-chair of the event with Linda Ruskell and Kathy DeHaven – wives of the team’s president and special teams coach.

“Maybe a person doesn’t know all the calls or what the first-down marker is all about. This is their opportunity to come learn about it.”

The proceeds from the event will benefit the Puget Sound affiliate of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation and the Breast Cancer Sisterhood.

“It’s going to be awesome,” Kaye said. “While women are getting the technical side of the game, they’re also helping to support two great organizations.”

Cole has her PhD in counselor education and supervision. She taught an online course in sports psychology for Capella University before moving to the Seattle area this spring after Colin signed with the Seahawks in free agency.

It was Kaye’s football background that also led to her meeting Colin. It was at the University of Iowa, when Kaye’s brother made a recruiting trip. Kaye accompanied her brother because their mother couldn’t make it.

Colin jokingly likes to tell everyone that Kaye “stalked” him.

“She’s my queen and she’s a great woman,” he said, and then added with a straight face. “She obviously knows a great man.”

Just as obviously, Kaye is a smart woman. “She was smart before I met her,” he said. “Smart enough to come after me.”

But Kaye tells a different story.

“When people ask how we met, he tells everyone I stalked him – he’s like, ‘Every time I turned around, there she was. She was just always there,’ ” Kaye said. “It’s hilarious. That story is so convoluted. Don’t listen to him.”

Kaye laughed, before telling her side.

“Colin sat across the table from me during my brother’s recruiting trip to Iowa,” she said. “We were all talking back and forth about which state produced the best athletes. Of course Colin said Florida, because he’s from Florida. Someone else said Texas.

“I was thinking, ‘Oh gosh, please don’t let this guy hit on me, because I know it’s going to happen.’ But he didn’t.”

After Kaye enrolled at Iowa their paths crossed again, this time because Kaye had three tickets to a lecture series featuring Bill Clinton.

“My brother backed out at the last minute,” she said. “I was like, ‘Whoever I see that I know, I’m going to ask them.’ ”

One guess who that was.

“I swear, the first person I saw that day was Colin,” she said. “We’ve been together ever since.”

Regardless of who instigated the beginning of this match made in football heaven, those attending Saturday’s workshop will benefit from their love-of-football relationship.

Half a ton of toughness

Jim Mora and Tim Ruskell added nearly a half of ton of physical toughness to the Seahawks this season.

By Clare Farnsworth

September 27, 2009

After struggling through a tough 2008 season, Seahawks president Tim Ruskell and coach Jim Mora decided the team needed an infusion of toughness.

Enter, in order, nose tackle Colin Cole, wide receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh, fullback Justin Griffith, defensive lineman Cory Redding and cornerback Ken Lucas.

Together, they bring 34 seasons of NFL experience to the mix – not to mention more than half a ton of toughness.

“Either guys have it or they don’t,” Mora said. “A team has it or they don’t have it. We’ve made a concerted effort in the draft and free agency to find guys that have a strong physical presence.

“These guys are all tough. They’re all tough.”

This makeover wasn’t just a coach longing to have more toughness on his team. It became an organization-wide obsession.

“We made a point with our scouts, to have that be a filter we put all these guys through. Where are they on the toughness scale?” Ruskell said. “Because that’s the point of emphasis with the coaching staff, so it has to be the point of emphasis for the personnel department.

“Jim made it a point of emphasis all offseason – that’s how you win the close games, that’s how you win the road games, that’s how you win playoff games. Toughness. Our record is not good in road games forever, and you can’t keep blaming the travel and the time zone.

“There’s something more to it than that.”

It’s toughness. And, unlike proper footwork or textbook tackling technique, it’s not something that can be coached.

“I don’t know that you go through three weeks of training camp and just create nastiness,” Mora said. “We look at guys and say, ‘Are they tough guys? Are they great competitors? Are they guys that can intimidate on the field? Do they have a strong physical presence?

“And we try to add guys like that to the mix.”

Redding finds it, well, tough to argue with the logic or the selection of players.

“If that was the goal – to get toughness – than they fulfilled it once they got all of us,” he said, smiling. “So I think they did a good job.”

With all that said, here’s a look at each of the tough guys the Seahawks added to their mix:

Colin Cole – All it takes is one look at the 6-foot-1, 330-pounder to see that “toughness” could be his middle name.

It’s also a prerequisite for the position he plays.

“Certainly, you start with the nose tackle,” defensive end Patrick Kerney said when asked about the team ratcheting its toughness quota. “He has to be the toughest player on the team because he’s going to be battling two guys more often than not, down after down.

“We have toughness in Colin.”

But where did Colin get his toughness? “I can’t say that I’m the epitome of what toughness is, but for me it goes all the way back to high school and wrestling,” he said.

Cole wasn’t just a wrestler – and definitely not a ’rassler. He was the undefeated state champion his senior year at South Plantation High School in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. – and his only loss as a junior came at the state tournament. His combined two-year record: 61-1.

It was wrestling that taught Cole how to establish a good base when someone else is trying to knock you over, and how to use his low center of gravity and natural power to impose his will on others.

“Prior to me wrestling, I don’t know that I had the balance, I don’t know that I had some of those things that I utilize playing defensive line now,” he said.

It also was wrestling that gave Cole an outlet for his aggressive nature.

“If it hadn’t been for wrestling, I would never have gained the abilities that I’ve got right now – especially to be able to play on the interior the way I do,” he said. “All the attributes that you have to have to play, I got from wrestling.

“Every play, every snap, for me is hand-to-hand combat. Every snap for me is tight quarters. Hands. Hand placement. Balance. When guys are coming at your legs, you’ve still got to play square; you’ve got to still play with speed. But at the same time, sometimes you have to play off one guy to get another guy.”

Seahawks look to Cole to bolster run defense

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

RENTON, Wash. -- Few positions in football get less recognition than nose tackle.

Players weighing in at well over 300 pounds take a beating and rarely show up on the stat sheets.

Still, if a nose tackle is doing his job correctly, he makes everyone around him on the defense perform better.

This offseason the Seattle Seahawks brought in 6-foot-1, 330-pound Colin Cole, who spent the last five seasons with the Green Bay Packers.

Defensive tackle Craig Terrill says it's great "to have a big guy in the middle" - a player who can "easily take on two blockers and free up linebackers and defensive ends to go make plays."

During the Seahawks' Super Bowl run in the 2005 season, they depended heavily on Marcus Tubbs to command doubleteams and free up the linebackers to flow to the football and the defensive ends to get up field and put pressure on the quarterback. Tubbs played in a career-high 13 games for Seattle and anchored a run defense that finished fifth in the NFL with only 94.4 yards per game allowed.

In 2006, Tubbs suffered an ACL tear that sidelined him most of the season, and the Seahawks' run defense faltered.

Last season, he tried to come back from micro-fracture knee surgery only to be waived during training camp for failing to pass a physical.

Without Tubbs, Seattle struggled to stop the run. The team was forced to play with an extra defender near the line of scrimmage more often and teams took advantage of the Seahawks and managed to put up 378 yards per game against the Seattle defense. The team finished 30th in the league in total yards allowed.

Terrill sees a lot of similarities between Tubbs and his new teammate Cole.

"Those big guys that can still move so fast, they're kind of a wonder," Terrill said. "To be that big, that strong and still be that agile, they're very similar. Both hard players and tough guys too."

Cole will be the anchor of a defensive line looking to return to its 2005 form.

"If you can't stop the run, you're dead in the water," Cole said. "Stopping the run is key."

The Seahawks are hoping Cole can be the player who can fill Tubbs' role.

"I think when you bring in a guy who has the size and the power that Cole does inside, it's helping in the run game," defensive line coach Dan Quinn said.

Cole Looking Sharp at Seahawks Camp

From Chris Egan's Seahawks Blog, April 8, 2009

If you haven't seen one of the newest Hawks on defense, then you haven't been to the Hawks mini-camp this week. Defensive Tackle Colin Cole is a beast, 6'1" and 330 pounds. Don't let the weight fool ya, this guy can bring it. I watched him closely at practice today and he knows how to turn on the jets for a big man. With Cole, Brandon Mebane, Cory Redding, Red Bryant and Craig Terrill all at D-tackle, I think the Hawks finally have the cupboard's full at that position. "I'm here to help wherever I can", says Cole. "I'll work hard, learn the schemes and do what I can to get this team back to the top." The former Green Bay Packer is excited to be in Seattle and I'm excited to get the chance to cover this guy.

Cole gets $6 million guaranteed

March 1, 2009

By Pete Dougherty

Colin Cole's trip into free agency turned out to be quite lucrative for the former Packers backup defensive lineman.

A source with knowledge of Cole's new contract with the Seattle Seahawks said the deal was worth $21.5 million over five years, including $6 million guaranteed.

The Packers had tried to sign Cole before the start of free agency, but talks with Cole's agent, Neil Cornrich of NC Sports, didn't advance far enough to get a deal done. When Cole hit the free-agent market, Cole proved right in rejecting the Packers' offer.

Healthy Cole Showing Strong All-Around Presence

by Mike Spofford

October 22, 2008



Last year, when defensive tackle Colin Cole got his first chance to make a significant impact on the Packers' defense, he came through, but due to an injury he was never able to build on that performance.

This year Cole is again making an impact, and he's steadily showing up more and more with each successive week.

Back in 2007, Cole was somewhat of a bit player in the Packers' defensive line rotation as a backup to the team's top three defensive tackles -- Ryan Pickett, Johnny Jolly and Corey Williams. Through the first 10 games of the season, he was inactive twice because of a mild concussion and twice because of gameday roster decisions, and he made just eight tackles in the six games he did play.

But then Jolly went down with a season-ending shoulder injury against Carolina on Nov. 18, and with rookie Justin Harrell not yet recovered from an ankle injury, Cole immediately moved up in the rotation for the Thanksgiving game four days later in Detroit.

He responded admirably to the call, posting a season-high five tackles (three solo), plus a pass breakup, before a freak pile-up during a goal-line situation fractured his forearm, ending his season seemingly just as it was getting going.

Fast forward to this year, and injuries once again have forced a larger role on Cole than initially thought, even after Williams was traded to Cleveland in the offseason. Harrell has yet to play because of two offseason back surgeries, and end Cullen Jenkins, who would often move to tackle in passing situations, has been lost for the season to a torn pectoral muscle.

That has left Cole in essentially a three-tackle rotation with Pickett and Jolly, and the fourth-year pro is producing at the rate he likely would have last year had he not gotten hurt.

"He's been outstanding," defensive tackles coach Robert Nunn said. "The guy has been a solid performer since I've been here. He's been steady, done everything we've asked him to do.

"He's taken advantage of his opportunities this year, and has made the most of them. He's made some big plays in some key moments, and I'm extremely proud for Colin."

Cole has posted 26 tackles (15 solo) on the season, including five in each of the last three games since Jenkins went down and his workload increased. Cole's game also has evolved from being strictly a first- or second-down run-stuffer to playing any down and providing some interior pass rush when needed.

He has yet to record an official sack this season, but Cole had one two weeks ago at Seattle that was wiped out by a penalty on a teammate. Then last Sunday against Indianapolis, he got his arms around Peyton Manning's waist and was dragging him to the ground as Manning got rid of the ball.

Add to that two deflected passes in the past two games and Cole is certainly doing his part to help collapse the pocket, adding considerably to his contributions.

"The guy is playing as good as anyone up there in the front," Nunn said. "I may be wrong on this, but I think every game he's had a pressure or a quarterback hit. And he should have drawn a couple more holding calls. I think he ended up drawing one, but he certainly could have drawn a couple more.

"That's as important as pressures and hits, when you back them up. He's done an outstanding job and I've got as much confidence in him as I do anyone up there."

Cole's steady, increasing production is also a sign there are no lingering effects from the broken arm from last November.

Nunn said he really sensed Cole coming on back in Week 3, when he made one of his best plays of the season against Dallas, shedding one of the Cowboys' massive offensive linemen to get to running back Marion Barber.

"He was a little tentative at first, but that went away pretty fast," Nunn said of Cole's recovery. "That was the only thing that slowed him a little bit early was getting comfortable with sticking that thing in there after what was a pretty serious injury."

Cole played more than 40 snaps against Indianapolis, his most in quite some time. He may not be called upon for that much duty again anytime soon after the bye, as the defensive tackle depth should improve once Harrell is activated from the physically unable to perform list.

But after his season was cut short in '07, the Packers now know what they have in Cole for '08. And with everything that has occurred injury-wise on the defensive line this year, it's hard to imagine where the unit would be without him.

"I'm glad he's in a Packer uniform," Nunn said. "He's a solid performer. He's good for our meeting room, our locker room and our team as a whole, and I'm just glad we've got him."