Erickson’s Hire Gives Hawks A Lift

Cortez Kennedy has been the Seahawks Answer Man the past week.

You played for Dennis Erickson. What’s he like? What’s going to happen? Where do we go from here?

And when his fellow Seattle Seahawks teammates ask those inevitable questions, Kennedy gives a formatted response.

“I tell them two things: One, get ready to work hard,” Kennedy said. “And two, get ready to win some games.”

Kennedy played under Erickson at the University of Miami, and will be reunited with him as Erickson was hired Thursday to replace Tom Flores as Seahawks head coach.

Flores was liked and admired by his players. But as deeply as they cared for the coach, they equally detested losing. Flores’ Hawks won only 14 games in three seasons.

And that’s what Erickson has been hired to change.

“I’m very excited,” said Kennedy, a Pro Bowl defensive tackle. “Dennis is a great football coach who knows how to win; a great competitor who will do a great job for this team.”

Kennedy admires the coach be cause it was Erickson who put him in the starting lineup his senior season. “He’s the one who said, ‘Cortez, I’m going to give you a chance to start because of how hard you worked.’ I made AllAmerican and play in the NFL now because he gave me the chance.”

Perhaps most influenced by the hiring of Erickson, a proponent of the spread-passing attack, will be quarterback Rick Mirer.

Mirer, entering his third year, said he was saddened by the firing of Flores, but was once again lifted by the news of Erickson’s hiring.

“It seems like a good thing to me,” Mirer said. “I don’t know him real well, but I did play for him at the (East-West) Shrine game a couple years ago.

“I’m sure we’ll get along fine.

Hopefully we can win a lot of games together.”