Gilby Takes Cover Ex-UI Coach Heals In Seattle After Nightmare In Berkeley

As if Keith Gilbertson had the option of sitting around and moping after being fired as Cal’s football coach last November.

To do so, to wallow or point fingers or handle the situation like a 5-year old whose popsicle just fell off the stick onto the hot pavement, well, that would have been downright hypocritical.

“You know, that’s one thing athletics teaches you,” said Gilbertson, sweat beads forming on his forehead after a steamy Seattle Seahawks practice earlier this week. “If you take anything from what you’re preaching to those players all the time, it’s that it isn’t going to go good all the time. Hey, get back up and get going.”

So Gilbertson got fired and became a philosopher. And a Seahawks assistant coach, reunited with his old buddy Dennis Erickson.

Gilbertson’s new job isn’t part of some 10-step, post-firing recovery program. The healing process began, he says, soon after the axe dropped.

“I had some chances in the Pac-10 as a coordinator, but I really wanted to get into the (NFL) and come work for Dennis,” he said. “I needed this because I wanted to coach football.”

Naturally, he’s returned to his comfort zone in Seattle to reconstruct his career. He grew up in Snohomish. He was a graduate assistant at the University of Washington in 1976, then hooked up with longtime friend Erickson at Idaho in the mid 1980s. Promoted to head coach at Idaho in 1986, Gilbertson was 28-9 in three seasons before returning to UW as offensive coordinator. He helped turn the Huskies into an offensive power and a national champion in 1991.

“Seattle has always felt right to me,” he said, “even before the UW. I’ve always loved the Pacific Northwest and our families love it here… . When we were younger, the conversation (with Erickson) would go around, and it would always come back to the Pacific Northwest. I’d probably never left Washington if I didn’t think the Cal thing was possible.”

Before Cal, losing had never had a chapter in Gilbertson’s playbook.

The Bears were 4-7 in Gilbertson’s first year. They followed that with a 9-4 season capped by a win over Iowa in the Alamo Bowl. Gilbertson was rewarded with a contract extension that he wouldn’t get the chance to fulfill.

Cal, which fiddles with winning every 3-4 seasons, slumped to 4-7 in 1994 and 3-8 last year and the wolves were nipping at Gilbertson’s heels.

“I guess you could say that was my first negative experience athletically, particularly coaching,” he said. “I was appreciative they gave me the chance to coach. The bottom line is, we didn’t win enough games. That’s the whole story.”

Not quite.

When pressed, Gilbertson will allow a brief glimpse into the hell coaches go through when their programs sour in a major media market. He couches nearly every statement, saying it was his responsibility that Cal didn’t win enough games in his four years, but clearly scars remain.

“Historically, Cal’s been a difficult place to win consistently,” said Gilbertson, who reportedly received a $350,000 settlement from Cal. “We thought we could change that. We obviously didn’t, but we didn’t get to stay to the end. All of our guys were going to be upperclassmen finally and it would have been nice to have the fifth year with them.

“At the same time, you get to a place (in the media) where you’re a bad guy, a terrible coach. There’s seven daily newspapers and all the talk radio and you get to a place where you’re tired of it.

“As much as you say you’re not going to read the paper and let it bother you, your wife reads the paper, your neighbor reads the paper, your assistant coaches read the paper. So after a while, it has this cumulative effect and it wears you down. I took a lot of hits, man.”

Gilbertson believes so much negative ink was spilled about him during his final year in Berkeley that he won’t get another opportunity as a head coach.

Some Bay Area writers say that’s as it should be. They labeled him as a great assistant coach, but not a great head coach.

Gilbertson’s response: “Everybody’s going to have their opinion, but those people are so quick to turn on you, so quick-triggered and they can change in a minute. It’s funny, they thought I was a great coach when we beat Iowa in the Alamo Bowl.”

It’s virtually impossible to go through what Gilbertson went through unscathed. His skin is thicker and some bitterness lingers. Those bubble over to his exterior. But the man, players and Erickson attest, remains the same.

“Two guys who will never change,” Erickson insists, “are Gilby and I.”

“He’s as much a character as he’s always been,” said Seahawks quarterback John Friesz, whose strong arm helped Gilbertson compile that 28-9 record at Idaho. “I’m not sure there’s a guy on our staff like that. That’s good to have because it keeps it fun. If you ask the other coaches, they’ll tell you how much fun he is to work with.

“It’s hard for me to see him over there on the defensive side of the ball because he’s got so many good offensive ideas, but that’s the way it goes.”

It goes that way for a reason, according to Erickson. Gilbertson’s duties are in the defensive secondary, specifically with the nickel package.

“Because of his experience on offense, he’ll be a real positive for us on the defense,” Erickson said. “He brings a fresh background.”

Gilbertson fills a vacancy created by Tom Catlin, the defensive coordinator who retired after last season. Gilbertson feels like a rookie, relearning the Erickson system and studying defensive schemes rather than drawing up offensive plays.

“This has been a great deal for me to get a chance to do this. I’m working on football all day long and that’s what I like,” Gilbertson said. “I’m the first to admit this has been an awfully good run for a long time. There’s going to be some rain sometime.”

So he’s run for cover in Seattle. Doesn’t sound logical, but for Gilbertson, it’s the perfect climate to re-establish his coaching roots.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo