One and done for Hawks’ Holmgren

KIRKLAND, Wash. – Mike Holmgren will return for a final season as coach of the Seattle Seahawks – but only a final season.

The 59-year-old veteran of 16 seasons as an NFL head coach announced his decision Tuesday to fulfill the final year of his contract, after spending the weekend with his wife at their off-season Arizona home.

“Kathy and I came to this decision to finish my contract,” said Holmgren, who had hinted at retirement for weeks. “This will be my last year. We are going to make it the best year ever.

“And then probably after that, I will take a little time off – but not yet. We are going to go after it hard.”

Seattle has a likely heir to Holmgren in place in Jim Mora.

Soon after Mora was fired as head coach of the Atlanta Falcons on New Year’s Day 2007, Holmgren added him to the staff as the assistant head coach and defensive backs coach. Mora, 46, led Atlanta for three seasons and went to the NFC championship game in his first season there.

“The transition beyond this year should be really smooth. The organization is healthy,” Holmgren said.

He didn’t mention Mora by name, leaving talk of his successor “for another press conference. I won’t be there.”

Mora went to junior high and high school in the Seattle area while his father was an assistant at the University of Washington. Last week Mora removed himself from consideration for the vacant head coaching job with the Washington Redskins.

Holmgren said that Mora and all other defensive assistants will remain in their same roles.

Offensive line coach Bill Laveroni will not be back. Keith Gilbertson is being shifted to receivers coach, after Nolan Cromwell left to become the offensive coordinator at Texas A&M for coach Mike Sherman. Offensive assistant Gary Reynolds also is joining Sherman’s staff.