Bring on the heat
No one in the Seattle Seahawks training camp has more motivation than Ken Lucas.
And it shows.
The fourth-year cornerback is in a constant battle to start, he wants to be part of what some have predicted will be one of the most successful football seasons in team history and his contract is up after this season.
Or maybe it’s none of the above.
“It’s about time for me,” he said after a recent practice at Eastern Washington University. “I’m a four-year veteran now. It’s about time for me to be a leader on this team, be the one the younger guys are looking up to.”
Whatever is motivating Lucas, he is getting noticed.
“He’s having a great camp,” head coach Mike Holmgren said Wednesday after Lucas picked off another pass.
“What he’s really improved on is he has really become a student of the game,” starting quarterback Matt Hasselbeck said. “He’s been a challenge for the quarterbacks all camp. I can’t say enough good things about how he’s approached this training camp, how he approached this off-season and now it’s paying off for him.”
Even veteran cornerback Bobby Taylor, who started 109 games over the last nine seasons for Philadelphia before signing a free-agent deal with the Hawks, said, “He’s having a great camp, probably the best camp — by far — of all the guys. He’s making a lot of plays for us.”
Lucas makes no secret of his motivation.
“This is my contract year,” he said. “If that’s not motivation, I don’t know what is.”
Or maybe it’s the way the Hawks draft (see Marcus Trufant, the first pick in 2003) or sign free agents (see Taylor) that gets Lucas going.
“I’m one of those guys that that type of stuff motivates me,” Lucas said. “Some guys may be down on themselves because they have to battle for their position. It makes me better. I like the competition.”
It could also be that the Seahawks are expected to make a deep playoff run for the first time since Lucas was drafted in the second round of the 2001 draft out of Mississippi.
“We have something special this year. If we don’t do it this year, you never know if you can ever get to this point again,” he said. “Everybody’s got to do there part … we have to seize the moment, take advantage of it.”
Lucas has certainly done his part so far.
“I think Ken Lucas is probably in the best shape he’s been in, from what I hear,” second-year secondary coach Teryl Austin said. “I know he’s in better shape than last year and I think it’s showing. He feels confident about what he’s doing. He’s getting around the ball and challenging the ball and that’s great.”
Part of it is experience.
“I feel like I’m more consistent that I was my first few years here,” Lucas, 25, said. “That’s the main thing I want to keep as the season goes on. … I told my coaches, stay on me every day all season, because I know have a lot of potential, this team has a lot of potential, and we have to take advantage of it.”
The expected battle between Lucas and Taylor to start opposite Trufant hasn’t materialized yet because Taylor has been slowed with a knee injury and Lucas is cashing in.
“You hate to see someone hurt, but it gives me the opportunity to show everybody what I have,” he said. “I just have to go out there and do my job. When he gets back he’s going to make this team better.”
About face
Holmgren took Wednesday’s sloppy practice in good humor but Thursday’s less than stellar effort wasn’t greeted quite as warmly.
It started when the punt team had a weak effort and had to go again. “That was good for a second time,” he barked. “They don’t give re-dos in games.”
The coach twice stopped practice to address the team and that was after he had a few choice words that everybody on campus may have heard.
“We were practicing certain situations and it was more they were trying really hard but we were not practicing very smart,” he said. “That one’s a tough one for me to swallow. I can put up with a mistake here and there and a physical error, but we didn’t do that drill very well and they just had to know I didn’t like it.”
Quarterback Seneca Wallace said, “It was just one of those days, everybody was sluggish.”
Holmgren didn’t think it was the extra hour of free time the players had the night before.
“Everybody got in on time, everybody was in bed and was asleep,” he said. “I complimented them on that. Heck, maybe they should have stayed out later. I just think we were working on a new situation but still, no excuse. I want to impress upon them that we have to be a smart football team this year. We have a chance to be pretty good, I think, and we have to be smart.”
Practice abruptly ended and the players ran “gassers.” That’s over-and-back across the field twice in less than a certain amount of time. They had to repeat the run –—made in three segments by position — before practice ended. It was 88 degrees at that point, a sweltering 95 in the afternoon.
Hasselbeck just shook his head when asked for his reaction.
“I’d rather not say,” he said. “I said what I had to say to the head coach. He didn’t laugh very hard.”
Notes
Dave Krieg, the only Seahawks quarterback to win a playoff game, will be inducted into the Ring of Honor at halftime of the Sept. 26 game against San Francisco. An undrafted free agent out of Milton College in Wisconsin in 1980, he played 19 years in the league with six different teams, the first 12 years with Seattle … The Hawks signed free agent quarterback Bryson Spinner out of Richmond and the Jacksonville camp to help carry the camp load with Trent Dilfer and Brock Huard sidelined with bad backs. He completed a majority of his passes in his first drill against the defense and admitted afterwards he had never heard of Cheney until his travel plans were made … Right tackle Chris Terry and rookie running back Clarence Farmer missed both practices. A handful of veterans sat out the afternoon practice.