Nighthawk one night, Seahawk the next day

RENTON – When you’re born with the name Golden Ruel, you’re pretty much committed to that do-unto-others approach.

But for more than 30 years, the job of Golden “Pat” Ruel has been to teach large men the techniques of physically striking and dominating other large men.

Here’s another rule of thumb that applied to Ruel last weekend: When you’re coaching the offensive line for the Omaha Nighthawks of the UFL, and an NFL team calls you to join their staff, you don’t spend much time thinking about it.

Let’s see: Nighthawks or Seahawks?

Ruel’s phone rang at bedtime Friday night, and by 7 a.m. Saturday, he was wheels up on his way to Seattle.

Seahawks coach Pete Carroll was left in a desperate situation, and the connection to Ruel was fortunate. His highly regarded (and highly paid) offensive line coach Alex Gibbs resigned Friday, citing burnout.

Gibbs is 69 years old, and coaches unsparingly. Some have questioned whether Gibbs had been at odds with either Carroll or GM John Schneider for any of the many roster moves that have been made. Maybe he quit in a huff over philosophy?

But some in the building have said that Gibbs had talked about being worn out recently. And, besides, it was his daily nature to be at odds with people. So the move may be taken at face value. We can be sure to never hear Gibbs’ story, as he personally embargoes the media.

“First of all, Alex is an extraordinary individual,” Carroll said. “We were lucky to have him as we did; players were lucky to have a chance to be coached by him. He’s one of the greats to ever coach in this league and we wish him the best … love him … hate to see him go, but this is something he had to do.”

From the sounds of it, Art Valero, who had assisted Gibbs with the line, will step into a larger role, and Ruel will help as much as possible as he gets his feet under him.

Schneider had worked with Ruel in Green Bay, and Ruel had been Carroll’s line coach at USC. So, the hire was obvious.

“He was available and it would be a good fit,” Schneider said. “From a football culture standpoint, I think it’s going to be a real positive thing.”

Carroll said Gibbs’ resignation was “not as drastic as you may think.”

“Art is totally familiar with running the meetings, totally familiar with (game-plan) installation, all the technique stuff, everything we’ve been doing,” Carroll said.

He added that he knew that Gibbs was not going to be coaching the Seahawks line for the long term. But resigning nine days before the opener wasn’t exactly expected.

When Carroll was hired by the Seahawks, he quickly brought on Gibbs, which meant that Ruel was not on the initial manifest to Seattle.

Was he hurt?

“Not really,” he said after practice Monday. “I felt like a girlfriend that got left behind, but there were no hard feelings … there’s other dates out there.”

When he heard Carroll on the phone, Ruel assumed he was calling about some of his Omaha players he might raid. When he instead asked Ruel to join him with the Seahawks, Ruel told him he was already in a “three-point stance.”

See, Ruel has a sense of humor, and apparently doesn’t mind sharing it with the media.

His reputation is solid. Way back when he was an assistant at Washington State (late ’70s, early ’80s), coach Jim Walden called him one of the most innovative and creative coaches around. His special skill? Communicating with his players.

Asked to describe himself as a coach in a few words, Ruel responded: “Are you kidding? I’m awesome!”

OK, seriously. “I’m a players’ coach,” he said. “I see myself as a teacher. I love the game, I love working with players, that’s about it in a nutshell. And I love my wife, too … put that down.”

It was wise for him to say that – in the name of domestic politics – because when Carroll called Friday night, Ruel was on the first plane out of town to face a new challenge.

dave.boling@thenewstribune.com