RENTON — Mike Macdonald Day got underway at 11:02 a.m. Thursday, when the newly anointed Seahawks coach smiled and approached the stage. In a blue hoodie and blazer, the 36-year-old defensive wunderkind walked along the aisle of an auditorium inside the Virginia Mason Athletic Center — past four rows of pointed phones from assorted media members, past a line of bulky and swiveling television cameras, past a crowd of team employees sitting and standing in the back.
Past silent reminders of the man he was hired to replace, whose colossal legacy lingers.
Macdonald — formerly the defensive coordinator of the Baltimore Ravens, who fell to the Kansas City Chiefs in Sunday's AFC Championship Game — climbed four steps to the stage, past a basketball hoop with a glass backboard Pete Carroll had installed to cultivate constant competition. The Vince Lombardi trophy Carroll raised above his head a decade before was displayed, smudged but shining, in a case outside the door.
Carroll did not attend his successor's introductory news conference.
But his fingerprints were everywhere.
"I've never met Pete," Macdonald admitted, sitting beside executive vice president and general manager John Schneider. "I've always admired him from afar. I have a tremendous amount of respect for him and his track record. He's a Hall of Fame coach.
"Pete has a great personality, but it's his, and it's authentic to who he is as a person. I think that's why the players resonate with him and why he has such a great reputation and his track record is what it is.
"I have a different personality, and you'll get to know me. But my plan is to be myself every day. You're just going to get me. It's not a facade. There are no alternate agendas or anything like that. It's all about what's in the best interest for the team, what's in the best interest for the players and how we can be successful."
Clearly, the Seahawks were plenty successful under Carroll — as evidenced by the 137-89-1 record across 14 seasons, the 10 playoff appearances, the back-to-back Super Bowl berths and the aforementioned trophy.
But Macdonald can't be Carroll. No one can.
He was hired to be himself.
Besides, if Schneider wanted to pin his hopes on a bizarro retread of the Legion of Boom, he could have continued on with the 72-year-old coach. Or he could have hired Dan Quinn.
Instead, both Schneider and Macdonald took a leap of faith — to borrow a phrase that was repeated Thursday — and opted for the unknown.
Such a leap, of course, comes with the risk of a catastrophic fall. Macdonald, after all, has never been a head coach on any level. He coached linebackers and running backs at Cedar Shoals (Ga.) High School in 2008 and 2009, before joining the Georgia Bulldogs as a student assistant. After four seasons in Athens, Ga., he accepted a coaching internship with the Baltimore Ravens in 2014.
A decade later, here he is.
In between, Macdonald ascended — rising to become a Ravens assistant, then the University of Michigan's defensive coordinator in 2021, before returning to the Ravens in the same role for the next two seasons. Michigan finished eighth nationally in scoring defense (allowing 17.4 points per game) in 2021, an 87-spot improvement from the season prior (34.5 points per game in 2020). And this fall the Ravens became the first team to lead the NFL in scoring defense (16.5), sacks (60) and takeaways (31).
In explaining why Macdonald was his man, the 52-year-old Schneider simply said: "The product is the product. He's done it. You've seen it."
Felt it, too.
"I talked to several people that had interviewed him already," Schneider said. "They're like, 'Wait until you look in this guy's eyes, man. He's there. He's present. He's on it.' He was, and everybody in that room felt it."
In a 36-minute news conference Thursday morning, Macdonald's presence was felt. He was direct, intense, dripping with vigor, hands folded all the while. The Boston native and Georgia transplant saluted a slew of personal and professional influences, including:
* His wife, Stephanie, who he called an "absolute rock star and a saint of a human."
* His father (who "taught me integrity, humility and determination") and mother (who instilled that "if you're going to do something, you better do it right").
* His older sisters, Maggie and Kate, who he called "my two heroes."
* Longtime former Ravens general manager Ozzie Newsome, who invested in him as a "20-something-year-old intern" and provided an unwavering example.
* Ravens coach John Harbaugh and Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh, who mentored Macdonald while being "some of the most authentic, competitive people I've ever been around."
Any great head coach, after all, is a product of influences — a painter mixing colors and shades and philosophies, to deliver something new. Macdonald's challenge, in the months and years to come, is to cultivate a winning culture. It's to evaluate talent, install dynamic and adaptable schemes, hire the correct coaches and empower players to produce. It's to win through unwavering authenticity.
It's to honor the past, by building on it.
It's not to be a millennial incarnation of Carroll.
Macdonald — who took the stage in black and gold Jordan sneakers, a far cry from the Air Monarchs his predecessor popularized — isn't here to fill someone else's shoes.
"Welcome to Mike Macdonald Day," declared a smiling Schneider, after taking a seat on the stage.
Indeed, it's a new day inside the Virginia Mason Athletic Center.
So, let's lose the basketball hoop.
