The Seattle Seahawks hired four new head coaches to fill a couple positions left vacant with others moving on.

Keith Carter joins Seattle’s staff as a quality control coach on offense. Carter spent the last three seasons as the running game coordinator/offensive line coach for the University of San Diego, and played H-back at UCLA during the time that Seattle offensive line coach Tom Cable served as the Bruins offensive coordinator, graduating in 2005.

Carter replaces Luke Butkus, who took a job as the offensive line coach for his alma mater the University of Illinois.

Former Seahawks defensive back Marquand Manual returns to Seattle as the assistant special teams coach. Manuel spent eight seasons in the NFL, playing for six different teams, and was a starting safety for Seattle’s Super Bowl team in 2005.

He joins the Seahawks after spending last season as a coaching intern at his alma mater, the University of Florida. Manuel replaces Jeff Ulbrich, who took a job as special teams coach for former Seahawks head coach Jim Mora at UCLA.

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Michael Lombardi of NFL Network is reporting that Seattle Seahawks offensive coordinator Jeremy Bates has been fired today.

UPDATE: The team confirmed this report, which is a surprising move by Pete Carroll.

Bates was with Seattle for only one season and had coached with Carroll for one season at USC. Bates had been the subject of criticism of late for his emphasis on pushing the ball down the field in the passing game, which did not seem to jibe with veteran quarterback Matt Hasselbeck’s reliance on the short passing game.

Bates’ calls on 4th and short situations had come …

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Pat Dooley of the Gainesville Sun is reporting that Seahawks defensive line coach Dan Quinn will leave Seattle to take a job as the defensive coordinator for the University of Florida.

Quinn worked with new Florida head coach Will Muschamp while both worked for the Miami Dolphins under Nick Saban.

Quinn initially interviewed for the defensive coordinator position when he joined Seattle two years ago under Jim Mora’s staff, but Gus Bradley ultimately was selected to fill that position.

Quinn is well-respected by the players in his position group and is considered one of the up-and-coming talents in …

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The Seattle Seahawks formally announce Pat Ruel has been hired as the offensive line coach, replacing Alex Gibbs.

The Seattle Seahawks have named Pat Ruel, who was Head Coach Pete Carroll’s offensive line coach the past five seasons at the University of Southern California, to fill the same position with the Seahawks, the club announced today.

Ruel, 59, has NFL experience. He was a guard for the Miami Dolphins (1971-72) and coached the offensive line with the Detroit Lions (2000), Green Bay Packers (2001-02), Buffalo Bills (2003) and New York Giants (2004). He also coached at Washington State (1978-81), spending

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Wow. I didn’t see this coming.

ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports that Seattle Seahawks offensive line coach Alex Gibbs abruptly resigned just a week before the regular season starts.

UPDATE: The Seahawks just confirmed Gibbs has stepped down because of fatigue.

Now, Gibbs has been known to wear out his welcome, hence the bouncing around he has done his career. And Gibbs is no spring chicken at 69 years old.

But it does come as a surprise that this would happen just before the season starts.

I had heard rumblings that Gibbs was grating on the players in his …

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Although the Pete Carroll feature we ran on Sunday was lengthy, there was quite a bit that didn’t fit in the paper, so I thought I would toss in a few more things and give the blog folks a little background on the story.

Coach Carroll gave me about a half hour of time in his office. I think he liked the idea that the story was going to be about some of his off-field passions and not so much about football. When he was hired, we covered almost every possible football angle, anyway, and I was intrigued by what I’d read about his involvement with A Better LA foundation, a non-profit outfit he helped establish that works to funnel funds and resources into the toughest neighborhoods to fight the spread of gang violence.

This guy is hyperkinetic. He was at his computer with music going (Moby Grape, he pointed out at one point). As he answered questions about the foundation, he played with a soccer ball almost non-stop. To almost every question about his direct influence, he deflected the attention to the people in the community who “are doing the real work.”

He said there had been some concern in LA that his move to Seattle would disrupt the program. “The work is way bigger than me,” he said. “All that I can do to help support it I’ll do. In talks with the Seahawks about coming up here, they made it clear they were more than willing to help the process. I know that Tod (Leiweke) is committed to generating the same kind of impact in areas of the community … to extend whatever we can in this direction as well.”

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According to this report from WIVB-TV in Buffalo, former Seattle Seahawks special teams coach Bruce DeHaven will return to Buffalo as the team’s special teams coach.

DeHaven, who has 23 year of NFL experience as a special teams coach, served in the same capacity for the Bills from 1987 to 1999, but was let go in 2000 after the Bills lost to the Tennessee Titans in the AFC playoffs on the “Music City Miracle.”

Looks like former Seahawks offensive coordinator Greg Knapp has landed on his feet. According to John McClain of the Houston Chronicle, the Houston Texans have hired Knapp as the team’s quarterback coach.

Just like Knapp, Houston head coach Gary Kubiak has ties to Denver and former Broncos head coach Mike Shanahan. Kubiak hired new offensive coordinator Rick Dennison away from Denver a few weeks ago after former offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan left to join his father and become the offensive coordinator for Washington.