Settling still not an option for Hall of Fame inductee Bevell
June 27, 2017 | Football, Mike Lucas
Wisconsin’s career passing leader shares NFL aspirations, memories of Madison and working with Russell Wilson
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BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer
MADISON, Wis. — Seattle Seahawks offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell has been around Russell Wilson for five seasons. Or long enough for the ex-Wisconsin quarterbacks to understand what makes each other tick.
"We're obviously all competitive, right?" Bevell proposed rhetorically. "Well, he's ultra-competitive and we'll rib him every now and then.
"One time, we were sitting in the meeting room, all the offensive skill players. And one guy said, 'Hey, Bev, who was the best quarterback in Wisconsin history?'"
Wilson's teammate put the ball on the tee and Bevell took a full swing with his response when he teased Wilson by pointing out, "All I know is that I won my Rose Bowl."
Bevell delivered his playful job mindful of Wilson's competitive fire.
"It just kills him," said Bevell knowing Wilson and the Badgers came up just short, maybe one play short, in a 45-38 loss to Oregon in the 2012 Rose Bowl. "It's fun to mess around with him."
Bevell's game-winning touchdown run against UCLA in the 1994 Rose Bowl was an integral element of a resume that led to his selection to the University of Wisconsin Athletics Hall of Fame, Class of 2017.
Wilson, who played only one season for the Badgers, will surely join him in due time.
UW athletic director Barry Alvarez, who coached Bevell, informed him of his HOF induction.
"It wasn't a call I was expecting and I was pretty excited and pretty fired up about it," said Bevell, the school's career passing leader. "Wisconsin holds such a great place in my heart."
Plenty of star power and a couple of new UW Hall of Famers headlined today's Legends of Wisconsin Golf Classic.
— Wisconsin Badgers (@UWBadgers) June 27, 2017
Although he didn't play in Tuesday's Legends of Wisconsin Golf Classic at University Ridge, Bevell attended a Monday night reception honoring the returning players at Kellner Hall.
(Bevell will return to the state in early September when the Seahawks open the season against the Green Bay Packers in Lambeau Field, another installment of their burgeoning rivalry.)
"I've been driving around all day (Monday) kind of checking out some places and things, just looking around (the UW campus) and kind of remembering what a great time it was," Bevell said.
"What I particularly remember most was the transition that we went through (in the early '90s) when Coach Alvarez just got here. And to think where the program is today and that we started it …
"That is something special."
Bevell was reminded of his own personal transition to Wisconsin after serving a two-year Mormon mission. He had friends going to New Zealand and Australia.
Bevell drew Cleveland and northern Ohio. As a 22-year-old freshman, he got off a good line on the perils of the missionaries knocking on doors in tough neighborhoods.
"You had people trying to steal your bikes," he said, "while you were still on your bike."
There was plenty to learn during that stage in his life. He learned to be on his own. He learned responsibility. He learned rejection. Mostly, he learned about himself.
"I learned more from people than they learned from me," he once acknowledged.
Fact is, he has never stopped learning. Or teaching. Darrell and Tammy Bevell have three daughters — one is headed for BYU to play softball — and they've shared many of their life lessons.
"It's the people that you come into contact with that helps shape you," said the 43-year-old Bevell, "whether it's your coaches, your teachers or your friends who have become lifelong friends."
That's why he was looking forward to catching up with old teammates in Madison.
"I love to see the guys, I love to connect," he said. "It's easy to pick up the conversation where you left. You can pick it up and it's almost like you never left, and that's a great feeling."
Bevell was a coach's kid. He played for his dad, Jim, in high school. Coaching is in his DNA. After 11 years as an NFL offensive coordinator, six in Seattle, he has a burning desire to be a head coach.
"It is something I will definitely try to do," said Bevell, who has had nibbles in the past. "It's interesting. A few year ago, I probably would have said, 'No, I wasn't ready.'
"But I've been around enough, I've learned enough, I know enough. I think I can handle situations a lot better, whether they're with discipline or leadership style."
"There are so many things that come around a head coach's desk that we don't even think about. But you have to be ready for all those situations that might come up."
That includes dealing with the adversity of a goal-line interception in a Super Bowl; a painful memory for everybody in the franchise from head coach Pete Carroll to Bevell to Wilson, et al.
"You have to kind of find how who you are and how you want to be and what you believe in and what your philosophy is," Bevell said. "I think I know all of that now and can convey that (to a team).
"What I really want to do is keep winning (in Seattle)."
The Seahawks have gone 63-32-1 with two NFC titles and one Super Bowl crown since 2011.
"That has helped me, but it has also hurt me," said Bevell, whose extended seasons have limited job interviews. "Because of the way the NFL cycle is, you keep winning and they're hiring coaches."
Seattle has not won fewer than 10 games in a season since Wilson took over as the starter.
"He has proven himself as one of the upper echelon quarterbacks in the league," Bevell said. "Everybody keeps waiting for him to fall. But he keeps playing well year after year after year.
"He has played well since the day that he stepped on the football field for the Seahawks. The thing about him, he wants to be the greatest. And he just doesn't say it, he works at it.
"Everything he does, both physically and mentally, he puts himself in the best position to give himself a chance to be one of the best of all-time."
Here for one year, that was all Russell Wilson needed to become one of @BadgerFootball's greatest. #CampRandall100
— Wisconsin Badgers (@UWBadgers) June 27, 2017
Second-best is not an option, not to Bevell whose favorite quotation can be traced to 1956 when John F. Kennedy was asked if he would accept the Democratic nomination for vice president.
To paraphrase JFK's reply, "Once you accept second place when first place is available, you have a tendency to do it the rest of your life."
That has stuck with Bevell ever since he began playing organized sports as a youngster.
"My dad always used that quote," he once explained. "And it's something I try to live by because I don't like to settle for second-best."
It's something these ex-Wisconsin quarterbacks, generations apart, share in Seattle.
