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His life is full of them.

First, Richard is coaching for the same Seahawks organization that drafted him out of college in 2002. And then, Richard has seen Coach Pete Carroll take over and try to change the culture of a program — in 2001 as a player in Carroll’s first year at USC and now as a cornerbacks coach in the coach’s first year with the Seahawks.
“Full circle indeed,” Richard, 30, said while shaking his head. “It’s a real blessing.

“It’s surreal.”

Undeniably surreal. But that just begins to tell the whole story. Richard started out as a standout cornerback at USC from 1998 to 2001, went on to a six-year NFL career and then got into coaching as a graduate assistant at his alma mater in 2008.

And now, here he is in Seattle as an NFL coach, just a few years after his playing career ended because of knee injuries.

It all began during Richard’s senior season at USC, which was ushered in with a coaching change that shook the program. A man named Pete Carroll was coming in with a blaze, setting the place on fire with his energy and excitement. Many players, however, were very skeptical of the pizzazz of the new head coach.

“We had already been through two coaching changes — this was our third coach, so you’re protecting and guarding yourself,” Richard recalled. “Can this guy be for real? Can he be that juiced up all the time? Nah, he can’t be.

“But the more you saw how genuine it was — it wasn’t a façade — you realized it’s real.”
Richard said Carroll’s “natural enthusiasm and genuine appreciation for football” injected an intangible element into the program. That’s when Richard realized “that’s the kind of ball I want to be around.” Even before Game 1 of that 2001 season, the Trojan culture had begun to change.

“The change in atmosphere is what you recognized right off the bat,” Richard said. “We thought we played hard already, but we really didn’t. We started to enjoy it and capture a moment and seize an opportunity and have a great time playing ball.

“It took a while for us to figure that out during Coach Carroll’s first year, but when that light bulb turned on, there was no turning back.”

Well, not so fast. The Trojans started the year 2-5 and, in the eighth game of Carroll’s first season in 2001, were caught in a dogfight at Arizona.

Have no fear, Kris Richard came to the rescue.

The cornerback intercepted a Wildcat pass in the flat and sprinted 62 yards for the tie-breaking touchdown with 1:50 remaining. It gave the Trojans a 41-34 victory and set them off on a four-game winning streak that propelled them to a bowl game.

Carroll, not shy on compliments of the play, calls Richard’s interception “the single play that turned around the USC program.” From the moment on, the Trojans went 85-10 over the next seven-plus seasons.

“That’s really humbling,” Richard said of Carroll’s praises of the interception. “It was a huge moment personally.”

Richard remembered Carroll, in the locker following the win, standing up and telling the team, “We don’t have to lose again.”

The moment set the Trojans on an upward trajectory — as well as Richard. He went on to a six-year career in the NFL, getting drafted by the Seahawks before also playing for the Dolphins, 49ers and Raiders.

Mo Kelly, currently the Seahawks’ senior director of player development, was with the organization when Richard came to Seattle, and he remembers how cerebral the rookie was.

“He was such a deep thinker and had a great understanding and feel for the game,” Kelly said of Richard. “He had a coach’s mentality as a player.”

So going from playing to coaching was a natural transition for Richard when injuries caught up to him in 2007.

“I wish that my career could’ve been longer, but your body doesn’t cooperate sometimes,” Richard said. “It’s difficult to let it go when you love playing, but coaching is the next best thing.”

Like many coaches, Richard said he “always knew” he wanted to be a coach. But a seminal moment during his senior season at USC truly solidified that sentiment.

While walking off the field after one the final practices of the season, Carroll was conversing with Richard and asked what the cornerback wanted to do when he was done playing. Without hesitation, Richard told him he wanted to coach.

“Well, when you’re done playing, look me up,” Carroll told Richard.

“Ok, cool, I’ll do that,” Richard replied.

Six years later, Richard called up Carroll, who offered his former player a graduate assistant position at USC before the 2008 season.

“I took his word for it and it was real,” Richard said.

Richard assisted with coaching the defensive backs during his two seasons at USC before taking a similar position in Seattle this January. Working under and reunited with the same man who coached him in college, Richard has come full circle in more ways than one.

“What’s exciting here is the general enthusiasm of changing the atmosphere and making it competitive,” Richard said. “That’s what worked at USC, and that’s what’s working here.”