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To start with, Ulbrich has been a coach for all of six months – joining Pete Carroll’s staff with the Seahawks as the assistant special teams coach in January after playing 10 seasons with the division rival San Francisco 49ers.

It’s the second half of his playing career that is helping Ulbrich relate the importance of special teams to the players he is now coaching.

“When I was no longer a starting linebacker, if I didn’t have the ability to play special teams I would have been released or cut,” Ulbrich said. “Hopefully, I can relate that to the players I’m coaching.

“What I lack in experience and knowledge, I think I make up for in my passion for this game. I have a greater appreciate and love for this game, which a lot of people don’t have, because of how my career went.”

Passion. Appreciation. Love of the game. That was Ulbrich during his playing career.

He twice won the Matt Hazeltine Ironman Award as the 49ers’ most courageous and inspirational defensive player (2004 and 2007). His picture is included on the team’s “Ten-Year Wall” that honors 49ers who played a decade or more with the organization. He started 56 games from 2001-04, registering 138 tackles in 2003 and a career-best 167 in 2004 – including 12 and 11 in two matchups with the Seahawks.

Mack Strong, the former Pro Bowl fullback for the Seahawks, developed a too-up-close-and-too-personal relationship with Ulbrich on the frequent occasions that their paths crossed – no, collided.

“Whenever we would play them and you’d get the scouting report, it always said you’d better bring your lunch pail because he’s going to be there all day long,” Strong said. “He wasn’t one of those guys who was the biggest, or the fastest, or the strongest. But when you talk about consistency, he was in the right place at the right time.

“And he was always going to give you a run for your money. I always appreciated our battles, because he made me better.”

Ulbrich was able to parlay the way he played the game into a good life off the field, as well.

“This game has done amazing things for me and my family,” he said, referring to his wife, Cristina, and their three children – daughter Sammy, 9; and sons Jax, 6, and Jace, 4.

The fourth – and final – movement to the bittersweet symphony that was Ulrich’s playing career came last October when he got a severe concussion in a game against the Atlanta Falcons while – what else? – covering a kickoff.

“It’s strange, without a doubt,” he said. “But I don’t look at it as what ended my career. Special teams gave me probably three or four more years.”

That it did. The arrivals of Patrick Willis in 2007 and Takeo Spikes the following year cost Ulbrich his starting job. But he became a leader of the 49ers’ special teams, collecting 10 coverage tackles in 2007 and 15 in 2008.

Told of Ulbrich’s philosophical approach to playing special teams, Mack just laughed. He can relate, because Strong likely would not have had a career without his early special teams contributions.

“That’s the thing about Jeff,” Strong said. “He’s going to do whatever it takes to get the job done. That story exemplifies that. He’s going to do whatever he’s got to do to be part of the team and be successful. And I’m sure that’s going to translate over to being a coach.

“That’s one of those clichés, that the players take on the personality of their coach. If that holds to be true, Seattle’s special teams are going to among the best in the league this year if they take on his personality.”

For now, Ulbrich is pleased that special teams coach Brian Schneider is putting him in situations to have an impact on the units, and appreciative that Carroll places the same importance on special teams play that he does.

“There’s a high standard here,” he said, rattling off a list of Seahawks special teams players that included former Pro Bowl selection Alex Bannister and former 49ers teammate Jimmy Williams. “I think we’re up for it. We’re fortunate we have a coach in Pete Carroll who puts a lot of emphasis on it. He gives us the meeting time that we need. He gives us the practice time that we need.

“And we’ve been very fortunate that the players have bought in hook, line and sinker that what we’re selling right now. In my 10 years in the NFL, I’ve never seen anything like it. The level of enthusiasm. The level of guys just pushing themselves to the limit and competing.

“It’s been challenging. But that’s great, because that’s kind of what makes me tick.”

Ulbrich, 33, is part of it because, after announcing his retirement in December, he went to the Senior Bowl in January looking for a coaching job.

“My career was over and I had inquiries with a couple of colleges,” he said. “But I really wanted my first job to be in the NFL. The level of excellence in the NFL is just so high it’s hard to match. I felt my heart was at this level. So I went to the Senior Bowl.”

What he found was Carroll, and a job.

“I want to say coaching was always in my plans,” he said. “Love the game. Really don’t know anything else. And I just love being a part of it. So it’s a natural fit when you can’t play anymore to coach.

“So this couldn’t have worked out any better.”

Landing the job in Seattle also has allowed this West Coast kid to remain on the Left Coast.

As a senior at Live Oak High School in Morgan Hill, Calif., he was voted team MVP in college and won the league 191-pound title in wrestling. After a redshirt year at San Jose State, he went to Gavilan Junior College in Gilroy, Calif., where he was again voted team MVP and earned all-conference honors. He then played two seasons at Hawaii, collecting a school-record 169 tackles to lead the conference as a senior in 1999.

“To me, Jeff epitomizes what football is all about,” then-Hawaii head coach June Jones said of Ulbrich during that ridiculously productive senior season. “He is a leader on and off the field. The guys look up to him and respect him. And we love him as coaches because he can flat-out play.”

The 49ers selected him in the third round of the 2000 NFL draft, so he roamed the field at Candlestick Park during some good times (a division title in 2002 and playoff appearances in 2001 and ’02) and some not-so-good times (records of 2-14 in 2004, 4-12 in 2005 and 5-11 in 2007).

Whether his team won or lost, Ulbrich always felt like a winner just because he was allowed to play the game.

“It’s a really cool sport,” he said. “I think the outside world kind of sees the worst that it brings out in people. But I’ve always discovered that it brings the best out in most.

“That’s the cool thing about it.”