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Seahawks | Four college buddies reunite

By José Miguel Romero

Seattle Times staff reporter

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Seattle @ Green Bay, 5 p.m., Ch. 5

Four downs with ...

Will Herring, LB

Height: 6-3. Weight: 235.

Experience: Rookie (fifth-round choice)

College: Auburn.

Hometown: Opelika, Ala.

Age: 23.

Do you have a nickname? "They call me 'Good Will Herring.' That's what all the linebackers call me. Hopefully I can live up to that name."

Do they think you look like ("Good Will Hunting" movie star) Matt Damon? "You know, I've been told that since I shaved my head. They told me Matt a few times, they told me Marky Mark [Wahlberg]. Either one, I'll take."

Four things you have to have at camp with you: "I have to have a TV, I have to have three pillows. Can't sleep with one or two. Gotta have AC in the room, and gotta have comfortable shoes."

What's your hometown famous for? "I wish we had something cool, like somebody from there. It was one of the first small railroad towns in the Southeast back in the Confederate ages. It was just a railroad crossing at one time."

José Miguel Romero

KIRKLAND — Bragging about your alma mater is an old sports tradition.

It's something Seahawks players like to partake in from time to time. Only anyone trying to win an argument against the Auburn Tigers doesn't stand much of a chance.

If Kirkland feels and sounds a little like east-central Alabama, it's because there are four young Seahawks from Auburn, a Southeastern Conference school. While each is trying to win a spot on the roster, they're enjoying the company of college buddies.

Ben Obomanu, Courtney Taylor, Kevin Hobbs and Will Herring have known each other since they entered Auburn in the same 2002 recruiting class. The way Obomanu breaks it down, Taylor talks all the time, Hobbs is a jokester, and Herring and Obomanu are more reserved. Herring, a linebacker, is the guy who tries to get his pals to stay late and work out more. Taylor and Obomanu, both wide receivers, are like brothers.

"We share so many stories and reminisce on a lot of things," Obomanu said. "In training camp, everyone wants to brag about their school. Anytime we get into an argument about whose school is best, Auburn is well represented."

Taylor, Herring and Obomanu graduated from high school in 2002, and Taylor and Herring redshirted their first year at Auburn. Hobbs transferred from Texas Southern and sat out the 2002 season. Obomanu was selected by the Seahawks in the seventh round of the 2006 NFL draft and spent last season on the practice squad. Hobbs, a cornerback, was in the Seahawks' training camp last summer before being released.

The quartet was reunited when the Seahawks drafted Herring in the fifth round and Taylor in the sixth this year.

"We were in the dorms together," Herring said of the group's college days. "Four years down the road, you're like family."

They've been in the dorms together at Northwest University, the site of training camp. There's competition — especially with Taylor and Obomanu at receiver — but they're supportive of one another.

"When I got drafted, my family at the house was going nuts, and then about an hour later, when the sixth round rolled around, it was kind of a repeat celebration," Herring said. "Everyone was just ecstatic that C.T. [Taylor] was going to be here, too."

Herring and Obomanu are enjoying good camps. Herring was the leading tackler and Obomanu the Seahawks' leading receiver in the exhibition victory last weekend at San Diego. The two hope to continue their solid summer performances tonight at Green Bay.

Herring, who played mostly safety at Auburn, seems close to making the team as a backup linebacker. Obomanu is the top candidate at No. 5 receiver.

Hobbs, an undrafted free agent signed again last May, is battling longer odds to make the roster, and Taylor hasn't played since the team's scrimmage Aug. 5 after suffering a knee injury. He could miss the entire exhibition season.

Coincidence brought them together, but the reality of finding work in the NFL might split them apart. Yet for now, the four are enjoying the family atmosphere.

"We became men together and just to meet again on the professional level, it's awesome," Taylor said. "It's kind of like a home away from home because you've got some guys here that can kind of relate to you. We're from the country, I like to say, and we're coming to the city and it's new for us. It's different. But you've got guys like them around, and it's still kind of like you get a feel of home."

They're also enjoying not having to practice in the humidity and heat of Alabama.

"We have a lot in common," Herring said. "We kid about it every day, about this weather that we're practicing in in the Pacific Northwest, as opposed to what we were doing down in the Alabama heat. It's fun to come so far away from home, but at the same time, you've got some guys from back where you're from."

And a crew, which also includes veteran Chris Gray, another former Auburn player, to take on archrival Alabama alum Shaun Alexander in a verbal battle.

"That makes the fight about even," Alexander said. "Five on one. If it was five on two, then we'd [Alabama] have the advantage."

[rebdawg 5]

Cool article. I have to give it to Alexander, too, that was a pretty good line. I always liked him.