AP

Seattle Seahawks' Jim Mora, right, the new defensive backs coach and assistant head coach to Mike Holmgren, encourages top draft pick cornerback Josh Wilson, left, at an NFL football mini-camp Friday, May 4, 2007 in Kirkland, Wash. Many see Mora as the perfect heir for Holmgren, who has two years remaining on a contract extension he signed before last season.

SEATTLE - Jim Mora, often assumed to be Mike Holmgren's successor once Holmgren winds up his final season as Seahawks' head coach in 2008, reportedly will be introduced Wednesday as Seattle's coach for 2009 and beyond.

Multiple reports Tuesday night said the Seahawks would anoint Mora at a news conference.

Foxsports.com cited "league sources" in saying 46-year-old former Atlanta Falcons head coach would succeed Holmgren. ESPN.com reported the same, adding that Mora has a new, five-year contract with the Seahawks and citing "a source close to Mora."

The Seahawks late Tuesday confirmed a news conference set for noon Wednesday but refused to discuss the topic.

An Associated Press message left late Tuesday night with Mora's agent, Bob LaMonte, was not immediately returned.

Mora took the Falcons to the NFC championship in his first season in 2004 before Atlanta fired him on New Year's Day 2007 with a record of 26-22 there. He has been the heir apparent to the 60-year-old Holmgren since the day he became Seattle's assistant head coach and defensive backs coach 12 months ago. Since then, the team has made a concerted effort to keep Mora away from speculation concerning head coaching jobs in Seattle and elsewhere.

Yet Holmgren acknowledged late this past season, just before the Seahawks went to the playoffs for the fifth consecutive time, that Mora would be a head man again "soon."

Then last month, 10 days after the Seahawks lost in the divisional playoffs at Green Bay, Holmgren announced he would fulfill only the final season of his contract in 2008 and then would step down. Part of the reason he did so, he said, was that "the transition beyond this year should be really smooth. The organization is healthy."

Mora went to junior high and high school in the Seattle area while his father was an assistant at the University of Washington. He's been the people's choice as the Huskies' next coach, based upon the ire many local fans have with the three consecutive losing seasons the UW has endured under coach Tyrone Willingham. Willingham, who inherited a program in disarray, has been promised no more than the 2008 season by the school president.

Mora stoked those fans' desires in 2006, while he was still leading Atlanta, when he told a Seattle radio station that the UW position was his dream job. He later said that was a regrettable joke.

A Seahawks' announcement would end the constant drumbeat for Mora at the UW. And it would pre-empt questions the Seahawks would have faced throughout 2008 about what direction the team was going to take after Holmgren.

Last month, as Holmgren was contemplating whether to return with Seattle, Mora removed himself from consideration for the vacant head coaching job with the Washington Redskins following two days of interviews. That only increased the plausibility that he would become Holmgren's replacement.

The designated-coach-in-waiting is becoming en vogue as programs seek stability through change. The Indianapolis Colts recently named Jim Caldwell as the eventual replacement for Tony Dungy, whenever Dungy decides to retire.