Michael Penix Jr. throwing rainbows. Rome Odunze striking gold at the end of them.

And Ryan Grubb being a wizard.

That’s what most think of when they think of the Seahawks’ new offensive coordinator.

Grubb became a Washington Huskies coaching hero for designing and calling the plays Penix, Odunze and UW used to win 21 consecutive games, seize a Pac-12 title and reach college football’s national championship game last winter.

It’s his wondrous, deep-strike passing game that so excites Seahawks fans now that Grubb is the offensive coordinator for Seattle’s NFL team. The possibilities of Geno Smith throwing deep to DK Metcalf in Grubb’s offense has some Seahawks fans dreaming big.

Yet that’s not what Grubb is talking about so far in training camp, four weeks before this Seahawks’ season of change begins Sept. 8 against Denver at Lumen Field.

It’s not what he’s looking to establish first, beginning Saturday when the Seahawks play their initial preseason game at the Los Angeles Chargers at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California.

That bombs-away passing game is not what Grubb says his Seahawks offense will be able to lean on most.

“I’m really encouraged the last couple of days here in our run game,” Grubb said.

“(This week) it felt like we were able to come together and start moving some people off the line of scrimmage, which was really encouraging.

“And obviously, that’s something you want to be able to hang hat on, is that you can establish a line of scrimmage, have a good run game — and set up the rest of your game plan.”

How far along is Grubb in installing all of what he wants to do with the Seahawks’ offense?

“We’re close. We’re probably 70 to 80% there,” he said. “I feel like the bones of everything we need to do are there.

“There are probably some of the finer details and some of the motions and movements and things like that, that you can add to some of the concepts that we already have in. I feel like we got a lot of the basic structure.

“So now, there’s some of the fine-tuning that still has to happen, some of the late-game mechanics, situational football, things like that, that we have to continue to build.”

Ryan Grubb and the Seahawks’ ‘core identity’

All of college football saw how Grubb’s Huskies offense stretched defenses with lethal vertical routes. Penix led the nation by throwing for 4,900 and 4,600 yards in his two seasons running Grubb’s plays at UW.

Seahawks general manager John Schneider noticed Grubb’s UW offenses kept the ball. That was largely by running the ball. Dillon Johnson rushed for 1,195 yards and 16 touchdowns last season for Grubb’s Huskies.

“Time of possession. Their time of possession was off the…it was ridiculous,” Schneider said. “And then they still had a physicality about them when they ran the ball, as well as throwing it all around the park.”

The Seahawks were last in the NFL in 2023 in time of possession. They averaged 26 minutes and 38 seconds with the ball per game. That meant Seattle’ defense was on the field for the majority of each game. That’s how the Seahawks became 30th among 32 teams in total yards allowed, including 31st against the run.

In the two years Grubb was lighting up college football calling UW’s plays, new Seahawks coach Macdonald was shutting down the NFL calling the plays for the Baltimore Ravens’ defense, the league best. When the now-youngest head coach in the NFL at 37 began thinking about the possibility of becoming a head man for the first time, he had Grubb in mind for the offense he would like to have.

And not for the passing game.

In the weeks after Schneider hired him to replace the fired Pete Carroll in February, Macdonald said “I want to build the offense through the same lens we’re going to build our defense…We have to have core identity.

“We don’t want to reinvent our offense every week,” Macdonald said, “so we have to have a core identity.”

That identity: toughness and physicality.

You don’t get that throwing the ball 40 yards down the field on every play.

“We’re going to be a physical unit,” Macdonald told KIRO-AM radio.

“We’re going to run the football.”

He reiterated his mentality for offense on the first day of training camp two weeks ago.

“I want to feel the physicality,” he said, “and who’s going to move people.”

Using Ken Walker

Grubb’s Dillon Johnson with the Seahawks is Kenneth Walker.

Walker is 23. He is eight months older than Johnson, who had two rushes for 6 yards at New England Thursday in his first pro game as a rookie running back for the Carolina Panthers.

Seattle’s second-round draft choice in 2022 from Michigan State, Walker had 1,955 yards rushing with 17 touchdowns combined in his first two NFL seasons. That was running the former offensive of first-time coordinator Shane Waldron.

Waldron often had Walker confined to runs between the tackles. Given the problems with continuity and effectiveness on Seattle’s offensive line the last two seasons, that meant Walker was often running into traffic in the backfield. Last season he had some of the more impressive 2-yard runs in recent team history.

The Seahawks were 28th in the NFL in rushing offense last season.

“I want to definitely have a better performance this year,” Walker said.

This season, Grubb’s schemes are going to feature the at-times elusive, other times bullish Walker using all of what the play caller says is the 216-pound running back’s three tools. That is, if he and the team can figure out its offensive line.

“I think Ken grows every day. He gets better every, single day. The sky’s the limit for him,” Grubb said.

“He’s a really talented, powerful back that’s a true, three-tool guy. He’s going to be able to run the ball, every run you got. He’s going to be able to catch the football. He’s going to be able to pass-protect. And he’s growing.”

Grubb said Walker has grown most as a pass blocker. That could have him on the field more than the 58 and 54% of offensive snaps he’s played his first two seasons for Seattle.

“He was a natural runner. He knew what to do with the ball in his hand,” Grubb said. “And now, he’s intelligent in the pass-protection scheme. He works really hard at it. I think he’s getting a lot better.

“And he’s electric out of the backfield as a pass catcher.”

After just one week in full pads running within Grubb’s system in training camp, Walker likes how his new coordinator is scheming him out of that mass of 300-pound linemen between the tackles and more into the open field with the ball. He also likes the fundamentals new running backs coach Kennedy Polamalu, a veteran of 33 years of NFL and college coaching, is teaching Seattle’s back.

“I like it, a lot,” Walker said. “We get to get out in space, and run routes.

“Coach K, he’s also putting his ideas in, as well.”

Under Waldron, Zach Charbonnet was often the Seahawks’ third-down back last season. That’s because of second-round pick in 2023’s pass-blocking ability.

Now that Walker is focused and improved on that, Grubb is ready to unleash him far more in the passing game.

“It opens up the offense, too,” They’ve got to worry about the backs leaking out and catching the ball, not just running the ball.

“I think it will make a big difference.”

So, the Seahawks believe, will Grubb.

How is coaching in the NFL easier than in college?

“That’s a good question,” Grubb said. “I think the obvious answer…is the amount of time that you have to focus on football and your team, just the players that are here. I don’t have to worry about anybody that we’re trying to bring into this building. I’m just focused on our players here and the family that is the Seahawks. I think that part has been tremendously rewarding just to be able to think about ball all the time, focus on football. I’m building relationships with the players and the people that are a part of the Seahawks. That part has been really advantageous.”

Asked what challenges he’s having transitioning from college to first-time NFL play caller, Grubb said: “First-time install. New faces, whether it’s coaches or players. The translation piece getting everybody on the same page, speaking the same language.

“And that’s always the difficulty.

“Then, having the patience and the stick-to-itiveness to get through that part.”