The Washington Post

RENTON, Wash.

There was a time, when Bill Lazor first started coaching at Cornell University, that his younger brother Dan was a linebacker at the school. And in a spring practice game, Dan Lazor roared through the offensive line and into the quarterback, knocking him to the ground for a sack.

Lazor, an offensive coach, nonetheless smiled at his little brother's big play.

That is until one of the players looked up and asked, none too kindly, "Coach, why are you smiling?"

Last week he chuckled at the memory. He was at the Seahawks' headquarters where he is the team's quarterback coach. His prime charges are Seattle quarterbacks Matt Hasselbeck and Seneca Wallace, but when he walks onto Qwest Field on Sunday he will again see Redskins quarterback Jason Campbell, whom he coached the last two seasons.

"I love Jason and I really enjoyed working with him," Lazor said. "I appreciated the work ethic he had and I appreciated the time he gave in the offseason ."

But the lessons from that long-ago day at Cornell have not been forgotten. If Campbell throws a touchdown pass Sunday, Lazor cannot smile .

"There will be no divided loyalties," he said.

Still the irony is impossible to miss. When Jim Zorn left the job he held for seven seasons as the Seahawks' quarterback coach to work for the Redskins, it was Lazor who Seattle hired as Zorn's replacement .

Not that either man will speak much about this.

When Lazor first took the Seattle job after he was not retained in the switch to Zorn, the two men talked. Strangely Zorn didn't ask much about Campbell and Lazor didn't wonder much about Hasselbeck. Instead the conversation was mostly about Hasselbeck's backup Seneca Wallace, a man Lazor didn't know.

"He didn't necessarily pick my brain about the situation," Zorn said.

For a young coach still on the rise Lazor has found himself in ideal situations. He was an offensive assistant for Dan Reeves in Atlanta, then worked four years for Joe Gibbs with the Redskins and now is on the staff of Mike Holmgren in Seattle .

Holmgren, some in the organization say, has been impressed with Lazor, which might bode well for his chances of staying here when Holmgren retires at the end of the season and the team is turned over to Jim Mora.

Lazor has not had many opportunities to talk to Campbell since he left Washington, but he always expected the quarterback would soon do big things. Looking back, he felt Campbell's season-ending injury last December came at a terrible time for the player .

"He's got great character and physical ability to throw the ball, especially down the field," he said. "He was intelligent and he showed a great work ethic."

But the thing that always amazed him was Campbell's ability to see everything while in the middle of a game.

"He could come to the sideline and have the vision of the whole field and tell you where everyone was and he was usually right," Lazor said.

Notes: Redskins running back Clinton Portis (knee) was limited in practice Friday and is questionable for Sunday's game. Zorn said Portis will be a game-time decision, though Portis has given every indication that he will play. ... Receiver Antwaan Randle El (ankle) and defensive tackle Anthony Montgomery (Achilles) are also questionable.