Tweet
The Miami coaching change was newsy for a while Monday, but then came the controversial end to the Seattle-Detroit game. The decision by Dolphins owner Stephen Ross to dump Joe Philbin and hire Dan Campbell for the rest of the season deserves a few lines, though.
It is always a sad thing to see a legitimately good man—and few among NFL coaches are better men than Philbin—but you cannot keep a job in the NFL without winning, or having the prospect in the very near future. Joe Philbin's Dolphins hadn’t won more than eight games in a season, and the prospect of even reaching .500 this year was exceedingly grim. His forte was offense, and his offense was awful. In seven of the past nine Miami games, the Dolphins scored 20 points or less. The defense, where Ross had spent liberally, hadn’t made a play in the first quarter of the season. It was time for a change, if only to give Dolphins VP of football operations Mike Tannenbaum a head start on a coaching search for 2016.
Campbell, the interim guy, has never been in position of authority like head coach or coordinator; he’s a former tight end who played and learned under Bill Parcells and Sean Payton. I like the choice, because there was no chance for either of the coordinators to earn the full-time gig. Campbell’s different. It’s unlikely Campbell will be the full-time guy either, but Tannenbaum was an agent repping a bunch of lesser guys between his Jet and Dolphin jobs, and he learned to like the lesser lights. In basketball, he represented Steve Kerr, hired by the Warriors, and David Blatt, hired by the Cavs. They came out of nowhere to get jobs, and ended up in the NBA Finals last season.
Pay attention to this lesson about the Miami coaching search. It could be very important. Miami may not recycle the usual suspects come early January.
In June, Tannenbaum told Jenny Vrentas of The MMQBthat he’s learned sometimes the iconoclastic route is better when it comes to looking for coaches.
“I think I became a victim of what we talked about earlier—a victim of the rhythm of the NFL,” Tannebaum said. “I thought I was being open-minded, but look at those two guys who were hired. They are both incredible stories. Steve Kerr, never coached a day in his life. And then you look at David Blatt. David had never coached a second in the NBA. Both of these organizations were totally open-minded to take these two guys. These were not recycled head coaches, not associate head coaches, they were not coaching in the NBA. I think those are great examples of being out of the box, being bold, having conviction, and not really caring what your peers think. Both those franchises are now being rewarded for it.”
So, don’t just think Campbell’s keeping the seat warm for a better prospect in 2016. Let’s see how the Dolphins play. After being named the coach, Campbell said: “We need to breed a culture of competitiveness, finish and intensity, and to me that’s where it all starts. That’s where we have to change it, we change it in practice, we make it much more competitive and we need these guys to go after each other a little bit. The best teams that I’ve been a part of are the ones that during the week they go after each other. It gets heated, it’s intense and it’s people that are fighting to win.”
It is always a sad thing to see a legitimately good man—and few among NFL coaches are better men than Philbin—but you cannot keep a job in the NFL without winning, or having the prospect in the very near future. Joe Philbin's Dolphins hadn’t won more than eight games in a season, and the prospect of even reaching .500 this year was exceedingly grim. His forte was offense, and his offense was awful. In seven of the past nine Miami games, the Dolphins scored 20 points or less. The defense, where Ross had spent liberally, hadn’t made a play in the first quarter of the season. It was time for a change, if only to give Dolphins VP of football operations Mike Tannenbaum a head start on a coaching search for 2016.
Campbell, the interim guy, has never been in position of authority like head coach or coordinator; he’s a former tight end who played and learned under Bill Parcells and Sean Payton. I like the choice, because there was no chance for either of the coordinators to earn the full-time gig. Campbell’s different. It’s unlikely Campbell will be the full-time guy either, but Tannenbaum was an agent repping a bunch of lesser guys between his Jet and Dolphin jobs, and he learned to like the lesser lights. In basketball, he represented Steve Kerr, hired by the Warriors, and David Blatt, hired by the Cavs. They came out of nowhere to get jobs, and ended up in the NBA Finals last season.
Pay attention to this lesson about the Miami coaching search. It could be very important. Miami may not recycle the usual suspects come early January.
In June, Tannenbaum told Jenny Vrentas of The MMQBthat he’s learned sometimes the iconoclastic route is better when it comes to looking for coaches.
“I think I became a victim of what we talked about earlier—a victim of the rhythm of the NFL,” Tannebaum said. “I thought I was being open-minded, but look at those two guys who were hired. They are both incredible stories. Steve Kerr, never coached a day in his life. And then you look at David Blatt. David had never coached a second in the NBA. Both of these organizations were totally open-minded to take these two guys. These were not recycled head coaches, not associate head coaches, they were not coaching in the NBA. I think those are great examples of being out of the box, being bold, having conviction, and not really caring what your peers think. Both those franchises are now being rewarded for it.”
So, don’t just think Campbell’s keeping the seat warm for a better prospect in 2016. Let’s see how the Dolphins play. After being named the coach, Campbell said: “We need to breed a culture of competitiveness, finish and intensity, and to me that’s where it all starts. That’s where we have to change it, we change it in practice, we make it much more competitive and we need these guys to go after each other a little bit. The best teams that I’ve been a part of are the ones that during the week they go after each other. It gets heated, it’s intense and it’s people that are fighting to win.”
Comment