stevestojan Posted November 18, 2004 Share Posted November 18, 2004 I ask Mark Gaughn who he thought was the leading candidate for the head coach job right after GW got canned.... Here was his response: Steve, Gilbride is history. I think Fassel is a good fit. Coughlin is a superb coach. He's not a fun guy. People don't love to work for him or play for him. But he will win, wherever he goes. His downfall in Jacksonville was almost strictly related to his personnel decisions, which wouldn't be a problem here. Kirk Ferentz is a very good coach. ... I like both Weis and Crennel. Both could be excellent. The risk is you're never quite sure what you're getting when you hire a coordinator who never has been a head coach. ... Fassel is the front-runner. Regards, Mark Gaughan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ICE Posted November 18, 2004 Share Posted November 18, 2004 I ask Mark Gaughn who he thought was the leading candidate for the head coach job right after GW got canned.... Here was his response: Steve, Gilbride is history. I think Fassel is a good fit. Coughlin is a superb coach. He's not a fun guy. People don't love to work for him or play for him. But he will win, wherever he goes. His downfall in Jacksonville was almost strictly related to his personnel decisions, which wouldn't be a problem here. Kirk Ferentz is a very good coach. ... I like both Weis and Crennel. Both could be excellent. The risk is you're never quite sure what you're getting when you hire a coordinator who never has been a head coach. ... Fassel is the front-runner. Regards, Mark Gaughan. 123038[/snapback] Mark didn't take into consideration that Fassel would be forced to make it work with Bledsoe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevestojan Posted November 18, 2004 Author Share Posted November 18, 2004 Mark didn't take into consideration that Fassel would be forced to make it work with Bledsoe 123043[/snapback] That's like being forced to make it with your Aunt. Its not impossible, but only the most desperate guy would actually attempt to do it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ICE Posted November 18, 2004 Share Posted November 18, 2004 That's like being forced to make it with your Aunt. Its not impossible, but only the most desperate guy would actually attempt to do it. 123049[/snapback] And TD got ANOTHER ROOKIE head coach to do it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevestojan Posted November 18, 2004 Author Share Posted November 18, 2004 And TD got ANOTHER ROOKIE head coach to do it. 123051[/snapback] That's what I mean. If it's true that TD told every candidate that they HAD to have Bledsoe as the starter no matter what, I could see many people turning this job down. Believe me, as sugar coated and PC as all of TD's answers are towards our QB, we fans are not the only ones that have known for longer than this season that Drew is D-O-N-E. Only some guy who would kill for a HC job would take it. And look how much worse off Pittsburgh is since losing Mularky... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillsNYC Posted November 18, 2004 Share Posted November 18, 2004 I've heard rumours that Coughlin wanted the Bills job (accordign to Boston College fans), but TD wanted Mularkey from the start, which is why Coughlin didn't interview here first. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fake-Fat Sunny Posted November 18, 2004 Share Posted November 18, 2004 My sense of TD's primary motivation in hiring HCs has been and is a sense that he takes the very human approach of saying Never Again will he be run out of town and fired by a coach he hired as he was in Pitts by Cowher. I still think this is true (though I do not know the man and the tea leave declarations of certainty regarding TDs motivations for this or that seem little more than guesses to me though the posters often claim certainty). Yet, even though I think this Never Again motivation is probably true, I did completely misread how TD has been going about making this happen. I assumed that part of his MO was to get his guys and his team in place to do his bidding and added a dash of new guys he hit it off with in interviews based on their convincing him they would be loyal. However, I did completely misread the replacement OC situation as my assumption was that Kevin Killdrive was TD's guy based on their past history. Instead it now appears that Clements was TDs choice to replace the failed Sheppard but that GW "won" this dispute and got a guy TD could not argue against who actually met on the surface many of the public complaints about GW's failed first set of lieutenants picked as Killdrive was an experienced former HC. The key here to me (more tea leaves) though is that a primary part of the TD HC maintenance strategy is oddly passive-aggressive. He will go out and get his old buddies (LeBeau/Steckel) and put them in place in areas of obvious HC failure in GWs case. but he did not force GW to take advantage of these resources. GW should have reined in Killdrive once he became demonstrably ineffective with his repetition of stuff which may have worked initially but now folks had tape on, but he never fired OC Payton as Fassel did when Payton became ineffective even with a former OC on the staff. TD did appear to become stridently aggressive in reining GW in when he publicly overstepped his bounds like making GM like pronouncements on Larry Centers only to see Centers get canned a week later and replaced by Gash, but in general TD seemed content to let GW make his own bed, fail and then force him to sleep in it. Good Never Again strategy perhaps but our team still failed and sucked. In general, I think that we have a big problem in that TD and the gang put far too much faith in Bledsoe and our team is paying the price for this. However, I think that asking Bledsoe to perform was not totally unreasonable as under the right circumstances (an HC as good and strong as Parcells or BB, a new offense with little tape on him) he has produced a trip to the SB, a win in a must-win game, and a deserved nod from the Pro Bowl. Yet, his limitations are also clear, he's getting older and when opponents get some tape on him he can very effectively be nullified. The big mistake and difficult to forgive one in my perspective was never having a credible plan B if Bledsoe performed as he did last year. I think TD can be easily held up for blame (and even ridicule if that is what you are into) on this point. Instead, I think many Bledsoe haters take a fairly stupid but simple way out in finding fault with him in that they falsely claim Bledsoe never ever won anything (he has won, with Parcells, in a must-win game running an O powereed down for Brady, a bunch of Bills records and the Pro Bowl nod his first year here until opponents go enough tape on him and BB provided a template for beating him). This departure from reality u;timate serves to undercut those who could more easily find real fault with TD if they just stuck with the facts rather than presenting tthe facts in a manner which ignores reality. Overall, I think MM can be faulted for never finding a serious answer to how yopu win if Bledsoe goes south or gets. I think this fault is more likely explained by MM hubrus that he and Clements were certain they could revive his career and that hey would also revive travis Brown's career rather than some bizarre conspiracy theory that TD is suddenly now totally aggressive in promoting Bledsoe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jad1 Posted November 18, 2004 Share Posted November 18, 2004 So Donahoe makes it mandatory that Bledsoe must be the starting QB, but then trades a bunch of high picks for Losman in the draft? Doesn't make sense. Sounds like more Oprah-speculation to me. So Fassel would refuse to work with Bledsoe, but then turn around and take an assistant's assistant job trying to salvage Boller, an obvious scrub? Again, it doesn't make sense. The decision Donahoe made wasn't Bledsoe over Losman. It obvious that Losman is the QB of the future. The decision he made was Bledsoe over Garcia, Brunnell, Warner, and Collins to be the guy filling in until Losman was ready. And it's hard to argue, after watching those guys play this year, that he made the wrong decision. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John from Riverside Posted November 18, 2004 Share Posted November 18, 2004 I actually dont have a huge problem with our Head Coach...or his assistants..... The playcalling has been pretty good..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevestojan Posted November 18, 2004 Author Share Posted November 18, 2004 I actually dont have a huge problem with our Head Coach...or his assistants..... The playcalling has been pretty good..... 123311[/snapback] except in critical situations. Like the first drive last week, or right before halftime the week before... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mead107 Posted November 18, 2004 Share Posted November 18, 2004 he should be better next year , growing pains Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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