This is the second time the Dolphins have given the franchise to a brash egomaniac only for him to quit on us again. In 1996, the media and Dolphin faithful were quick to harass and replace Don Shula for Jimmy (Grecian Formula) Johnson. We blindly gave JJ total control over the team, thumbed our nose at Shula and we were all buying superbowl tickets - until he threw his hands up and left, being replaced by cartoon characters. In 2007, it happened again. We gave another 'must control everything' egomaniac the full control of both the team and his contract. Parcells filled the place with arrogance, and a slew of nobody minions to do his bidding. The result? Parcells fled the team (while still collecting a check) and left the team in ruins being run by cartoon characters. I sincerely hope that this ten year cycle can stop and we can select a coach somewhere between a football egomaniac and someone with no NFL head coaching experience. I hope this is a history lesson that Stephen Ross learns well.
Who do you have in mind. I'm leaning towards wanting Gruden, but I assume you consider him "football egomaniac"?
I agree. I'm disappointed in the season too, but some are talking like we're 2-14 and have to start all over. We have a really good young defense and good pieces on offense to build around. Changes to the offensive coaching staff and an offseason devoted to fixing the offense should make us much better next season. I mean, think about it, if we had either a good QB or a good running game, we'd easily be 10-6 right now. Easily.
Mabey find someone to light a fire under their arse,no more Mr nice guy.I don;t wanr an old retread but would like to see a young hard nose lead them.Don't have anyone in mind but a young Shula type would be who i would look for.
Considering the talent that was inherited from a 1-15 team 3 years ago this regime has done pretty damn good...25-24 with a divisional title and a good young core group of players. They just haven't found a solution at QB, not that there has been a lot of options. I am not sure how Parcells compares at all to JJ...JJ was coaching, not Parcells. Someone always has to be able to be the bottom line guy when it comes to making decisions. Who would you rather have, the owner?
I just went back and looked at the calendar and REMEMBER those specific games...in all actuality, we SHOULD be 13-3 or at worst, 12-4 and we're not because of our lack of running the ball. Remember these games? 9/26: Mia v NYJ, Lost 31-23; Chad Henne throws for a career high 363 yards, yet Ronnie Brown ran for 54 yards and Ricky Williams for 28, Miami abandoning the run after being down 14-0. 10/24: Mia v Pit, Lost 23-22; The fumble in the endzone which we recovered but didn't even though we did. 11/07: Mia v Bal, Lost 26-10; Henning puts the ball in Henne's hands, abandoning the run; Henne had 34 pass attempts and 3 interceptions. Ronnie Brown had all of 9 rush attempts 11/18: Mia v Chi, Lost 16-0; Tyler Thigpen pressed into action injuries to the Chads and Henning makes the 3rd string QB throw 29 times. Thigpen was our leading rusher with 27 yards. Ricky and Ronnie...6 rushing attempts between the two of them. 12/05: Mia v Cle, Lost 13-10; Cleveland with one of the league's worst rushing defense didn't have to worry about defending the run, instead they had 3 interceptions on Henne even though Ronnie was averaging 5 yards per carry, they STILL had Henne dropping back to pass. One INT, ok...two? ok, close game...poor defense, pound the ball, but NOOOOO 12/19: Mia v Buf, Lost 17-14; Do or die for the playoffs...Buffalo having THE leagues worst defense only had to defend against 10 rushes from Ronnie Brown, because Henning called 45 passes 45!!!!! 12/26: Mia v Det, Lost 34-27; Leading by 10 points with 5 minutes left in the game, what does Henning call? Yep, another pass that's yet...intercepted, 2 on the day, allowing the Lions to score 17 points in 2:26 and winning. I said 6 games, but actually, that's 7 we could have won if Dan Henning would have allowed his two all pro running backs to do what made them all pro running backs RUN...THE...FRIGGIN...BALL!!!! You know, we're JUST LIKE the Dallas Cowboys just prior to Parcells' departure from there...all of this talent and no leadership. I used to tell this joke but using the USMC as the punchline, but it fits here. What's the diffrence between the Miami Dolphins and the Cub Scouts? Cub Scouts have adult leadership.
This is the NFL. Almost every team can go back and look at the games they lost and change a play or two come out with a win, unless you play the Patriots every week. Not sure if you noticed but only "ONE" team was worse in YPC in running than Miami (Cincy 3.6, Miami 3.7)...our OL was injured and Ronnie just didn't have it this year. We also played against some of the better run defenses in the league...5 games against teams that finished in the top 5 in the league against the run.
I understand what you're saying, but I look at these games in their totality. I know our OL was injured which created the need for some adjustments, but whether 45 pass attempts were called during a game or 48 rushing calls were called (which is what we did against the Jets btw), that OL is going to be on the field regardless. You don't abandon your running game just because you're down 14 points...or you don't abandon your running game when you're up against the league's worst defense...or when you're leading by 10 points with 5 minutes left in the game. I've said before that football is a chess match and I've come to learn over the years, running the ball is like setting up your pawns...you run, you run, you run, whether pawns are being taken or not...you run the ball to set up your play action pass....to set up your big pass plays. Dan Henning with his consistent pass play calling was playing checkers....trying to rush to the other side of the board so he could grin and say "king me". I only illustrated those games above to show how we were one dimensional this season and how teams were able to consistently intercept Henne...how we completely abandoned the most basic play of foot....the run.
Gruden no thanks.. I hope all of you who are crying for Gruden realize it would be a setback. You have another guy who plays musical chairs with QBs, got fired from Tampa Bay.... and runs an entirely different defensive system. All the progress made on defense with Nolan will be lost and we will be in rebuilding mode again for several years to acquire the players need to fit his systems on not just offense but defense. It means young players such as vontae davis, cam wake, sean smith, etc will be asked to play entirely different schemes and positions and progress will be lost. I'd say if we do hire Gruden we will be worst next year due to the fact that our defense will regress. At least Cowher runs a 3-4 system, but keep in mind not all systems are alike. Cowher had a coordinator who is and has been one of the best of all time. He likely wouldn't have the same luxury here in Miami not to mention he has never had full say in personnel and relied on a good front office in that department.. again if Ireland is fired that's going to be something hard to figure out. Giving one guy ultimate power is not the answer and changing defensive schemes will not help at all for the 10th time in 10 years. 4-3 to 3-4 to 4-3, to Hybrid, to 3-4.. back to 4-3... would be a horrible decision. I will admit the loss today was worst than anything I can remember since the Jacksonville game but rebuilding an entire franchise, an entire scheme, new player personnel every few years is not the answer. A lot of coaches and GMs struggled in their first few seasons and stability worked out for the owners who had some patience. The Dolphins aren't a horrible team.. we have been much worst in the past 10 years and we have progressed with this front office even if our record doesn't say so. If you want to fire the coach fine but stick with the Front Office and find a guy who's defensive system is similar if you can't retain Nolan. Just keep in mind that we've hired the celebrity coach several times before and we have shown very little progress until now. Also keep in mind that in the NFL coaches who struggled their first time as a HC have a better chance of succeeding the 2nd than most big time coaches who come back after retiring, or not resigning with their old team. Also might I mention that Cowher took a long time to win a Super Bowl. I'm sure any decent coach with stability can achieve the goal over a long period of time. It's not like this guy was in the Super Bowl every year guys. Same with Gruden..
As a side note I seen on another fan site that its rumored that if Sparano is canned UConn has him on their list of coaches. I think this would be an excellent fit for Sparano. He's a great motivator and doesn't call his players out. I think he would be a good college coach thats for sure.
No former SB winning coach has ever come back after retirement or moved to another team and won a SB. None. No coach since 1940 has won a title with two different teams. As much as I like Bill Cowher, chasing he or Gruden is fools gold. We'd get a lot of great quotes from Gruden and tons of fans here and in Miami would drink the cool aid. But, no way is he going to build a title contender. And, he's no guaranteed QB guru.
Parcells wasn't the coach of this team and Ross didn't hire him anyway. Rough waters for Ross. Let's see how he writes his own history lesson.........
I really don't have access to who is / and isn't available. I know that I would love to see Norv Turner as our OC if he is fired. I think Cowher would be a reach for us ( just my opinion) Gruden would probably go to SF.
You are correct about Parcells not coaching but he was coaching the coaches behind the scenes. That's what he wanted and he picked the right puppets to do so. If Ross was smart he would have terminated the TUNA-AGREEMENT when he got here on a business basis alone. Here Ross inherits an agreement where he is paying a guy big bucks and the guy controls Ross - Ross doesn't control him? Only Huizinga could or would agree to such a stupidly drafted contract. I say Ross should show this fat bastard who the boss really is and fire Tuna before all of them based on his utter gall alone. For that matter, why not get Shula under contract to be the team adviser? He had better success in Miami than Tuna and JJ combined. Joe Paterno is 84, and going strong. The first call I would make to replace TUNA would be Shula. He always kept his head in check and never tried to run the owner. Here we have access to one of the best coaches ever and we are not using it. This makes no sense to me. If I were Ross I would restructure that contract and let Shula work at his leisure.
Exactly! I feel the same way towards all the Harbaugh excitement: aside from Bobby Ross and JJ, when has a college coach ever made a successful transition to directly head-coaching in the pros? Santayana in his "Age of Reason" proclaimed: "He who forgets history is condemned to repeat it."
What a well thought out post. Your opinion on this matter was awesome. Wonder why some people don't even bother typing on Phins fan sites. There will always be intelligent responses like yours without you know actually stating your thoughts. If you think sweeping the entire front office and coaching staff and starting over again is the answer your just ignorant to football history, specifically of this team. Maybe another case of most fans who watch football but don't have a good or realistic knowledge about it, but if your right and you want to start over lets be prepared for 3 more years of mediocrity because that's what a new coaching staff will take several years of transition with players, etc. Look at Rex Ryan he didn't completely rebuild the Jets added pieces to the puzzle and upgraded positions of need and they are having some success without starting over. They kept the same GM and he just got more aggressive.
