The Past or the Future? Coaching Carousel Is an Inexact Science

Filed under: NFL Coaching

Late Sunday night, one of those explosive rumors surfaced, spread by Twitter and other media outlets, that Jon Gruden was headed to the University of Miami. Thanks (again) to Twitter (its speed can be helpful at times) it was quickly quashed.

But it begs this question:

Why, when the conversation about the future seems to transcend the past, do we concentrate on the Mike Shanahans of the world and forget the Mike Smiths? And what is it about coaching changes that seem as fascinating to a lot of fans as playoff races, especially in a league where with five games to go, five of the eight division races are tied and the other three are within a game, begging the question about whether the NFC West title should be vacated with two 5-6 teams at the top?

Let's start with the aforementioned Mike Smith (pictured), who has Atlanta at 9-2, tied with the Jets and Patriots for the NFL's best record. They are this week's "Super Bowl team'' -- 19-1 in the Georgia Dome with Matt Ryan at quarterback and a win over Green Bay on Sunday that just about guarantees that if they face the Packers in the playoffs, it won't be at Lambeau Field.

When he was hired by Atlanta after the 2007 season, Smith was simply a professional coach with no special reputation, in part due to his name but also due to his resume -- defensive coordinator at Jacksonville; defensive coach at Baltimore; assistant at Morehead State, Tennessee Tech and San Diego State and one year as a linebacker for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

In other words, just "some guy named Mike Smith'' who has been 29-15 with a franchise that's a been loser for most of its 45 seasons, has one Super Bowl trip (something of a fluke) and is still looking for its first Hall of Fame player. And who is Thomas Dimitroff, the man who was hired from New England at the same time to run the Falcons' personnel operation? Well, to start with, he's one of the few acolytes that Bill Belichick has sent off into the football world who seems to have had Belichick's success instantly imparted on him (see McDaniels, Josh).

Which, when coaching rumors start flying, raises a few points.

 

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Source: http://nfl.fanhouse.com/2010/11/29/the-past-or-the-future-coaching-carousel/

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