Couldnt help myself
 

I saw this quote and I couldnt help myself, being as it seems one of the few critics of Dan Snyder:

'Even though Spurrier has been basically invisible since he resigned as the Redskins' coach last December, one friend said it would not be farfetched to say Spurrier has been "encouraged" by the struggles of Joe Gibbs' second run in Washington.
'He's not rooting for Joe to fall on his face,' said the friend. 'But you can bet he feels like it wasn't just him who was the problem.'

and I wonder who that problem could have been...

by the way this article is in the nfl section of espn.com right now, and it goes on to hint many more times that Dan is the problem

It's taking Joe more time to clean up Spurrier's mess than we all thought it would.
I would have loved to see Joe work with a pre-Spurrier Ramsey.

If Gibbs had got to Ramsey before Spurrier tried to kill heim he'd be a League MVP by now.

The complete article-by Chris Mortensen
 

As Steve Spurrier mulls a return to Gator Nation, we're starting to hear that he has not ruled out a return to the NFL, as surprising as that may sound to the skeptics who watched his 5-11 and 7-9 seasons as coach of the Washington Redskins.

So, has the NFL ruled out Spurrier? Maybe not.

"I do think Steve could be successful in the NFL," said Rich McKay, general manager of the Atlanta Falcons. "I would expect I'm not alone in thinking that way."

He's not alone, if you count Ron Wolf, the former Green Bay Packers general manager who most recently has had some flirtations with the Cleveland Browns and Miami Dolphins as a "consultant."

"Would I hire him? Yes, I think I would," said Wolf. "Now I'd have to do my due diligence and, No.1, find out what happened in Washington, as to why it didn't work there."

McKay and Wolf both tried to hire Spurrier. McKay actually got Spurrier to say "yes" to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1996 before the Florida coach changed his mind in a 4 a.m. telephone call to the Bucs' GM. Wolf couldn't quite convince Spurrier to consider the Green Bay Packers after he fired Ray Rhodes and hired Mike Sherman.

Both men had similar analyses of why Spurrier failed with the Redskins – they think his support staff, mostly on the coaching side, was short of the mark.

"I know this – I saw what he put together in Washington (with a coaching staff) and I knew it wouldn't work," said Wolf. "He needs somebody to help him with that. If he got that right, there's no question he would succeed. He's too smart not to succeed."

McKay agreed, saying, "I think Steve would be quick to learn from (his Redskins' failures) and figure out what he needs in a surrounding cast to be successful in the NFL. I'm not saying that to take a shot at (Redskins owner) Daniel Snyder. I know Steve. When he first took the Florida job, it took him a little while to figure out who he wanted as assistants. Once he got that, it was over."

Another team executive who wanted to be anonymous thinks Spurrier "had no shot in Washington. He needs the right owner and the right front office so he can focus on what he does best – coach. I know Snyder gave him a lot of money and he supported him, but it wasn't a good fit."

Even though Spurrier has been basically invisible since he resigned as the Redskins' coach last December, one friend said it would not be farfetched to say Spurrier has been "encouraged" by the struggles of Joe Gibbs' second run in Washington.

"He's not rooting for Joe to fall on his face," said the friend. "But you can bet he feels like it wasn't just him who was the problem."

There's a fairly strong consensus that Spurrier was not overmatched on the sidelines, as some of the skeptics maintained.

"Are you kidding?" asked Wolf. "You don't overmatch this guy."

After all, Spurrier was the last coach to beat Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots.

McKay basically thinks if Spurrier had been at one of the three Florida NFL franchises – Jacksonville, Miami or Tampa Bay – he would have given the pro game more time and eventually nailed it. He didn't exactly call Spurrier a fish out of water, but everyone knows it is less stressful to be, say, a U.S. Senator in Washington than the head coach of the Redskins.

"It's one of the most popular and recognizable franchises in all of sports, and it's just a tough place to coach," said McKay.

Well, if Spurrier is so smart, why didn't he know that going in?

For one, Snyder's timing was right. Spurrier had begun to feel unappreciated at Florida. He always had wondered whether "his way" would work in the NFL, and when he saw Mike Martz's aerial circus give everyone fits with the St. Louis Rams, it stirred his competitive juices for the pro game. Snyder's unprecedented $5 million a year offer was too much to turn down in 2002.

Ironically, Spurrier probably would have jumped at a chance to coach Jacksonville if Jaguars owner Wayne Weaver, who had just fired Tom Coughlin, had made a competitive offer during the same time Spurrier was negotiating with Snyder. But Weaver wanted to honor the league process of searching for a coach, and he ultimately settled on Jack Del Rio.

Del Rio over Spurrier? Many Jaguars fans were appalled. Not now. But that doesn't mean Spurrier would have failed in Jacksonville as he failed in Washington.

McKay also believes Spurrier had a similar transition to that of McKay's father, John McKay, who went from college football power Southern Cal to become the Buccaneers' first head coach. Managing pro players is different than managing college guys.

"I know in Dad's case, it took a couple of years to figure out what a pro player is versus a college player," said McKay. "I was not surprised there was a learning curve for Steve. I think he has gained more knowledge about the pro guys. I wouldn't underestimate Steve. That would be a mistake."

We may never know Spurrier's full potential as an NFL coach. Florida may prove to be too tempting. Then again, if he decides against a Gator sequel, don't necessarily dismiss a rematch with the pro game, especially if the Dolphins come calling, which is a longshot.

"Would it surprise me if he passed on Florida to take another a shot (at the NFL)? No," replied Wolf. "The other thing about (Spurrier) is he is as competitive as anybody you'll ever meet. He doesn't like failure. He may want to finish what he started if the right job came along."

[quote]Both men had similar analyses of why Spurrier failed with the Redskins – they think his support staff, mostly on the coaching side, was short of the mark.
[/quote]

What have i been saying since I came to this board!

I would have to agree SS needed a better coaching staff. But didn't he choose his coaches? So who's fault was it? The owner? I don't think so.
:httr:

he didn't understand pro players or the amount of time needed... he wanted very little to do with meetings and personnel stuff...

he would've been much better off as an OC in a quality pass first offense...

hes not a leader as a head coach. gibbs is doing everything right as a coach but not as an o cordinator. but hes been out for a while and is getting it back and learning. i was so glad to see he changed his offense to help portis. now if only he could help brunell to...

Peter: Look at this, Lois, see right here [points in book], I was voted most likely to succeed!
Lois: Peter, that's not you. That's not even a yearbook, it's a People magazine.
Peter: Oh, I wondered why they had the wrong picture and name.

remember when spurrier didnt now a lot of th eplayers names half way through the season?!?

Because god knows Coach Gibbs is shaping up to eclipse Spurriers record by a ton, right?

I'm not saying Gibbs will fail, but I'm also saying you're willing to give a coach that's won at the pro level all the time in the world, but a guy still learning the game is a bust after two years? Even though most experts say in order to get a system somewhat clicking it must be in place for three years?

Spurrier had many problems and it went further than just not having a quality staff around him, which he hand picked by the way and his refusal to drastically make over the staff was one of the reasons he walked away.

His offense is too simple for the NFL, once defensive coordinators figured it out Spurrier was cooked. He was too slow to adjust, it was painfully obvious he needed to add hot routes and leave in additional blockers, by the time he finally did it was too late.

Spurrier won't be a success in the NFL because he's just not cut out for it. The long hours, the gameplanning, watching film, he didn't do any of this. Players said they didn't even know what the gameplan was going into games. (Excuse me while I wipe the tears of laughter from my eyes.)

Sorry Daseal if many of us are more patient with a coach who won 3 Super Bowls and is in the Hall of Fame. Gibbs has earned our patience.

maybe his offense is simple but gibbs' is looking mighty simple unless we're playing chicago. i agree with the article in saying that washington is just a tough place to coach. expectations are too high for DC. i think that spurrier is a decent coach and would have had success with another franchise, esp. like they said, a florida team. crap, i would like to still have schott. here to be honest. i know that power disputes eventually led to his ousting but still, we were set up to be good under him. so here we stand now with hardly a mediocre offense and a money defense. i for one bet that spurrier could get 8or9 games with a top five D. no doubt that gibbs will get it back though...

Spurriers offense also never looked as bad as our's does right now

Y'know the other reason we gave up on the old ball coach is that he walked away. Its not easy to belive in a coach that isn't here, but then last year we might have been better off if he wasn't here hell it wasn't like the team was hanging off his every word....

I never heard of defensive players always knowing where Spurrier was going with the ball. I know Gibbs and Buges came out and said that simply isn't true, but do you expect anything else out of the coaches who have a system that is currently struggling? Michael Wilbon was in the Browns locker room after the game and they said that they DID know where it was going. I think I'll believe them over the coaching staff.

Only time will tell.

[QUOTE=aehs77]Spurriers offense also never looked as bad as our's does right now[/QUOTE]
Really?

How about the first Dallas game where Ramsey was getting pummeled every other play and on one 4th down he just threw the ball up for grabs out of frustration??

Funny how quickly we forget.

[QUOTE=Daseal]I never heard of defensive players always knowing where Spurrier was going with the ball. I know Gibbs and Buges came out and said that simply isn't true, but do you expect anything else out of the coaches who have a system that is currently struggling? Michael Wilbon was in the Browns locker room after the game and they said that they DID know where it was going. I think I'll believe them over the coaching staff.

Only time will tell.[/QUOTE]
That's because they probably didn't care about where the ball was going with Spurrier here, d-coordinators knew all they needed to do was blitz the hell out of the Redskins and they couldn't do anything about it. LOL

The whole knowing the plays thing was blown way out of proportion if you ask me. If Portis didn't complain after the game out of frustration we probably wouldn't have heard much about it at all.

And like Gibbs said, the few plays where it seemed like they may have known where they were going, the Skins picked up positive yards on those plays.

Every team knows tendencies of other teams, I guarantee you that in every game on sunday, somebody knows where a play is going before it happens. That's a simple result of watching film and studying your opponent.

still think that eventually spurrier would have done something. with a good D he was 8-8. year or two of adjusting, like all the first-timers need, he's got 10-11 wins. that's what i think. anyone here think we'd be in every game with george edwards as dcoord? but dude was right he DID walk away... although i wonder about that.

Daseal, just curious, if you were Snyder and you had your choice of hiring Spurrier or Gibbs, who would it be and why?

How many times have you heard a defensive player after making a big play stating he recognised the look the offence were giving and responded accordingly. Defences get an idea of what is comming it is up to the opposing offence to execute better . It is clasic Gibbs.

Also a good offence trys to disrupt what a defence is trying to do, not just by mixing up the looks but for instance hitting the seams on zone coverage, running through an outside blitz, picking up the blitz running max protect etc etc.

A lot has been said of Gibbs offensive strugles but the strugles have been blown out of proportion but remember Shottenhiemers offence, and Spurriers offence in year one with the revolving QB and year two the turnstiles on the O line.

[QUOTE=aehs77]Spurriers offense also never looked as bad as our's does right now[/QUOTE]
:rolleyes: Yea right. Tell that to Ramsey! He might have somthing different to say about that. Our QB's where getting rocked last year.

Gibbs will get the offense on track. Give him a few more weeks.
:httr:

[QUOTE=Riggo44]:rolleyes: Yea right. Tell that to Ramsey! He might have somthing different to say about that. Our QB's where getting rocked last year.

Gibbs will get the offense on track. Give him a few more weeks.
:httr:[/QUOTE]

Yeah, and our leading rusher last year , Canidate totaled 600 yards for the entire season....Portis has 593 right now.
The passing game is struggling, but it will come around....it has to!!! ;)

Im sure if you ask Ramsey he'd prefer Spurrier. He'd be hurting, but at least he'd be playing.

Matty - For me, that's a hard decesion. If I had both of them sitting there with their previous records and I was looking for a coach, I would have picked Gibbs. However Im damn near certain Spurrier was told to step-away instead of doing it himself.

Gibbs would be 0-6 right now with Edwards running our defense.

[QUOTE=Daseal]Im sure if you ask Ramsey he'd prefer Spurrier. He'd be hurting, but at least he'd be playing.

Matty - For me, that's a hard decesion. If I had both of them sitting there with their previous records and I was looking for a coach, I would have picked Gibbs. However Im damn near certain Spurrier was told to step-away instead of doing it himself.

Gibbs would be 0-6 right now with Edwards running our defense.[/QUOTE]So you're saying you think Spurrier didn't quit and he was forced out instead?

What makes you think that exactly?

I'm not so sure who Ramsey would choose, he was losing some years off his life playing for Spurrier, literally.

Oh and I agree about Edwards, he was horrible. But who promoted him?

[QUOTE=Mattyk72]So you're saying you think Spurrier didn't quit and he was forced out instead?

What makes you think that exactly?

I'm not so sure who Ramsey would choose, he was losing some years off his life playing for Spurrier, literally.

Oh and I agree about Edwards, he was horrible. But who promoted him?[/QUOTE]


No way he was forced out, SS was in over his head, he wanted out, if he was forced out he would have taken the 15 million he had remaining on his contract, I know I would.

[QUOTE=EEich]It's taking Joe more time to clean up Spurrier's mess than we all thought it would.
I would have loved to see Joe work with a pre-Spurrier Ramsey.[/QUOTE]

I agree................. :food-smil

It's going to take time for Joe to clean up Spurrier's mess...........He didn't even know a player had been cut on Special Teams. The Redskins were sloppy with offside penalties and STUPID mistakes.........

Of course, Danny boy and Vince take part of the blame as well..........

You don't think it's at all odd Spurrier said I quit, then said "I didn't say that!" then said he quit again? I think Joe got the coaching bug and contacted Snyder, who pressure Spurrier out. That's just my guess.

spurrier would have done better with greg williams, but he would have never landed him...

[QUOTE=Daseal]You don't think it's at all odd Spurrier said I quit, then said "I didn't say that!" then said he quit again? I think Joe got the coaching bug and contacted Snyder, who pressure Spurrier out. That's just my guess.[/QUOTE]
I think Spurrier told his agent that he wanted out - but to see what he could get him out of Snyder. The news got to Snyder who told the world - not knowing (maybe?) Spurrier wanted out. Spurrier heard this not knowing his agent had started the process and said 'no, i haven't quit'. His agent then told him what he had done, and Spurrier conceded. Gibbs, hearing all this, thought about his son saying something about coaching and the bug started to emerge from the cocoon. And here we are.

I don't believe that Gibbs would have contacted Snyder in order to weasel in on a job.

[QUOTE=cpayne5]I think Spurrier told his agent that he wanted out - but to see what he could get him out of Snyder. The news got to Snyder who told the world - not knowing (maybe?) Spurrier wanted out. Spurrier heard this not knowing his agent had started the process and said 'no, i haven't quit'. His agent then told him what he had done, and Spurrier conceded. Gibbs, hearing all this, thought about his son saying something about coaching and the bug started to emerge from the cocoon. And here we are.

I don't believe that Gibbs would have contacted Snyder in order to weasel in on a job.[/QUOTE]Yeah that's the way I understood the whole thing, it was a miscommunication between Spurrier and his agent and word leaked out prematurely.

I don't think Gibbs was a serious blip on the radar until after Spurrier quit.

Snyder would have given Spurrier year 3, with changes in the coaching staff, but Spurrier reportedly wasn't willing to can his staff and that played a part in him walking.

I remember watching the final press conference of the year and Spurrier just seemed like a beaten man. I was initially surprised when he quit, but thinking back to the look of defeat on his face in that last press conference and that told the whole story.

I'll tell you one thing though, if Spurrier were still here we wouldn't be wondering where's Darkerian :laughing-

7-9, not 8-8.

I may also be wrong here but in the middle of the pain (season) last year there were a bunch of storries about Spurrier looking around the college coaching scene for possible jobs.

He was not commited to seeing the Skins win it became obvious towards the middle of last year. When he walked, and he did walk otherwise he would be sitting on a much bigger slice of the 15mil remaining, Gibbs was not even on the radar. Yes he was considering returning to coaching but was looking in the direction of Atlanta.

Matty:

You asked who promoted Edwards. I believe that Lavar and some other "important defensive players" (Cousin Brucie to be sure) went to Danny Boy to lobby for Edwards to get the job when Lewis left. He was going to keep the same terminology and let the defense do more freelancing - remember?

Edwards was in over his head - as were some other staff members - but it was Danny Boy listening to some whining players who told him that Marvin Lewis was an overbearing meanie that promoted Edwards.

And I too suspect that Spurrier was induced to leave. I don't know that for certain, but I suspect it is the case.

induced to leave by the locals and the players disliking him maybe...

I really don't see much basis for the thought that Spurrier was forced out, in fact this is the first time I'm hearing this. Is this just a feeling you guys have or is it based on anything?

SC, yeah the players lobbied for Edwards, but if Spurrier went to Snyder and said we need to get a proven DC in here I don't think Edwards can handle it, do you think Snyder would have trumped that thought?

Spurrier seemed to have a little Norv in him, too nice of a guy to make difficult business decisions like letting staff go when the writing is on the wall.

Whatever happened it's water under the bridge. Gibbs is back, Spurrier is gone and that's where we are today.

Matty, for me it's a feeling. Spurrier said some things that made me think he'd try for one more year, and I think as fans most everyone would have given him another year to turn it around. Put yourself in Snyders shoes. You hear Gibbs wants to coach again and is looking at Atlanta. You might put the pressure on Spurrier.