Russ Grimm looking good in prehire.

[stevew]

Steelers | Grimm should be named head coach by Saturday
Tue, 16 Jan 2007 17:01:45 -0800

John Clayton, of ESPN, reports the Pittsburgh Steelers should name assistant coach Russ Grimm the new head coach by Saturday, Jan. 20.

Absolutely horrible decision, and i think the FO will regret this move. What the team needs is not more of the same, but rather a new outlook. Not another coach who was content with watching the team turn into a bunch of spoiled punks last year. Grimm's line got blown the fuck up all season long, and now he's the head coach. I'm pretty pissed, and I hope this is just a bad bad rumor.

[RedKingGold]

Originally Posted by stevew

Absolutely horrible decision, and i think the FO will regret this move. What the team needs is not more of the same, but rather a new outlook. Not another coach who was content with watching the team turn into a bunch of spoiled punks last year. Grimm's line got blown the fuck up all season long, and now he's the head coach. I'm pretty pissed, and I hope this is just a bad bad rumor.

I do somewhat agree, however, what other options were truly out there that were somewhat enticing?

[wade moore]

Growing up as kid watching the Redskins in the mid-late 80's it's cool to see the first player that I watched getting this far in coaching.

That being said - it does seem to maybe be a bit early for Grimm to be a HC.

[Swaggs]

I think it is a very good move and I am pleased with it.

Rivera won't be available for awhile and Tomlin, while promising, needs a little more experience, in my opinion.

[stevew]

I suppose it could be worse. Supposedly some in the organization were watching to see if MartyBall was going to become available.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by stevew

Supposedly some in the organization were watching to see if MartyBall was going to become available.

Ridiculous.

Who on earth would want MartyBall when you could have ... the ChanPlan.

[SteelerFan448]

I would be pretty happy with that if it were true. I am not sold on how the NFC plays as a whole. They are a lot softer than AFC teams tend to be and I would hate to see that mentality, as well as the Cover 2 defense (that Rivera and Tomlin use), come to Pittsburgh.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Russ Grimm was considered a candidate during the Lions' head coaching search last year. If I recall many pundits poo-pooed the idea, saying Grimm wasn't ready.

[rkmsuf]

I'm shocked the Steelers aren't making a bigger play for James Lofton.

[lordscarlet]

Originally Posted by SteelerFan448

I would be pretty happy with that if it were true. I am not sold on how the NFC plays as a whole. They are a lot softer than AFC teams tend to be and I would hate to see that mentality, as well as the Cover 2 defense (that Rivera and Tomlin use), come to Pittsburgh.

Huh? To me the NFC is much more hard-nosed. Maybe because I watch the NFC East and it is the exception? But I associate the AFC much more with the passing game and such. (Although I suppose the West Cost Offense and the Greatest Show on Turf both originated in the NFC)

..Cue me getting ripped for posting a non-informed NFL opinion on a football board.

[Abe Sargent]

Originally Posted by lordscarlet

Huh? To me the NFC is much more hard-nosed. Maybe because I watch the NFC East and it is the exception? But I associate the AFC much more with the passing game and such. (Although I suppose the West Cost Offense and the Greatest Show on Turf both originated in the NFC)

..Cue me getting ripped for posting a non-informed NFL opinion on a football board.

Let's see - AFC West has LT AND Larry Johnson all setting various records this past year. Denver's a pretty tough team too.

AFC North has classic pound the ball offenses in Pittsburgh, Cleveland when it has an offense, and Baltimore.

AFC South has tough pound the ball offenses in Jacksonville, Tennessee and now Houston.

AFC East has Miami, Jets, Patriots all as tough hard-nosed teams.


Now, there are patises in the AFC. Indy. Buffalo. Oakland. Cincinnati has turned into one recently. They may be good, but they aren't true hard nosed teams. I'll also veto Cleveland because they want to be tough but haven't reached it yet (Houston has based on this year)


Now, NFC?

NFC East has Giants and Cowboys as tough teams, with a Redskins team that keeps wanting to change their mind as to their offensive identity and a Phily team that was hard nosed this year for the first time in a while after McNabb went down.

NFC North has Chicago and Detroit. The Vikings have historically been a very weak team in terms of their physical nature over the past few years, and Green Bay is a new West Coast offense, although during the Dorsey Levins years they were hard nosed.

NFC West? Laughing. Seattle is tougher than most and looks tough by comaparison, but has difficulty standing with a truly tough team. Still, I'll count them.

NFC South - Tough division, the only true hard nose, AFC style devision in the NFC. Panthers are great at the tough game, Saints may be doing well this year, Bucs, despite their west coast Gruden ways still have their occasionally tough quality, and the Falcons are a hard nosed team.


So, in the NFC I'd veto more teams as not being tough than the AFC by far. The AFC doesn't have one laughable division, the NFC does.

[Butter]

They'll just let Grimm run the team into the ground then bring in Nick Saban in 2 years to turn them back into an 8-8 club.

[wade moore]

Originally Posted by Anxiety

NFC West? Laughing. Seattle is tougher than most and looks tough by comaparison, but has difficulty standing with a truly tough team. Still, I'll count them.

Looks like the top 10 RB's are 50/50 between AFC and NFC (with one coming from one of your "patsy" AFC teams)... I'd have to look at % of total yardage, but I think this begins to disprove some of your statements as two of these come from the "laughable" NFC West.

[Abe Sargent]

Originally Posted by wade moore

Looks like the top 10 RB's are 50/50 between AFC and NFC (with one coming from one of your "patsy" AFC teams)... I'd have to look at % of total yardage, but I think this begins to disprove some of your statements as two of these come from the "laughable" NFC West.

Hard nosed is more than just who runs and what yards they get. It's about establishing a personality and dominance on the field, often through hard running. LT and the Chargers are hard nosed, despite the claim they left Marty ball behind. Even a finesse team can have a hard nosed day, like the Colts had last week when they just took over the game and ground it out - it was very un-Colts like and really, really good. Thats how they'll win the Super Bowl.

Its more than mere stats. Is attitude on the field.

[wade moore]

Originally Posted by Anxiety

Hard nosed is more than just who runs and what yards they get. It's about establishing a personality and dominance on the field, often through hard running. LT and the Chargers are hard nosed, despite the claim they left Marty ball behind. Even a finesse team can have a hard nosed day, like the Colts had last week when they just took over the game and ground it out - it was very un-Colts like and really, really good. Thats how they'll win the Super Bowl.

Its more than mere stats. Is attitude on the field.

I agree. And I think you are mischaracterizing several teams based on what people used to think about them - like the Niners and the Rams.

[JPhillips]

I think you're wrong about the offense of Cincy. 1309 yards with a long of 22 for Rudi means a hell of a lot of pounding. The pass gets the headlines, but when they're winning it's because Rudi goes over 20 carries and/or 100 yards.

On defense I won't argue, but they were middle of the league in rush d(Ahead of some of your hard-nosed teams). It was pass d that killed them.

[lordscarlet]

Originally Posted by wade moore

I agree. And I think you are mischaracterizing several teams based on what people used to think about them - like the Niners and the Rams.

And the Dolphins and Jets. Hard-nosed?

I also think (with major bias) that the Redskins are still a hard-nosed team.. they just went through a phase or two.

and, what I think is a better stat than what Wade used:
Attempts per game by Team (Indicative of establishing a style of play)

6 NFC, 4 AFC in the top 10

Yards per game by Team

6 NFC, 4 AFC

Average Yards per carry by Team

6 NFC, 4 AFC

[rkmsuf]

wtf is "hardnosed"?


makes no effing sense to try and categorize a conference

[Butter]

Playoffs?!?!

[Aylmar]

Tomlin went to the Pens game with Colbert last night. I don't think Clayton's got an inside track on this one. His relationship with the Rooney family isn't all that great and Art II (from everything I've read) likes to play it close to the vest. I think we'll find out what he's thinking when he's ready to announce it. Don't forget that, as of last week, most of the media had pronounced Whis as the new head coach.

If it does turn out to be Grimm, though, I won't mind so much. It's pretty well known that he and Cowher didn't really get along all that well, so I would question his autonomy as the OL coach. I don't think that absolves him of all the line's issues, but I think it would be a mistake to assume that promoting Grimm means that they're essentially extending Cowher. I think he'll want to bring in his own people...although I hope he keeps LeBeau. Well, I hope that whomever is hired keeps LeBeau around in some capacity.

[Subby]

Originally Posted by rkmsuf

wtf is "hardnosed"?

It is a non-scientific anecdotal way of trying to make your team sound cooler than someone else's team.

In other words, it's horseshit.

[wade moore]

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07018/754788-66.stm

Tomlin, 34, is NFL's rising coaching star

Thursday, January 18, 2007
By Gerry Dulac, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette


When the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were looking for a secondary coach to replace Herman Edwards in 2001, coach Tony Dungy brought in more than a dozen candidates to interview for the position. Most had experience coaching in the National Football League. But not all of them.
The last person to interview for the position was Mike Tomlin, a 29-year-old assistant coach from the University of Cincinnati. Not only had Tomlin never coached in the NFL but he also had only six years as an assistant coach in college.
None of that mattered to the Buccaneers.
"When we met him, we all kind of looked at each other," said Monte Kiffin, Tampa Bay's longtime defensive coordinator. "You could feel the room come alive. When we put him on a plane and sent him home, we all said, 'That's our guy.' John Lynch was sitting in the room with us, he's been to four Pro Bowls, and he told me later, 'I can't believe this guy. He's awesome.' "
"Half the players were older than him," said Detroit Lions coach Rod Marinelli, who was Tampa Bay's defensive line coach at the time. "But the decision wasn't even close."
And so began the meteoric ascent of Mike Tomlin, one of three finalists to replace Bill Cowher as head coach of the Steelers.
His star is rising so fast that those who know him believe he will be an NFL head coach soon, if not this year, almost certainly by 2008. Included in that group of admirers are the members of the Rooney family who, in this instance, matter most -- team chairman Dan Rooney and president Art Rooney II.
Tomlin bowled them over in his first interview last week, just as he seems to do with everyone who comes in contact with him. He was the first of the three finalists to have a second interview with the Steelers.
"To me, the No. 1 thing you want, if you're running an organization, is someone with character and integrity and a family guy at the very top of your club," Marinelli said yesterday from his office in Detroit. "You see that with Tony Dungy and Herm Edwards, and he has the same character. There are no character flaws. That's all you want. Now you add in something else like his football knowledge and you got something special."
Tomlin, 34, spent five seasons with the Buccaneers before leaving last year to become defensive coordinator for the Minnesota Vikings. After just one season with the Vikings, he is on the fast track to becoming a head coach, despite his tender age and limited experience.
The Vikings ranked eighth in total defense last season and led the NFL in rush defense. Like the Steelers, they did not allow a 100-yard rusher in 2006. They were the only NFL teams to accomplish that feat. In a Dec. 10 game against Marinelli's Detroit team, the Vikings held the Lions to minus-3 yards rushing, the lowest total by an NFL team in the past 45 years.
"One of the things you noticed right away was he was eager to learn and how much confidence he has in what he's doing," Marinelli said. "That comes from intelligence. He's an extremely, extremely bright guy. That confidence allows you to be demanding. He has all those skills. Soon as someone meets him, they come away with that impression."
Age doesn't seem to be a problem for Tomlin.
He is the same age as Cowher and Chuck Noll when they were hired by the Steelers. But he is also young enough that one of the players in the Vikings' secondary -- safety Darren Sharper -- was his teammate at William & Mary.
When Cowher was hired by the Steelers in 1992, he was the same age as right tackle Tunch Ilkin.
"He has great people skills, great relationships with his players," Kiffin said. "But there's a fine line in there where you're going to let them know you're going to do it my way. He can do that."
Tomlin was a three-year starter at William & Mary and finished his career with 101 catches, 2,053 yards and 20 touchdowns. As a wide receiver, he was a speed player who could outrun and outjump Division I-AA defenders.
But he never played professional football, opting to become a coach a year after graduation.
"When he told me he wanted to pursue coaching, I said great, coaching needs people like you," William & Mary coach Jimmye Laycock said yesterday.
"I'm not surprised he's in this position. Mike is a genuine good person who happens to be a good football coach."
"I had a lot of respect for him, which is hard for me to say being a defensive player and him being a wide receiver," said Jason Miller, a Canonsburg native who was a linebacker at William & Mary when Tomlin was a wide receiver. "Linebackers don't have a lot of respect for offensive players. But he wouldn't take any nonsense from any defensive back."
Added Miller: "He was always a motivator on the sideline and in the locker room. He never let people get down. What I enjoyed about him, he always had a joke or a smile on his face. He took things light-hearted ... until he gets on the field."
Tomlin spent one season at Virginia Military Institute in 1995, another as a graduate assistant at the University of Memphis and two years as wide receivers coach at Arkansas State. At Memphis and Arkansas State, he worked with Steelers linebackers coach Keith Butler.
When he went to Cincinnati in 1999, Tomlin switched sides of the ball, leaving the offense and becoming the Bearcats' secondary coach. Along the way, he gained admirers with his defensive knowledge, displaying an understanding not usually befitting a former wide receiver.
"Tony Dungy was a quarterback who was a mastermind in defense," Marinelli said. "I was an offensive lineman who became a defensive line coach. You see that happen a lot. Players trust him. That's why he's special."
And that's why he's seemingly on a fast track to becoming a head coach in the NFL, perhaps with the Steelers.
"It's not necessarily what you do from an X's and O's standpoint, but how you do it, what playing winning football is all about, not just inside the white lines but outside the white lines," Tomlin said.
"Coaches, in a lot of ways, whether you're a head coach, a coordinator or a position coach, are somewhat of a life coach. You have to be prepared to do the things that come with the job. If you're going to instruct men inside the white lines, you have to understand what outside the white lines affects what they do."

[stevew]

yay, it worked!@!#!@!