Fritz
12-13-2004, 11:51 AM
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/sports/content/sports/epaper/2004/12/13/a11c_stoda_1213.html
Shanahan isn't right fit for Fins
By Greg Stoda
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Monday, December 13, 2004
DENVER — Mike Shanahan isn't who the Dolphins need.
He has been a tremendously successful coach in the National Football League by almost any measure — two Super Bowl rings as Denver's field boss, most significantly — and likely will continue to be successful more seasons than not, for as long as he remains in his current job or any other one.
Which, of course, is why Shanahan's name comes up so often whenever there's an opportunity for employment elsewhere . . . as there will be in Miami almost immediately upon conclusion of the miserable season in which the Dolphins now find themselves engulfed.
It was, in fact, Shanahan's team that extended Miami's discontent Sunday afternoon with a 20-17 victory at Invesco Field.
Shanahan again has the Broncos (8-5) in the mix for a spot in the AFC playoffs. Denver has been involved in post-season activity five times in Shanahan's previous nine years in charge, but the coach mostly has been damned with faint praise in that he had John Elway as a quarterback through the most glorious times.
That's a convenient whack at any coach in any sport fortunate enough to be linked with a superstar, and Elway was a superstar of extraordinary rank.
But it doesn't, or shouldn't, fully account for Shanahan's glittery 106-61 record with the Broncos.
So, again, he's a very good coach.
Yet, again, not what the Dolphins need.
Because what the Dolphins need is new blood.
They need to take the risk that someone — be he Nick Saban from the college ranks at LSU or a more anonymous NFL coordinator — will grow into, well, a Shanahan.
No more picking from the pile that brought Jimmy Johnson (Super Bowl rings from Dallas, and all) and Dave Wannstedt to Miami for what has turned out to be nine seasons of utter disappointment.
Shanahan would represent too much of the same approach regardless of what his personal approach to coaching the Dolphins might be.
The perception with a Miami hire of Shanahan, who recently has been embattled at Denver, would be that he was escaping the Broncos rather than embracing the Dolphins.
"Once you start listening to (criticisms), you are usually on your way out," Shanahan said after Denver's victory against the Dolphins. "You have to believe in yourself and focus on the job at hand, and try to take care of business."
Doesn't sound like a man on his way out, anyway.
And then there was this from Broncos owner Pat Bowlen: "He has four years to go on his (expletive) contract, and I'm not going to fire him."
Bowlen's reaction was not to anything regarding Miami's future search for a head coach, but to the recent rumor that Shanahan might be headed to Notre Dame to work the college scene. In truth, Florida's flirtation with Shanahan before hiring Ron Zook a few years back was much more serious than anything that went on between him and the Irish before they hired New England offensive coordinator Charlie Weis.
Not that Bowlen sounded altogether sympathetic to Shanahan's recent tribulations. Asked, for example, if he thought Shanahan was going through the most difficult time of his career in Denver, Bowlen said: "I think it's a tough sport."
It is, indeed.
Which is why the Dolphins need to make the tough call on their next coaching hire.
Miami is in need of an extensive makeover, and such a thing can't be undertaken if the most important change on the sideline is a regurgitation of the familiar.
It can't be a Shanahan or a Mike Holmgren or a Jeff Fisher or anyone else of NFL note and achievement who might view South Florida as a sunny place to live and the Dolphins with their ever-diminishing expectations as a safe place to land.
Miami is going to operate in a nothing-to-lose environment next season, and the best man to facilitate that kind of move is an everything-to-gain coach. If the Dolphins are going to grow back into the kind of consistent AFC challenger they were for such a long time, they ought to hire a coach to grow with them.
So despondent do these Dolphins seem after 3 1/2 months of losing that there is little life left to them. The expectations of salvaging anything resembling respectability evaporated long ago.
A fresh philosophy — from inside the team's training facility in Davie to the playing field at Pro Player Stadium to life on the NFL road — is what's called for.
That calls for a fresh start . . . starting with the head coach.
Nothing against Shanahan, but that wouldn't come from him or from anyone like him.
Shanahan isn't right fit for Fins
By Greg Stoda
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Monday, December 13, 2004
DENVER — Mike Shanahan isn't who the Dolphins need.
He has been a tremendously successful coach in the National Football League by almost any measure — two Super Bowl rings as Denver's field boss, most significantly — and likely will continue to be successful more seasons than not, for as long as he remains in his current job or any other one.
Which, of course, is why Shanahan's name comes up so often whenever there's an opportunity for employment elsewhere . . . as there will be in Miami almost immediately upon conclusion of the miserable season in which the Dolphins now find themselves engulfed.
It was, in fact, Shanahan's team that extended Miami's discontent Sunday afternoon with a 20-17 victory at Invesco Field.
Shanahan again has the Broncos (8-5) in the mix for a spot in the AFC playoffs. Denver has been involved in post-season activity five times in Shanahan's previous nine years in charge, but the coach mostly has been damned with faint praise in that he had John Elway as a quarterback through the most glorious times.
That's a convenient whack at any coach in any sport fortunate enough to be linked with a superstar, and Elway was a superstar of extraordinary rank.
But it doesn't, or shouldn't, fully account for Shanahan's glittery 106-61 record with the Broncos.
So, again, he's a very good coach.
Yet, again, not what the Dolphins need.
Because what the Dolphins need is new blood.
They need to take the risk that someone — be he Nick Saban from the college ranks at LSU or a more anonymous NFL coordinator — will grow into, well, a Shanahan.
No more picking from the pile that brought Jimmy Johnson (Super Bowl rings from Dallas, and all) and Dave Wannstedt to Miami for what has turned out to be nine seasons of utter disappointment.
Shanahan would represent too much of the same approach regardless of what his personal approach to coaching the Dolphins might be.
The perception with a Miami hire of Shanahan, who recently has been embattled at Denver, would be that he was escaping the Broncos rather than embracing the Dolphins.
"Once you start listening to (criticisms), you are usually on your way out," Shanahan said after Denver's victory against the Dolphins. "You have to believe in yourself and focus on the job at hand, and try to take care of business."
Doesn't sound like a man on his way out, anyway.
And then there was this from Broncos owner Pat Bowlen: "He has four years to go on his (expletive) contract, and I'm not going to fire him."
Bowlen's reaction was not to anything regarding Miami's future search for a head coach, but to the recent rumor that Shanahan might be headed to Notre Dame to work the college scene. In truth, Florida's flirtation with Shanahan before hiring Ron Zook a few years back was much more serious than anything that went on between him and the Irish before they hired New England offensive coordinator Charlie Weis.
Not that Bowlen sounded altogether sympathetic to Shanahan's recent tribulations. Asked, for example, if he thought Shanahan was going through the most difficult time of his career in Denver, Bowlen said: "I think it's a tough sport."
It is, indeed.
Which is why the Dolphins need to make the tough call on their next coaching hire.
Miami is in need of an extensive makeover, and such a thing can't be undertaken if the most important change on the sideline is a regurgitation of the familiar.
It can't be a Shanahan or a Mike Holmgren or a Jeff Fisher or anyone else of NFL note and achievement who might view South Florida as a sunny place to live and the Dolphins with their ever-diminishing expectations as a safe place to land.
Miami is going to operate in a nothing-to-lose environment next season, and the best man to facilitate that kind of move is an everything-to-gain coach. If the Dolphins are going to grow back into the kind of consistent AFC challenger they were for such a long time, they ought to hire a coach to grow with them.
So despondent do these Dolphins seem after 3 1/2 months of losing that there is little life left to them. The expectations of salvaging anything resembling respectability evaporated long ago.
A fresh philosophy — from inside the team's training facility in Davie to the playing field at Pro Player Stadium to life on the NFL road — is what's called for.
That calls for a fresh start . . . starting with the head coach.
Nothing against Shanahan, but that wouldn't come from him or from anyone like him.