The Dolphins Make Me Cry.com - Forums

It will be Todd Bowles when Sparano is let go. Listen to NFL Radio today on SIRIUS everyone thinks Sparano is gone after the SD game win or lose. We have our BYE week after next Sunday so it makes sense.

Bowles has been up for many d-coordinator jobs the past few years and hasn't landed them. Many think he will be a head coach one day down the road. And he is a minority so the first day after the season if the Fins want to hire Cowher or Gruden they could interview Bowles that same day and not have to worry about the "Rooney Rule" moving forward and speed up the process and be able to make the first pitch to anyone they want.

After the performance Nolan's defense has turned in for 3 straight weeks, I'm glad he may not be in the mix.

makes sense... nolan is going to get another shot at a head coach at some point. doesn't need the interim head coach label to make that next step. why would he want to take over another sinking ship, with players that aren't his.

and yeah, his defense isn't exactly playing inspired football right now.

Mike Tomlin was our Rooney Rule coach in 2007....ugh


idc who the coach is at this point...other than Sparano obviously

if offered Nolan doesn't turn it down. He would be an idiot to do that and it would harm his future as a potential head coach elsewhere. He would look like not a team guy and a quitter only out for himself. IF he is offered he will say YES, no doubt about that

not sure why he would accept an interim coach label on a crappy team with players he isn't responsible for.

we'll never know anyways, because he probably told them not to bother. looks like it'll be someone else navigating the fins in the andrew luck sweepstakes.

because it looks bad if you turn down the gig. You come off as a loser. You don't turn those type of things down. Come off looking very selfish and not a team guy.

Its like if a coach asked you to go on the field and play and you said NO, I'm good. You come off as a loser. If the owner says coach my team for a month or two you turn that down. You will never live that down and you will get labeled as a guy who when the going gets tough you were afraid to step up.

This is one of those rare instances where I'm completely with MikeO... There's just no way Nolan can turn down the interim coaching gig if given it. He would have to resign the second the coach was fired and even that would look pretty bad (off the top of my head, I can't think of anyone coordinators that have resigned in-season after the head coach was fired).

it would be something that the owner would have to keep in mind in firing the head coach. you can't expect that all the guys you have around to need or want to stay on a sinking ship if they have a resume that will allow them to get another gig. he doesn't need the interim coach label to help as a stepping stone to a full-time hc gig.

why would nolan want to risk staining his hc brand (may not be that good, but that's another discussion) to take over a crappy team that he had nothing to do in building, training, preparing for this season? nolan isn't going to make a trade to bring in a healthy peyton manning, so chances are this team will end the season pretty shitty. like fans with garbage bags on their heads at home games. given what he left in san fran, why would he want to damage that even further?

Ross already created a perception problem last year with his treatment of Sparano.  Firing him 4 games after he gives him an extension cements his status as the new Dan Snyder.

There is nothing to be gained from firing Sparano mid-season; we aren't going to keep whomever the interim coach is, nor should we.  The top tier coaching candidates (e.g. Gruden, Cowher) CERTAINLY would not come in mid-season.  Ride Sparano out; if he sucks, not only does Ross diminish the perception as a psycho knee-jerk owner, but we are propelled up the draft order in a good year to do so.

^^^^ 100% agreed.

folks think, oh we got this guy with hc experience already on the staff, just shit can sparano. freaking dumb logic because like you said, 1) firing coach isn't going to magically make a crappy team good and 2) why would nolan want an "interim" tag on a crappy team as an audition to get a full-time gig?

chances are he gives dumb, knee jerk owner a big middle finger and walks out the door as well.

The advantage to firing a coach mid-season is that you can get a jump on the four or five other teams that will be looking for a new coach at the end of the season.  Wait to long and the Fins will be standing around and all the chairs will be taken.

What jump will you get?  No one will be signing any of the top tier coaches during the season anyway.

No top tier coach is going to say, "Well, Miami waited until the end of the season to fire their coach, so I guess I'll have to go to Cincinnati instead!"  Top tier coaches choose their jobs based on the (job) environment, not who fired their coach earliest.  It's not first come, first serve.

you fire a coach midseason to send a message to your fans that you will not stand for constant losing. That this type of play won't be tolerated.

That's why you do it. If you keep Sparano around it comes off as you find this level of play acceptable. And not only that, its not fair to Sparano to throw him out there every Sunday on the sideline and suffer especially after what you did to him last offseason. Just give him his money, let him take the rest of the year off to regroup. And everyone moves on and everyone is better off for it.

Most quality coaches (Cowher, Gruden, Fisher, etc.) don't want to get involved with taking over a head coaching spot while the predecessor is still in the job, its just bad form.  Just look back to the debacle that happened last year when Ross was looking to replace Sparano while he still had the job.  By appointing an interim coach you can start talking to potential coaches and cover the requirements of the Rooney Rule, etc.

Speaking for myself, the fact they fire a coach midseason doesn't make me feel any better about losing.

Given Ross' history, I'd rather have him send the message that he's not an unhinged maniac who wants to micromanage the team on a week-by-week basis.  That is a much larger obstacle to winning than any single personnel decision; for more evidence, see Davis, Al.

That debacle happened entirely because Ross didn't have the balls to outright fire Sparano and was skulking around while Sparano was twisting in the wind.

At the end of the season, fire Sparano, then look for a coach.  No respectable head coach has ever taken over a new team midseason; for a top tier coach, that is simply unthinkable.  So Miami isn't losing anything by waiting until the end of the season to make a move.

you are in the minority

First, I never said anything about the new coach taking over mid-season, I wouldn't expect that to happen. Secondly, if five different teams are knocking on the same guys door at the same time, you actually think that is equal to ONLY the Fins knocking on his door???  Thirdly, you make my point for me, don't leave Sparano twisting in the wind when you know he's not coming back.

I don't understand how you can fail to connect the dots between the two statements you just made.

You say that Miami will not hire the new coach midseason, so logically, that means they would wait until after the season.  After the season, all the interested teams are now knocking on his door!  So what have you gained?

You have a strange definition of "twisting in the wind," there.  Let me help clarify this for you:  the "twisting in the wind" part is when you are actively recruiting a replacement for someone who is currently under contract (i.e. what you are proposing Ross do to whoever he hires as an interim head coach, after firing Sparano).

Saying "Sparano is our coach, and we are not considering any replacement at this time" (and following that up with not chasing other coaches) is not leaving someone twisting in the wind.

Once again you are trying to twist my statements.  I NEVER said they would not hire or negotiate for the new coach, what I said was that he would not take over coaching the team.

Feel free to try and twist this statment of mine, this is my last reply to you on the matter.

^^^ I don't know that I have ever seen that happen in the NFL. I don't think Spider is "twisting" what you said. It is just that I don't recall it ever happening.

So are you claiming that they would hire a new coach (midseason!) that would not immediately take over the job?  The interim coach keeps coaching while another person has already been HIRED as his replacement?

Please name ANY TIME that this has happened in American professional sports history.  EVER.

I think the Dolphins hired Saban on Christmas Day. And Jim Bates coached the final 2 games of the season, the next day vs Cleveland and a week later in Baltimore. That's the closest to it happening I can think of. And that really isn't mid-season either.  In college, West Virginia tried it this year in football sort of, hiring the 2012 coach before the 2011 season was played, but that blew up in their face and the current coach went bonkers and they ended up releasing him and just handing it to the new coach who was supposed to start in 2012.

Stephen Ross should be asking Parcells for a refund.