The Dolphins Make Me Cry.com - Forums

 ... who is going to be your new head coach? you can't replace him with Coyle because he is even more hated than Philbin. Do you replace him with Lazor whose offense has been going backwards with him focusing full time?  I want the whole staff fired but for the life of me I can't see a situation that makes things better.

Darren Rizzi

You can't replace and fire every assistant. So just Philbin goes  now and make Rizzi the head coach till the end of the year. The team isn't getting better this year. It's just about finding someone to hold the fort till Week 17

You can't make the special teams coach the HC.  If you have that little confidence in your OC/DC, why even bother firing Philbin in the first place?  Might as well just ride out the season.

Why not? It's happened before. John Harbaugh went from Special Teams coordinator to head coach. Hell SF just hired a defensive line coach with no head coaching experience rbrt as their head coach full time. Your telling me a special teams coach in Rizzi who has interviewed for multiple head coaching jobs in the college ranks can't take over for a couple months and play out the season as the head coach?

Rizzi has interviewed for various head coaching jobs in college, Rutgers probably being the biggest one. And he has served as an assistant head coach before as well. He isn't getting the job for good, just needs to hold the fort for 12 games or so.

John Harbaugh did not go from ST coach to interim head coach for the team he was ST coaching, which is what you are talking about.

Rizzi can certainly become the head coach of another team.  And he could become the HC of the Dolphins in the offseason.  But you cannot elevate a ST coach over the OC and DC.  It's arguably even worse than what Ross did to Sparano.

I'd promote Lazor or Coyle or a positions coach.  ...I don't care.  It's a matter of principle.  And I'd do it now.  I wouldn't wait another day. If you can steal a win against the Jets, it gives you 3 weeks to get something together before the next stretch.

At this point, it's a motivation problem.  Any coach should be capable of it.

So who do you think is worthy of that promotion, Lazor or Coyle?  Which one of them is any better at his job than Philbin is at his?

I'm not in favor of making moves just to make them.  If Lazor and Coyle are just as bad (or maybe even worse) than Philbin, your season is dead no matter how you slice it, so you might as well ride it out with dignity.

Remember, Ross is still combating the issue of being a loose cannon owner.  Doing something like elevating the special teams coach above the OC/DC (instead of firing them, too) basically just serves to embarrass them, which is literally worse than doing nothing when it comes to recruiting a new coach.

This is silly? Why can't he? By firing Philbin you are giving up on the season, so who cares who is the interim head coach. Coyle is the reason the defense is a mess, can't promote him. Lazor you could, but I would rather go with Rizzi as he has been here longer. You aren't promoting Lazor or Coyle with the thought the team will turn around and make a super bowl run.  Rizzi  can lose them all and nobody is gonna care as the expectation is he is just holding the fort till the next head coach.  He is given the title "interim" for a reason! This really isn't far fetched

FYI...last time Miami did this when they fired Tony Sparano they promoted their secondary coach Todd Bowles.....not the OC or DC....the SECONDARY COACH!

He stuck with Irleand after every NFL person told him he was nuts for not cutting bait on him years before. He gave Philbin an extension after years of coming up short. Ross has overcome the "loose cannon owner" tag at this point. No longer an issue for him. If anything he is loyal to a fault!!

Bowles was hired as the assistant head coach in 2008.  It's not the same thing.

LOL...ok That's such a minor detail when it comes to appointing an interim head coach to just play out the season. The larger point is it doesn't have to be the OC or DC it can be whoever and it doesn't really matter. 

I've been in shock and unable to post anything today but I could not let this slide. Serious MikeO, the title of Assistant HEAD coach is a minor detail when naming your interim head coach. You may be the only person in the world to believe that.

It's a title that is thrown around to keep an assistant from jumping to another team and to justify giving them a pay raise to keep him around. A resume builder title that looks good on paper but does nothing and has no "real value." Do you ever hear players talking about what their "assistant head coach" said. Most players don't even know who the assistant head coach is, nor should they!  It's a worthless title. But whatever, believe what you want.

Without googling it I bet not one person on this board could name this years Dolphins assistant head coach or if they even have one. And if its so obvious why hasn't anyone just said, he will be the interim coach and why is there a debate over Lazor or Coyle?

The point is not whether or not a bunch of joes on a message board know who the assistant head coach is.  The point is that other coaches DO know who the assistant head coach is, and so elevating an assistant head coach (who happens to be the secondary coach) to interim HC is not the slap in the face that it would otherwise be.  In fact, it is expected that the assistant head coach would be the person to be elevated to interim HC.  I don't believe MIA has an assistant head coach now (there isn't one listed on the site (http://www.miamidolphins.com/team/coaches.html)), so that doesn't solve any questions this time.

You say that none of this matters, but I'd say it matters a hell of a lot to the coaching community, which is where Ross has had his problems.  I don't know where you got the idea that "Ross has overcome the 'loose cannon owner' tag at this point"; the next head coach that he fires with class and dignity will be his first, and if you're talking about firing a guy 4 games into a season (and then bypassing the OC and DC for the interim HC), I'd hardly say that qualifies.

Lazor. 

But it doesn't matter.  This isn't a coaching problem, in terms of Xs and Os.  It's a motivation problem.  Philbin has lost the locker room.  A new leader may inspire a change.

So first thing I think when I read this is "Here we go again, another blanket statement from MikeO."  Then I looked into it, and most are either strictly assistant head coaches, which benefits Phishfan's argument, or position coaches (oline, dline, secondary, etc.), which benefits MikeO's argument.

6 of the 17 Assistant Head Coaches in the league were previously NFL head coaches.  If you include the assistants that had HC experience in college, that becomes 9 of 17.

So maybe it's not exactly what Phish is saying, and not exactly what MikeO is saying...but somewhere in the middle?  Like what most things are?

Here's the list:

Assistant Head Coach/Running Backs – Anthony Lynn
Assistant Head Coach/Inside Linebackers – Mike Caldwell
Assistant Head Coach/Offensive Line Coach – Paul Alexander
Assistant Head Coach/Defensive Line – John Mitchell (Coached under Bear Bryant, Lou Holtz, Bellicheck, Cowher and Tomlin)
Assistant Head Coach-Offense/Offensive Line Coach – Doug Marrone Bills
Assistant Head Coach/Defense – Dick LeBeau Bengals
Assistant Head Coach/Tight Ends – Mike Mularkey Bills and Jags
Assistant Head Coach/Wide Receivers – David Culley
Assistant Head Coach/Defensive Line – Jerry Azzinaro (Head coach for Western New England)
Assistant Head Coach/Tight Ends – Ron Prince (Head coach for Kansas State)
Associate Head Coach/Offense – Tom Clements
Assistant Head Coach/Linebackers – Winston Moss
Assistant Head Coach/Defensive Passing Game Coordinator – Raheem Morris Bucs
Assistant Head Coach/Secondary – Steve Wilks (Head coach for Savannah State University)
Assistant Head Coach/Offense – Tom Moore
Assistant Head Coach – Dave McGinnis Cardinals
Assistant Head Coach/Offensive Line – Tom Cable Raiders
Assistant Head Coach/Defense – Rocky Seto

I don't think any of that has anything to do with what I'm saying. I'm saying if you have a person on staff with the title Assistant Head Coach, it is a no brainer if the Head Coach is fired who takes the reigns.

You realize Mike Tannenbaum used to represent many NFL coaches with his agency when he was an agent after he left the Jets. So WHEN the Dolphins head coaching job opens up getting quality candidates to interview for the job isn't an issue any more and Tannenbaum has ties throughout the coaching ranks in the NFL. Those days are over of being turned down for interviews by people cause Tannenbaum has the connections.   The "coaching community" is gonna be just fine if Ross makes a head coaching change AFTER 4 YEARS!! Nobody will jump on him for being "knee jerk" and if anyone has watched these first 3 games and probably next weeks looming disaster they will understand the firing.

It only becomes an issue if Ross FORCES Hickey onto the next head coach. Ross can't do anymore shotgun marriages. The head coach and GM must be fired together and the next head coach must pick his GM or the next GM must pick his head coach. You can't force people upon each other in this league, it doesn't work. That's why Nick Caserio walked away 2 years ago, he wanted the GM job and then wanted to fire Philibin immediately and hire Josh McDaniel....when he was told he couldn't he walked away and said not interested.  Ross FORCED Irleand on everyone and it failed. Now Ross forced Hickey on Philbin and its been a dumpster fire with Hickey's poor drafts. You clean house together. But the coaching community isn't an issue for Ross anymore

If it's such an important title how come every team doesn't have an Asst. Head coach? Which proves my point that its a BS title nobody cares about and you can't put any stock into or read anything into that title.

Phishfan has it exactly right.

If there is an Assistant Head Coach on the team, and the Head Coach is gone for any reason (fired, medical leave, whatever) the Assistant Head Coach should take over.  If there is no Assistant Head Coach, then that responsibility should go to the Offensive Coordinator or Defensive Coordinator.

i pray Tannenbaum doesn't have a thing to do with our next coach. We need to clean house and start over including Tannenbaum.

Tannenbaumn isn't going anywhere and I actually want him involved with the next head coach hire. He has too many connections and this is where he has real value.

So after I went to all that work to display facts, I felt really empty.  You know why?  Because this doesn't matter.  I'm actually pissed at myself for spending so much time on something that, frankly, doesn't matter.  I got roped into an argument that doesn't matter.  You guys are arguing over something so trivial that it...wait for it...doesn't matter.  So I'll take my leave now.

I hear ya. I mean we are talking about promoting a guy to a head coach position he isn't keeping and is only in charge for a couple months before he is fired too and moved on from this organization. This notion that it HAS TO BE an OC or DC is silly when there are endless examples of times that hasn't happened.  I would promote the guy who is gonna run the thing into the ground. Maybe get the #1 overall pick so a QB needy team sells us the farm to grab a QB and we end up with a shitload of draft picks. Put that guy in charge! So pick the biggest idiot on the staff!  Or promote the assistant Water Boy! LOL

They should have a Coach of the Game promotion where they randomly select a season ticket holder at halftime of each game to be the head coach for next week.

Couldn't be any worse.

Dolphins4Life keeps saying how much of a better job he could do.  Maybe they will give him a shot.   ;D

Then why fire Philbin in the first place?

If "it doesn't matter" who you promote because the season is a hopeless failure anyway, that undercuts the rationale for firing Philbin.  The only reason to fire your coach midseason is if you think the season is salvageable, and I don't see how one can believe that if one also thinks that both the OC and DC are clueless.

If your house is on fire and is going to burn to the ground, it's silly to scramble to replace your bed with a flame-retardant mattress.  Just let it all burn.

Naw, he's a closet Patriots fan.

Tannenbaum is responsible fur drafting a DT (among other things) instead of something we needed this year. He has no business deciding our future. He doesn't deserve it and if Ross keeps him then he is continuing down the road of half ass changes and expecting different results for no reason.

Because unless you want 6 more utter disaster of home games this year where the fans don't want to go and the ones that do go just booo you (ie Ross), the team, and Philbin out of the building you make a change to send the message to your fan base and consumers that you realize things aren't right and you are taking the necessary steps to fix it. With the first step being firing Philbin now. It sends a message and as a leader sometimes you must send that message

Stop, I am not blaming Tannenbaum for drafting a kid in Rd 2. That's on Hickey. That's like blaming all of Ireland's bad picks on Parcells.  And if Tannenbaum did make that call (which we have no way of knowing) that is not a good decision but also not the root of this problem

I would promote Lazor, he is a ballbuster that may motivate these guys. Philbin is on Prozac and deserved to be fired last year, his extension was an absolute joke.

I really don't care who they replace him with, just get him out of there now and throw a shitload of money at someone in the offseason if Lazor or whoever don't turn this team around into a contender. If Lazor takes us to 11 wins somehow, then great, keep him.

Anything is better than this.

He did make that call. That's not an assumption or if it is then it's an assumption by people very close to the situation.

It may not be the root but it is a problem. As the main guy ... even if he didn't make the pick he allowed it to happen and that falls on him. Either way  we don't need to bring anyone new in and tell them they have to work with any failed piece of this clog. we need new blood, ideas and culture. Not someone who has already failed here and not someone who had the agenda to fail so they can bring in one of their own like a Mangini. We need to get the stank off.

Im not gonna blame the guy who has been here a short time and didn't hire the GM or head coach. Sorry. You can point fingers to a lot of people, Tannenbaum isn't one of them who deserves blame for this dumpster fire.

Until you can provide proof that Tannenbaum was 100% the reason for the Jordan Phillips pick I'm not buying it as I follow this team every day and this is the first I am hearing of it.  So no offense, gonna have to back that up some how. And besides that pick, while not something I would have done also not the reason for this dumpster fire. Tannenabum didn't pick Billy Turner. And isn't the reason they didn't upgrade the o-line enough and rolled with Dallas Thomas for another year. Or find a back-up swing tackle to back up Albert/James and left us with Jason Fox.  Tannenbaum isn't the reason they didn't bring in a quality LB to compete when we had no linebackers last year and decided the same bunch was "good enough." That's not Tannenbaum

Omar said today that Tannenbaum was the one negotiating with Mathis and chose not to sign him. Also blamed Tannebaum for not upgrading the O-line when others were requesting it. Keep paying attention and you'll see what I was talking about as the more things fall apart the more "insders" are going to leak information.  Tannenbaum is 100% responsible for where this team ended up talent wise this year.

I wouldn't call Omar an "insider" but ok. Thanks for the info. Not sure I buy it but thanks for sharing it

Lol ... where did I say Omar was an insider? He gets his info from team officials, players, spouses, and other relatives just like the other beat writers do ... but you know that.

Like Dave I've never been a knee jerk fan yelling to fire a coach, GM, or player whenever things aren't going well.  I'd be okay if the Fins had squeaked out a win against Jax, and lost a close game to Buffalo.  But this team is just so poorly prepared, and lacking intensity; and that comes from the top of the coaching staff down.

For one of the few times in my life I'm hoping the Dolphins get blown out by the Jets so that there is no doubt about firing Philbin after the game, and hopefully Coyle with him.

I don't want Philbin fired, at least not right now. I want Coyle fired and you can replace him with damn near anyone and it would be an improvement.  At the end of the season depending on the how the rest of the season goes, you can get rid of Philbin and Lazor too and just start from scratch. Hell if whomever you choose to replace Coyle comes in and fixes the defense or even makes it better, I'm all for giving him a shot as head coach. Just get rid of Coyle. That's 50% of the problem at least. 30 points per game since game 12 of last year.

But it is not going to fix our lack of talent and the refusal of the front office to fix the O-line. I can't rememebr who but I read an article stating how the Patriots would trade for offensive linemen if they were in our predicament while our front office refuses to admit it's even a problem.

This was my thought as well. However, in the middle of the season, you'd generally promote someone from within, but looking at the coaching staff, I'm not seeing any obvious candidates:

Lou Anarumo - Defensive Backs Coach: 4th year with the Dolphins, all in this role. 11 years in the same role in college, at Marshall and Purdue. Plus another 10 years in mostly the same role at Harvard and the US Merchant Marine Academy.

Jeff Burris - Defensive Assistant: 10 seasons as an NFL cornerback. 3rd year with the Dolphins, all in this role. Only two years coaching experience prior to that.

Mark Duffner - Linebackers Coach: 2nd year with the Dolphins. 17 years in the same role with various other NFL teams. Prior to that a run-and-shoot HC at Maryland, known for lots of offense and pathetic defense. Some defensive coaching experience prior to that at various colleges.

Terrell Williams - Defensive Line: 1st year with the Dolphins. Previously with the Raiders for a couple of years in the same role. Prior to that about 10 years of college coaching at the same position.

Duffner is the one with the most defensive experience, but his Maryland legacy scares me. He also has an extensive history of working with Philbin and Coyle. I actually think the linebackers have done fairly well (relatively speaking), so maybe he would be a reasonable choice. Listening to interviews with him, he seems like a smart enough guy, although he does say an awful low of good things about Philbin (but what else would you expect someone to say about their boss?).

John Harbaugh moved from ST Coach to Head Coach.

This was already covered in the first five posts of the thread.

Great. I still felt the need to respond.

Btw, Darren Rizzi and Mark Duffner are the only assistants with head coaching experience that I can think of...

Lazor and Coyle don't have any and even if Coyle did, he has zero credibility. The fact is this team has taken on the personality of its head coach. To have ANY chance to make the playoffs, that personality has to be eradicated.

Rizzi has come up on several people's lists so MikeO isn't alone in thinking he'd make our best choice. I'm told he is the Alpha male of the coaching staff.

In many ways it makes sense to have the assistant coach be a position coach or other special assistant rather than the OC or DC.

Let say the HC has a heart attack 2 hours before kickoff.  Which would be the easier transition.

1) TE coach fills in for HC.   WR coach takes care of both the TE and WR.

2) OC fills in for HC. QB coach fills in for OC. WR coach takes care of both QB and WR. 

I would say #2 would be less disruptive.   Plus a TE coach would have more time (because of less responsibility) to actually have some time to know what is going on with the the overall team and could be better prepared to be the backup. 

Then I'll just repost the same response I already gave:


I'm not sure why you would "feel the need to respond" with a position that's already been asked and answered, but there you go.

...unless you have the OC coach the team and still call the plays, which many head coaches can and have done anyway.

Because I did. Why do you feel the need to respond to the fact that I felt the need to respond by repeating what you already said?

He certainly seems to show the most passion on that sideline. And since we have a dispassionate team taking on the personality of a dispassionate coach, bringing in the opposite type personality would make the most sense to me.

At this point, we know where we are going with Philbin. Time to try something different and hope it works versus sticking with the same thing that always fails.

Because it was pretty obvious that you simply stopped reading the thread and posted your redundant reply, then tried to dismiss Phishfan when he informed you that your objection had already been addressed.  What other reason is there to repeat something that someone else has already said?

Yes, Harbaugh was the ST coach for a different team before he became head coach of the Ravens.  Everyone who read the thread already knew that.  Thanks for the info.

I was aware that you had already replied before I posted. I didn't really care that you had already replied. Sorry for being redundant, but I don't care if I was.

Yes, but were you aware that he was aware of your awareness of being aware DeMarcus Ware's warehouse of slightly weathered weared weather coat wears.

And one of you is a mod?

Seriously guys, cut the petty shit. 

Someone let me know when 6th grade is over.

Spider it seems to be your point that it would be unprecedented to promote someone other than the OC, DC or previously named AHC to interim HC midseason.

Is that your point?

If so Tony Sparano. 

I believe Sparano was the only other person on that team with NFL HC experience, but point taken.

Sparano also had the title of Assistant Head Coach before being the interim Head Coach.

Looks like it went to the TE coach rather than the either coordinator. 

Your right, it went to the TIGHT ENDS coach. They skipped all 3 coordinators.

Just wanna point that out

Peter King on Sirius Radio today said once the Fins clean up this mess and get back to normal after the BYE Week, Tannenbaum will start setting up meetings with SEC/BIG10/Pac12 coaches they are interested in to be the head coach and start meetings for the head coaching position and use the next 12 weeks to his advantage by doing so.

The upside of firing Philbin now is he can meet with all of the college coaches now. Then come season end he can begin meeting with NFL coaches and have a jump start by already meeting with the college coaches he likes.