Looking back: Our thoughts on coaching hires
By Brian Miller
Adam Gase becomes the Miami Dolphins 9th head coach in team history, minus the three interim head coaches. Gase comes to Miami with inexperience as a head coach and that is something we are all too familiar with.
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For grins, or rather groans, lots of groans, I went back and looked at what we said and what fans thought of the hiring of Joe Philbin and Tony Sparano on the day and the days immediately after the hires. They are interesting reads if not far too optimistic at times. It’s an optimism that many are not repeating today.
One of the things I find interesting is how my writing style has changed…you can say for the worst but looking back it has improved. A little. Maybe I’m just on the same pace as the Dolphins.
Here are some of those articles we wrote about the hiring of Joe Philbin, Tony Sparano, and even Cam Cameron.
Joe Philbin
We had a lot to say about the Joe Philbin hire. Why wouldn’t we? It was only four years ago and easy to find. Here are five articles that talked about the Joe Philbin hire and/or his coordinator search.
Philbin sets sights on coaching staff!
Joe Philbin to lead the Dolphins direction!
What Miami is getting with Joe Philbin!
Tony Sparano
There wasn’t much to go back on immediately following the Sparano hire. That was my fault as I was out-of-town that week and my articles were quick hit news pieces. I really didn’t do much in terms of quantifying what we could expect from Sparano because my internet was limited. So I included some news pieces on Ireland and Parcells as well. Afterall they had more to do with the team than Sparano. In fact you could argue that Sparano succeeded to some degree in spite of them. Except that he didn’t succeed at all. Doesn’t say much for Ireland or Parcells does it.
It’s not supposed to be like this!
Cam Cameron
There was even less on Cameron. Again I was on vacation. Usually go out-of-town in early January. I will be again the week after next. What I did find on Cameron was more about his pre-season game and the 2nd game of that season when we got a glimpse into what the season would hold.
Below is part of an article I wrote after the Dolphins second weekend loss to start the 2007 season.
"Cam Cameron has made some mistakes this off-season. In the eyes of fans, you can do no right as you will not please everyone. I was one that was and still am thrilled that Cameron chose Green over Daunte. Even with the horrendous day that Green had yesterday. To me Green represents a teacher of sorts for the youngster John Beck to learn from…not game play, game preparation. To others, that was a huge mistake. Cameron chose a lot of different avenues that leave fans shaking their heads, or scratching them. Welker for Satele and Wright? Good or bad? McMichaels and his salary and drops for Martin and his drops, Ginn over Quinn, Porter over a lineman, any lineman, the pre-season, the conditioning of training camp, there are so many things to point out that are wrong, and there are so many fans willing to do just that.So what about finding the positives in the game? Well you would have to look very closely to see them. There were only a few. The game plan of Cameron looks to have enough wrinkles that if executed properly will provide plenty of scoring opportunities. Yesterday we saw plenty of open WRs’ that Trent Green flat-out missed, we saw glimpses of a running game that just couldn’t establish itself consistently, o.k, it could not establish itself at all, sans one drive. Cameron has a play-book, what he doesn’t have is the personnel. He and Randy Mueller will try to change that. It will not be done overnight, and it will not be done in year 1.For now, it is easier to bask in the horror of what we saw yesterday rather than look ahead to what we might see tomorrow. This team does not seem to be headed in the right direction, but that too can be an allusion. Cam Cameron and Randy Mueller have the daunting task of taking a poor team and making it better. Will they? Who knows, but more games like yesterday will make it a lot harder to be positive."
Looking back I have to say that I liked the initial Cam Cameron hire but couldn’t find the articles to support that. I liked the fact we didn’t go with a big name and instead went with a young innovative offensive coach. That backfired. Cameron was never innovative and he had no vision. We learned that quickly at the start of the season and pre-season. We learned that at the draft. We learned that failing forward fast was inevitable.
When Tony Sparano was made coach it was more about the excitement of Bill Parcells than anything else. Sparano, looking back was really the only choice. I liked Sparano because he was no-nonsense. Unfortunately Sparano was saddled with Parcells who couldn’t make good decisions.
Joe Philbin’s hire wasn’t my first choice but I was o.k. with what I thought he could bring to the team. Philbin was a class act and I thought he would bring that same level of class to Miami. Like Sparano however, he quickly fell victim to poor decisions by Jeff Ireland or was unable to coach the players he brought in. The infighting and the forced exit of Mike Sherman made Philbin useless to the organization.
Adam Gase does not thrill me. I see Cam Cameron in him to some degree. Maybe this will be a good move. Afterall, I wasn’t against the previous three head coaches and while I’m not against Gase by any means, he wouldn’t have been my first, second, or even third choice for the job.