Bears fire head coach

Chicago Tribune ^ | 12/29/2003

[Thane_Banquo]

Dick Jauron, 35-46 with only one winning season in five years as the Bears head coach, has been fired with one year remaining on his contract.

He got the news about 9 a.m. Monday morning in a meeting with general manager Jerry Angelo.

"Simply put, expectations were not met," Angelo said in a Monday afternoon press conference. He also said that the team needs to win "on a more consistent basis."

[discostu]

Given Al's fondness for cheap and maleable there's a good chance it'll be somebody we never heard of. Hey Mike Price desperately needs a job, and given that he's suing SI he would seem to be Al's kind of people. Maybe I'll start a rumor.

[mattdono]

I am definitely giving Dave the credit. But, I think that he has to make some serious changes in the way the Fins play ball.

The only real critism that he is (rightly) guilty of is that their style of play is very (VERY) predictable. He needs to really give some different looks on defense.

I am not sure if his removal from personnel decisions is a good thing or it can be improved?

If you think about it, the Dolphins seem to have the personnel. On defense, Thomas, Seau, Taylor, Ougienlye, Madison, Surtain, Knight, etc.; and on offense, Williams, Chambers, McMichael, etc. The offensive line needs some help and, invariably, people don't seem to like Jay Fiedler as QB, but somehow the guy finds a way to win.

You throw the loss to Houston out (which the ENTIRE team didn't show up for), and Fiedler lost to the Pats 2xs and the Eagles, both teams that are headed into the playoffs, with the Pats being the best team in football right now.

So, personnel-wise, what do the Dolphins do? Beef up the line? Ok. Retain the stars and deal with the salary cap? Ok. Get a great QB to replace an average one? Where?

I mean, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot to be done on the personnel front. Perhaps that he doesn't have the personnel headache, he can focus on getting the guys up and/or designing new schemes. I hope that is the case. If, in the next season, they don't show out and make the playoffs, I think there will be some legit criticism of Wannestedt.

[RabidBartender]

Mike's got a job now coaching UTEP:

http://www.komotv.com/sports/story.asp?ID=28923

[discostu]

I think the jobs of GM and coach are too big for one guy. Both are 12 hour a day jobs and a guy has to sleep some time. Which isn't to say that Dave was necessarily bad at either, but when doing both it's just not possible to be better than B+ at either and with today's AFC B+ just ain't cutting it. I think it's about focus. Also when a coach does both jobs I think there's some preassure to defend his decisions, if he's the guy that blew a bunch of draft picks to get player X and player X isn't cutting it I think there's more of a need to force player X to be worht the picks than if it's two different people making the decision; it's a lot easier to say "you shouldn't have blown all those draft picks on this guy" if you're not talking to yourself.

Lack of creativity on the defense was probably their biggest problem. As somebody else noted somewhere the Phins seemed to come into this year with the decision that they had a lot of talent on D and should just let the talented guys do their thing. Unfortunately defense is about teamwork and unless somebody comes up with a scheme worthy of the talent you're just wasting money.

Dave also suffers from pass-whackiness. At least two or three times a season with a late lead the Phins throw three incompletions and punt having used only 15 or 20 seconds, and it frequently costs them the game (most of the thrilling comebacks the Phins have given up in the last 4 years never would have happened if the QB had kneeled 3 times and used up either 2 minutes or the opponent's time outs). Again focus and not defending his own decisions may help him in that situation.

[discostu]

I missed that one. I was suprised he didn't get picked up here at UA since Likens and Price are old friends and Likens actually came to his defense during the credit card scandal. Actually I was a little disapointed, I thought sure croneyism would win out.

[mattdono]

I agree on several of your points. You also have to consider that he has a good OC in Norv Turner. Jim Bates is not a bad DC either.

In fact, the only reason that I think he is the subject of grumbling (other than typical South Florida fair-weather fans) is that he has great personnel and seems to have the supporting coaches too.

Now, if he was the guy that got the personnel there (which he was), maybe he is a better personnel guy (GM) than coach? The list is short for guys who can handle both jobs well. It wouldn't be folly to suggest that some guy's are "built" to be coaches and some guy's are great personnel/GM types.

We'll have to see what happens next year.

[stylin19a]

I just saw the news regarding the extension.
I'm just scratchin my head.

[Solson]

He started Grossman...who got hurt. Then Stewart came in.

[Solson]

Sorry...the Bears had a decent head coach but NO talent. Angelo has no business being a GM. He gave Jauron nothing to work with. They screwed up on their FA signings as well as draft day.

[Snuffington]

Unfortunately, Dennis Green is turning into the "token" minority coach each team interviews before they go get who they really want. A damn shame, too - I thought he did a great job in Minnesota.

He was a good regular season coach, but definitely didn't handle big games well. And he had a bit of an ego problem, that eventually ended his job.

The thing that forced him out in Minnesota was when he got Red McCombs to let him run the whole show. GM, head coach, drafting, all coaching hires - the works. Denny was out of his depth, and left the team in a total mess. If anyone hires him they should hire him to coach, and leave the rest out of his hands.

[mattdono]

Yeah, we covered that and I professed my ignorance in Post #18.

How about reading the whole thread, chief?

[Solson]

Lighten up FRANCIS!

[mattdono]

Very astute analysis.

You are exactly right about the way the defense was run this year. Which is really not indicative of the way that Jim Bates runs a defense. He is typically a schemer and is pretty creative. Seems that they relied too much on talent for sure, because, again, they seem to have more talent than any team would need to do well.

[cars for sale]

Jimmy Johnson said two weeks ago on the sunday
buffet
show that IF Bidwell of Arizona would come off the do rey me's ( that's money for those in Rio Linda) Arizona with it's new stadium is looking interesting.....he said it.

[discostu]

Yeah IF Bidwell is willing to spend the money. How far under the salary cap are the Cards? Do you think they'd be under the cap at all if Bidwell were actually willing to pay for a good team? I've been living in the shadow of Bidwell's cheapness ever since he convinced the league to expand the blackout radius, no way he's ponying up the cash for somebody like Jimmy, and if by some miracle he does Jimmy had better put a proviso in his contract about Bidwell actually spending TO the cap on the team (actually whatever coach gets hired should put that proviso in there).

[cookcounty]

" And Miami just extended Wannstedt's contract by two years, virtually guaranteeing mediocrity for the next two years. Congrats to the rest of the AFC East. "

Youse just don't get da Bears' Plan. See, first we develop a whole raft of screwy coaches dat we manipulate inta all doze coachin' psitions, Den when everbody is dyin' from it ---Ka-Blammo! --we broadside 'em.

[discostu]

I wonder if Bates was always a schemer out of necessity and got a little lax when he suddenly got to work with enough talent.

[mattdono]

Whatever, Sgt. Hulka.

It wasn't like my mea culpa (in post #18) wasn't there when you were reading the thread for the first time. Sorry to jump on you, but every time someone fails to read a thread and repeats a comment that was already made several times, it seems a little rude and annoying.

I apologized and explained my misunderstanding about the Grossman injury. My bad. When you impulsively comment without reading the rest of the thread, it seems like you really don't want to participate in the discussion. Just obliviously going along, showing everyone else out...

Maybe I should call you Captain Stillman.

[cars for sale]

the rumor here in Phx is Bidwell's sons do want to jack up the spending now that Arizona has a real pro football field...The 08 superbowl is here and the stadium isn't built yet.......frankly the stadium plans are flat out awesome

but for now, there is an old saying in Phoenix
"if it's Sunday, the Cards are down 20 points"

[Solson]

Maybe you should back away from the freakin reply button when you've already addressed the mistake.

Rude and annoying? You know it well.