Fassell's Press Conference

[kerouac9]

Originally posted by swd1974
From this statement I have to assume one of three things.

#1 You dont watch east coast team (mainly the eagles).

#2 Your blind.

#3 You prefer #29 ranked defenses over say one that is usually top 10.

Not in the least. I watch A LOT of football (just ask my girlfriend). To me, Jim Johnson is a VERY, VERY good defensive mind. One of probably the top 5 in the game (him, Romeo Crennel, Lovie Smith, Jim Mora, Jr., and the Bucs DC [stupid memory...] pretty much round out the list). The thing is, he has awesome personnel playing for him, with 3 Pro Bowlers in the secondary, very good LBs, and pretty nice DL players, as well. The major drawbacks to me regarding Johnson are twofold:

#1 Lack of Ambition - His name kind of comes up every season, but he's never taken a job or been a "hot" candidate. He's been in the league for years and years. You have to wonder why he's never taken a job. There would be one if he wanted it.

#2 Getting it done with lesser personnel - Personnally, I think that Jim Mora, Jr. might be a better candidate because he has the exciting, blitz-crazy schemes, but can't rely on top-shelf cornerbacks to back them up. He has to disguise coverages or something to make his schemes work. It's easy to rely on all your Pro-Bowlers to pick up the slack on defense, but Mora II has had to do it on his own relying on nobodys to watch for the quick slant and hot routes. That makes him a stronger choice, to me. I don't like Martz on the offensive side of the ball for the same reason: it's easy to be a genius when you're playing with three or four Hall of Famers on your offense (Bruce, Holt, Faulk, and maybe Pace).

I don't want a defensive head coach to begin with, but there are a lot of other defensive coordinators out there that I'd rather have than Jim Johnson, who doesn't really seem to want the job, anyway.

 

[wierwolf]

Jim Johnson is not on my list of HC. Would not mind him here as DC though. I would even take Saban over Jimmy!!!

 

[Tangodnzr]

Originally posted by swd1974
From this statement I have to assume one of three things.

#1 You dont watch east coast team (mainly the eagles).

#2 Your blind.

#3 You prefer #29 ranked defenses over say one that is usually top 10.

From these (and other) statements I would gather:

You are an East Coast, Philadelphia HOMER.

 

[JeffGollin]

Those dissing Mac often point to his lack of discipline as one of the biggest of his shortcomings.
I'm not sure I'd buy into the "lack of discipline" tapdance any more than I do the "Cards lack talent" tapdance.

My main concern has been with team outcomes

- The team didn't win.

- The team looked ill-prepared for things it faced each Sunday (particularly crowd noise in enemy football fields).

- Too many promising players came here, didn't get much done, left the team and then did better elsewhere (inability to develop players).

- And did I mention that the team didn't win?

It doesn't matter why this happened. Unfortunately the buck has to stop somewhere (usually with the head coach).

Looking forward, I'd really really like any prospective HC candidate to tell us (a) what he'll do differently to prepare the team for each game and (b) how he plans to bring our young players along more quickly to their full potential. (The winning part, hopefully, would in part be an outgrowth of the first 2 things).

 

[Wild Card]

Originally posted by kerouac9
I'm a little surprised that Tom Coughlin's name has been lost in the shuffle. He wouldn't be a bad option here at all, though I wonder about the stark contrast that would result between him and Mac.

K9:

Maybe it's just me, but I think a "stark contrast" with McGinnis is exactly what the Cardinals need.

I suspect that the Cards did their due diligence on Tom Coughlin, learned that he was leaning toward a couple of east coast jobs (Buffalo, NY Giants), and decided not to waste their time. Either that, or they weren't confident in Coughlin's new-found willingness to share control over personnel; at least, not with Rod Graves.

Although I'm a fan of Coughlin's, I said weeks ago that those opposed to him as a candidate for the Cards HC job had nothing to worry about, and that he was never coming to Arizona. They don't, and he isn't.

WC

 

[john h]

Originally posted by Wild Card
Tango:

Ideally, they'd like to get both. It's hard to know what the greater challenge will be for the Cardinals organization, improving their on-field product or their off-field image. Much of Mac's charm was that he always talked a good game, even when his players didn't play one.

WC

On the Jim Rhome show today he was discussing coaches in general and posed the question are there really any genius coaches out there who can separate themselves from the rest of the pack? His answer is NO. No matter how good you think you are if you do not have the players you will not be a genius. Look at some of the so called genius coaches. When Denver loses Elway they become just a good team no more great team. You can find team after team where the coach was labeled great but when he lost his stars he lost just like everyone else. He did say Parcells had a knack of getting players to play over their heads but that can only last for so long. He did not discuss bad coaches and I truly believe there are some of those out there. Most of these head coaches have to be bright to start with. Let us hope we get a good coach and by all means do not get a "bad coach". It is going to take a year or two or three no matter who we get but we should expect improvement as we have one of the worst records in the NFL and you should improve from that lofty position or you are truly an idiot.

 

[MadCardDisease]

Originally posted by JeffGollin
Those dissing Mac often point to his lack of discipline as one of the biggest of his shortcomings.
I'm not sure I'd buy into the "lack of discipline" tapdance any more than I do the "Cards lack talent" tapdance.

My main concern has been with team outcomes

- The team didn't win.

- The team looked ill-prepared for things it faced each Sunday (particularly crowd noise in enemy football fields).

- Too many promising players came here, didn't get much done, left the team and then did better elsewhere (inability to develop players).

- And did I mention that the team didn't win?

It doesn't matter why this happened. Unfortunately the buck has to stop somewhere (usually with the head coach).

Looking forward, I'd really really like any prospective HC candidate to tell us (a) what he'll do differently to prepare the team for each game and (b) how he plans to bring our young players along more quickly to their full potential. (The winning part, hopefully, would in part be an outgrowth of the first 2 things).

I agree! My biggest problems with the last coaching staff were:

#1: On several occasions the team looked totally unprepared. While I can accept this early in the season(especially with a new OC and QB) I sure wanted to see an improvement as the season progressed. To me we kept seeing the same mistakes over and over. That falls squarely on the coaching staff.

#2: So many young players never developing to their full potential while on the Cardinals. Specifically on the Offensive and Defensive Line.

#3: Poor game time managment.

 

[Tangodnzr]

Originally posted by MadCardDisease
I agree! My biggest problems with the last coaching staff were:

#1: On several occasions the team looked totally unprepared. While I can accept this early in the season(especially with a new OC and QB) I sure wanted to see an improvement as the season progressed. To me we kept seeing the same mistakes over and over. That falls squarely on the coaching staff.

#2: So many young players never developing to their full potential while on the Cardinals. Specifically on the Offensive and Defensive Line.

#3: Poor game time managment.

I would concur.
As far as #2 goes, I don't think you can just "blanket cover" the entire staff for that, however.

I think maybe that most applies to the Lines, both offense and defense.

One of the aspects of discipline I was referring to, that seems to be overlooked, is the overall preparation of the team each week.
It's not just "discipline" "on the field" ....it's work ethic, doing the work during the week to get prepared for Sunday....

It has been reported that practices often seemed like a ship without a rudder. Proper preparation takes as much or more discipline as "keeping your head" on the field.

That's where it now appears there were some serious shortcomings.

..and it's not just riding the players like some geeked up drill sergeant.....but making sure all the "little things" are getting done, that will help to insure the best performance when game time comes.

Ask Walter Payton. Ask Jerry Rice. Ask any highly successful person in their field of endeavor.

 

[Tangodnzr]

Originally posted by MadCardDisease

#2: So many young players never developing to their full potential while on the Cardinals. Specifically on the Offensive and Defensive Line.

DOOOHHHH....
Just realized I missed the last sentence of that paragraph on the first read.