Image: SI.com
Kudos to Blank for hiring Bobby Petrino. With the Falcons struggling on offense, they went out and hired one of the best offensive minds in football. Petrino was a successful offensive coordinator in the NFL for the Jacksonville Jags so this isn't quite the Spurrier to Redskins scenario redux.
The AJC is giddy with the hire.PWD
5 comments:
Ehh, I'm still not impressed. Hiring a head coach directly out of the college ranks has worked exactly three times -- Johnson and Switzer to the Cowboys, Bobby Ross with the Chargers -- and the list of failures (Spurrier, Saban, Rich Brooks, Butch Davis, Tom Coughlin, John Mackovic, Gene Stallings, John McKay, Ray Perkins, Dennis Erickson, and those are just the ones I can name off the top of my head) is lengthy. I can't help but think that Atlanta simply went after the flavor of the month, and look where that got the Dolphins.
"Hiring a head coach directly out of the college ranks has worked exactly three times -- Johnson and Switzer to the Cowboys, Bobby Ross with the Chargers"
And don't forget that Switzer was pretty much guaranteed a Super bowl win with the raw level of talent he had on the roster.
I wouldn't consider Coughlin a "failure" though he has been a lot less than advertised. Except for the karmatic aftermath of running up the score against Miami in Marino's last game (he paid for that with 3 losing seasons), he's produced playoff teams pretty steadily.
And why is Gene Stallings on your list? "Hiring a head coach directly out of the college ranks" doesn't even remotely apply to Stallings who did go from Texas A&M head coach to Cards head coach but spent about 14 years in between as an assistant for Dallas.
I'm a little less than impressed with Petrino. He does at least have NFL experience at the coordinator level but I think there were better candidates out there. I'm not even that sure that he's a step up from Mora.
I don't think it's a terribly great hire. His offense isn't conducive to Michael Vick's skills, and his only track record is success at Louisville. Yes, the Cardinals have come quite a ways, but it's not like winning week-in and week-out in the SEC, Big 10 or Pac-10.
If folks think Bobby Petrino is the answer then, well, wow.
He was a solid playcaller in the NFL, and he's proven more than Singletary, Whisenhunt, Grimm and the parade of assistants that are running around the NFL right now.
He's basically got the same resume those guys do plus he's been a HC in college. What have Grimm and Singletary done as HC at any level?
That's all I'm saying. Given the incredibly shallow talent pool available, I think this is a very good hire.
pwd
My concern isn't primarily with experience, though I did note that in my earlier comment. My concern is one that he can easily alleviate by abandoning the West Coast offense and gearing the offense around Vick's skills (as Norm Chow has done so masterfully at Tennessee with Vince Young).
I still would have been more comfortable with, say, Ken Whisenhunt or Cam Cameron.
Post a Comment