Finally a coach players want to play for

[GatorEye]

Don't you find it fascinating that Gators all over the league are lining up to play for SOS? I mean it has to say something about the guy that so many of his former players want to play for him. It means they feel he can bring out the best in them and that he will be successful. We haven't seen that kind of interest by players WANTING to come here since Gibbs. I mean even lifer pokeman Troy Aikman was considering coming out of retirement to play for the HBC (Head Ball Coach).

Despite the fact I hate losing him as the Gator's coach, if Snyder had landed him a few years ago it would have saved us from some of the malaise of the post Gibbs era. Suffering through Norv was bad enough, but the after effects seemed never ending.

Remember just a few years ago people were saying no free agents want to come to DC to play for Snyder? Now it's like everyone wants to come here to play for SOS (and Snyder). How quickly the worm turns

Doesn't it get you excited again?!!!

[fuji869]

Originally posted by GatorEye

Despite the fact I hate losing him as the Gator's coach, if Snyder had landed him a few years ago it would have saved us from some of the malaise of the post Gibbs era. Suffering through Norv was bad enough, but the after effects seemed never ending. [/b]

If they would have gotten the ownership situation straightened sooner Norv would have gotten the axe before the 99 Season. But Mr. Snyder got the team too close to the start of the season to make a change, unfortunately John Kent Cooke liked Norv and that is why is was there for so long. :doh:

[cowboykilla]

Gator eye, that is a great point. Looking back on my high school career as a wide receiver...I would never play for the "so-so" coaches again, but the good coaches who were good teachers and produced....I would drop anything and play for them.

[Larry]

I gotta point out, Marty brought in several guys who came specificlly to play for him. (I confess, the only one a Remember by name was Szott). Lots of coaches have followers (at least the good ones. Getting people to follow you is part of being a coach).

[Ignatius J.]

Lockett and Bennet both came because of marty as well.

And let's not forget how much arrington liked schotty. While Marty certainly made some enemies (Spurrier probably will too) but he is a players coach, he just isn't a veteran's coach.

Don't get too down on marty, he is a winner. He might not be the best coach ever, but the guy can coach.

-DB

[fuji869]

Originally posted by DrunkenBoxer

Don't get too down on marty, he is a winner. He might not be the best coach ever, but the guy can coach.

-DB

I agree 100% DB! Marty got an 8-8 season out of a team that started 0-5 and looked like they were on their way to 2-14, plus a come from behind win in a meaningless season finale.

I can't understand all this Marty Bashing on this board since the signing of Spurrier when there was so much support for him from the time of our last game of the season to the time he got fired.

He might of rubbed some vets the wrong way, but he is just a disciplinarian.

:soapbox:

[Art]

Marty's problem here was the worst-case scenario problem we all worried over in the preseason. If he so angered and alienated the team that they collapsed on him, it would get ugly and it did get ugly. To Marty's credit he found a button to push to get the team to play harder and win more as the year wore on. Unfortunately that button was only going to work once. When you have to convince the team to win despite you, then you, as coach, won't ever win with that team again.

That team so hated Marty and played on the pride of the collective talent they had that they won in spite of Marty and Marty played that card well. I believe he made far more errors coaching than as the GM, but, changes had to be made to make Marty viable here and Marty refused to make those changes as his interests were to do something else.

No harm. But, Marty wasn't all that strict as a coach and let far too much lack of concentration and player chatting go on to be suitable. Spurrier is a fresh hope and he may well fail. Until he does, as Marty did, he'll be a fresh hope, as Marty was.

[Hoosierskin]

Marty oh Marty, how we miss you? First Westbrooke...now Marty? I know we can all move on without both of these ex-Redskins. Cowboykilla...please do not do anything drastic..you really liven up this board and plus you have a SuperBowl victory to look forward to in the near future!

Westy and Marty never did comprehend what "Redskin football" is all about. I have followed the Redskins since 1969(when I was born) and cannot remember being more bored while watching a Redskins offense operate Marty's "Hum Drum" offense. The man comes into our town, having never won a SuperBowl and makes a bad example of my hero, that is right, my hero, Darrell Green. These are only a couple reasons why he will not be remembered in good terms by most Redskin fans.

I am ready for a coach who understands it is okay to have fun playing football! I do not think many Redskin players had fun playing "Marty ball". As a fan, I was embarrassed watching our boring team and was glad we did not make many national appearances! I even did the unthinkable during a couple games and went shopping with the wife! Our 8-8 season was a bust! I do not care if they started 0-5! If he didn't diss everybody when he came to town, the Redskins would have ended up with at least a 10 win season. Marty was not a leader, period. He was a disappointment. Spurrier will show us what a great disciplinarian is! Like Gibbs, he will be able to bring out the best in his players and allow them to have fun again! Roll out the carpet for the "Fun and Gun" offense. I never, ever want to be bored watching a Redskin offense again! It is the most exciting time since 1992 for "Redskin football"! As Jack Kent Cooke used to say.."you can feel the euphoria!"

[Larry]

I didn't intend my post to say anything bad about Marty. I suspect (I know, it's hard to measure these things) I'm his biggest fan on this board.

If I haven't been clear enough: If I'd been Dan, Marty would still be our coach, right now. (And, I suspect, every mag in the world would be announcing why Steve would take the Bucks to the big one, guaranteed, this year (again)).

Yeah, I didn't get as much from Marty as I'd hoped for. (It took him five games before he decided to play smashmouth? I thought that was what he was here for. And what's the NFL record for "false start" calls in one season?) But I didn't see any problems that an endorsement from the owner, and a year of continuity, wouldn't have fixed.

And, as to the complaints of "boring": I can think of no better way for a team to prove their superior football masculinity, than to come out at the coin toss, when the other team assumes you're going to try to run over them, and to tell them you're going to run over them, and then to proceed to prove it. My favorite quote is from Lombardi: If you can run the ball for four yards, you don't need any other plays. My biggest complaints about Norv were the games where we ran the ball for five yards/carry, and lost.

[GatorEye]

I conversely would have nothing good to say about Marty either as a coach or GM. Saying he got the team to 8-8 after starting 0-5 is ridiculous. WE NEVER SHOULD HAVE BEEN 0-5 IN THE FIRST PLACE. While maybe not the most talented team in the league, Marty got less than what he could have out of the players.

Given the same players if Marty could play a game against SOS, I guarantee he'd be outcoached. Whether or not the execution takes place is a different matter, but I didn't see what he did with the Skins last year that was so miraculous. People say he made a great turnaround at the end of the season to get the team back to respectability. BFD! That's like me driving someplace, getting lost half a dozen times, but eventually getting to my destination and people saying I have a great sense of direction because I enventually found my way. Wake up!

While many define success as consistently being good like Marty's teams were in KC, unless you prove you can win the big one, you don't cut it in my book. Marty never did.

Watching the Skins play was downright boring with Marty. It was like having a root canal. The only time I've been bored at a Gator game was when we were pummelling someone by 50 points in the second half. At least with SOS, if we go down, it will be with all guns blazing until we are out of ammo. Then we'd throw the gun at them.

Part of my point of the thread is that SOS gets the MOST out of what he has. At least he must because everyone complains that all the Gators under SOS have been mediocre at best professional players. Yet how do you explain all the NFL All-Pro's and studs that come from other schools who don't have UF's track record of success year after year.

1) SOS's system is fantastic

2) He is able to get the most out of what he has to work with

3) A combination of 1 and 2

I believe it's number 3 and is the reason he will be successful here in DC. While he left my beloved Gators, at least I'm confident my days of dreary Sundays since Gibbs left are finally over.

[Tommy-the-Greek]

I will be truly impressed when ex-gators and other Sec alum want to come here and play for LESS then what they would have made elsewhere. Or when the contracts come up on exisiting players that have bonded with him decide to stay here for LESS. Then and only then will I be impressed.

[bulldog]

obviously, Marty's inability to delegate cost him dearly here as the quarterback situation and the performance of the offense showed as the season went on.

Marty is a defensive coach and has good instincts on that side of the ball for selecting and developing talent.

he ran into the same problem in Cleveland where Bernie Kosar wanted Modell to hire an offensive coordinator and Marty said if they did he would quit, and he ended up leaving over it.

A smart coach knows his own limitations. Gibbs never pretended to be a defensive coach, neither did Bill Walsh.

They delegated that responsibility to other capable people.

Marty as GM and Coach, was not secure enough in himself to do that.

He held all power close to himself and only hired family and cronies who were guaranteed not to offer any dissenting voices.

In comparison, Walsh had coaches on his staff that were very expressive, guys like Holmgren and Dennis Green, but that added the vitality of the team.

Walsh knew when to ask for opinions and when to tell everyone a decision had been made and to move on.

As far as his pickups, none of the veteran free agents that came with Marty were players the team could grow with.

In fact most were simply plug-ins and even in that role only Szott really seemed to be effective.

Barker was average at best. Bennett was below average. Lockett didn't do much as the #3 receiver.

And the age of the players was a concern as well. Szott (34), Barker (36), Bennett (30) were all long in the tooth and as events have proven not long for the NFL.

Has Bennett found another job? I know Szott is gone for the year with an ACL.

Will Barker be back here or go elsewhere?

In the end the taste of the pudding is in the eating.

Marty did himself in by making errors in judgment in handling the quarterback and Darrell Green situations and that in the end cost him more than any X's or O's could solve for him.

[redman]

I'll play devil's advocate with the original premise. Yes, players have flocked to good coaches. But they've also flocked to poor head coaches like Buddy Ryan. I remember former Eagles like Clyde Simmons and others flocking to the Cards during Ryan's disasterous tenure there. And the loyalty of people like Aikman to Norv seems to have no end.

As long as players aren't confusing Spurrier's aggressiveness in offensive playcalling or personal brashness for being a great head coach in and of itself, then I have no problem. Like all of you, I'd rather have a strong head coach than some kind of cult of personality. Gibbs did just fine as a relatively benign personality at the helm, don't you think?

[bulldog]

but, Buddy Ryan was not a bad coach, he was a bad HEAD coach.

Ryan belongs in that class with Norv Turner, a guy that working under a more organized headman could do marvellous things with his own unit, he was just not built to be a CEO.