Bottom Line: Do you think Spurrier should stay or go?

[Sonny Joe Hog]

I say go now.

[Om]

I've been firmly in the One More Year Camp ... but after yesterday, I can understand how that rings rather hollow.

So don't ask me today.

[Larry]

I've just been thinking how ironic it is, all the folks wanting "one more year" for Spurrier, after running Marty out after only one year.

[Chief skin]

I was in for one more year but, after yesterdays performance get the rinky dinky aw shucks college coach the he11 out of here. Phucking loser!!!!

[Could'a, Would'a, Should'a]

i thought last year after the eagles spanked you twice that you had a dud in spurrier and my opinion sure hasnt changed this year, the guy has no clue how to call an nfl game on both sides of the ball or motivate or gameplan in any way, normally i would just smile at the thought of another year of fun n gun in washington but i was hoping the skins would beat the cowdumps yesterday, that was pitifull, every game ive seen you guys play has been a joke

[Art]

Larry,

The difference with Marty is simple. He lost the majority of that team. Without question he could have been successful here. But to do so he'd have had to have gutted much of the team and been UNSUCCESSFUL for a couple of years and the problem people had with Marty is since he was doing equally dumb things as a coach AND not keeping the team disciplined as promised, it wasn't worth the wait.

I'm at the point where I don't think Spurrier can win in this league. He seems too overmatched against just about every coach who won't run vanilla schemes against him. I'm STILL of the mind that another year is necessary. This team NEEDS to get to a point where even the players believe that struggling won't bring about massive change.

IF you fire Spurrier, which may actually NOT be a bad idea, you almost have to concede you want Samuels, Arrington, Bailey and a handful of others gone too while you SERIOUSLY rebuild. And, when you're a team that does have young talent you'd hate to have to rebuild when the fix seems so clear, if so far away for Spurrier.

[Hog Fever]

I've been in the same camp as Om too, and the camp is clearing out in a hurry. Would the last Shottenhiemer out please stamp out the fire. Oh, wrong season.

There is simply nothing positive that can be pulled from this game. I guess I could rationalize that Hasselbeck is essentially a rookie QB and rookies have bad games. I could say that SS’s offense seems to be better suited for a team that is located in a dome. I could use every other excuse that some of us have used over this past season as to why things haven’t worked but after the beat down we got yesterday none of them seem like good arguments.

[Om]

Shall I go back and dig up the long, pleading piece I wrote during Marty's year about how HE needed to be granted at least another year, Larry?

It's tempting to try to compare the circumstances between Marty and SS, but it's not as simple as that. For every similarity there's an equally compelling difference.

Problem with SS now is that ... there is no clear better alternative available at this point. This team has painted itself into a corner by hiring coaches and shuffling players and essentially blowing in the wind from year to year, seemingly incapable of laying a cornerstone.

People say "bring in Dennis Green" and figure that'll do it. Well, let's talk about who picks the players for him first, and how long he'll be given to "turn it around" and talk about whether or not he'll want to spend HIS first couple of years rebuilding the roster in his image before he can be expected to win.

If this team lets Spurrier walk in a fit of pique, and then goes out and tries to land a "name" head coach to come into this asylum ... it's hard to imagine who in his right mind would be willing to do so.

I see it like this: Spurrier gets his one more year. If he succeeds, we're all dancing. If he fails ... he's gone of his own accord, and Snyder starts beating the bushes for another "name" willing to come work with and under the sterling football acumen and professionalism of Vincent Cerrato and Daniel Snyder.

*

Dammit ... I TOLD you not to ask me today.

[Art]

I think you've really hit it Om.

When Marty was here we all kind of felt ANYONE would be better. Anyone with any sort of imagination would be better. But, we got the guy most GMs thought was the best guy available. So, who's better? Certainly not a young college coach -- though my guess is a Stoops or a Saban or even a Brown would be successful because they live football and that alone might improve us.

Certainly not a retread like Green who was fine in Minnesota, but made the same foolish coaching moves that Spurrier makes now and Martz makes. He does relate with the players well, but, he's just not a good coach. Take it from a person who lives in Minnesota. The man is hated up here. Cowher could be good. Other than Cowher I'm not sure there's a guy we want.

Cowher is a guy I think might wear thin after five or six years, but he'd be fresh in here and might turn this team around pretty quick. Gibbs, of course, would be better, even if it would take him two years to get back into it completely. Otherwise, I think you have to put money on the fact that Spurrier knows things need to change and he's going to change them. No matter how utterly unrealistic that seems at the present time.

[Dr. D]

Art,

Bring in the FRIDGE!

Ralph that is.

Spurrier has to go now, he simply has coached his way out of a job and merits not a return. I mean He himself gave us the impression that within 3 years he would provide us with an exciting winner and lo! look at what we have bupkis.

now the problem is thus:

his self-imposed 3 years and I am gone thing essentially makes him a lame duck anyway. I say staunch the wound go for a younger brighter assistent who wants to stay around for the long haul and grow with him.......sounds like we had one already and he slipped through Danny's geasy fingers.

[Blade]

I almost hope the Skins get ramrodded in the last two games just to serve SOS with a wake-up call... Either he decides to mold a system around his players strengths, or he keeps doing what he is doing. One choice has already shown below-average success... the other will show whether or not SOS can really coach in the NFL.

Either way, I dont expect much success next year... Sad fact when you lose hope for the following season before this one is even over.

Now I have a little understanding of what its like to be a Cards or Cubs fan.

[Art]

D.

I don't think you can say Fridge is an upgrade. You HOPE so, but we can't know it. He could fail worse than Spurrier, though that may seem hard to grasp now. The problem now is that things seem to be getting worse, rather than better. Teams seem so attuned to what we're doing that everything we do seems so damn hard and it's tough to watch. It's MARTY level tough to watch offensively.

I just don't see a change being made to another unproven guy as being helpful. If we get a proven guy that's one thing. I just think we are at a point where we need a track record OR stability and I'm still leaning toward stability, as difficult as that is. I WANT to change. I'm just not going to . Call it resignation .

[Om]

I've not played the "who should the next coach be?" game yet ... because I don't want another one yet.

But I will say this:

I don't want our next coach -- whenever that is -- to be a veteran NFL head coach. Unless his name is Gibbs, perhaps. Even then, though ... what I fear is that guys like Green and Cowher, who have BEEN there and DONE that, ain't gonna come here and suffer the fools I firmly believe are running the show. I simply cannot see a Cowher coming here and having the stamina, patience and passion that's gonna be needed to right this ship.

What I would like to see is us taking a shot at a top coordinator -- a guy who's established himself in the league, has the respect of the league and the capability of assembling a qualified staff around him based on that credibility, and just aching to spend 20 hour days for the next few years trying to pull a Marvin Lewis-in-Cincinnati kind of miracle here in DC.

That's what I think a guy like Wolf or Modrak or Polian would do if they were in charge of football matters. Which, sadly, makes it something I do NOT think the team as we now know it will do.

[Henry]

I was in the 'give SS another year' camp too. Now ... I don't know.

What a complete and utter mess.

[Blade]

If we had only started the season 1-3 instead of 3-1, I think it would have been a bit easier to stomach.... but we got teased yet again with a strong start only to fall hugely short of our expectations.

I am a fan of stability as well... but I do agree with SOS that 3 years should be enough to find out if he can be a good NFL coach. I suspect that we will see a significant paradigm change with Dan Snyder if next year is as unsuccessful as this one.

[Dr. D]

You don't think that Ralph is a worthy gamble?

Then for you a proven winner at the pro level would suffice for you as a suitable replacent.?

I think I am seeing this rightly because we are in fact expecting OUR front office to somehow make this desicion...ergo it would be expecting too mych to believe they could actually conceive it let alone achieve it....?

I don't know I listen to Ralph on the radio and TV here all the time and I remmeber his GT and San Diego days....he is a hell of a coach.. but they said the same about SS.

move number one get a GM and Danny: "get thee to a nunnery!"

we are actually doomed until we have an adult running the show.

I am concepting a serious 99 monkey effort here for a GM......

OMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

[Larry]

Oh, I'll agree to a real lack of class-one prospects out there on the street.

The last thing I want Danny to do is fire Steve without another, really good guy already signed up.

(And, if I'm a really good guy, and I get a call from Danny, I'm putting him on hold while I call Marty and get him to fax me a copy of the contract he got Danny to sign.)

I like the idea of Bobby Stoops. (I like the idea of trying to get him to be Steve's DC again). I just don't think he'd take the job. (Especially after winning another Championship. The folks in Norman know how to treat a winning coach, too.)

I like the idea of Jimmy Johnson. But, I think he hates Snyder. (And, he didn't shine that much in Miami, either.) (Although, he might make the Skins-Boys games more interesting.)

I guess, when it comes down to "who'd take the job", I remember a conversation I had with a local guy who's at least an aquaintance of SS. When the rumors came out of him going to the Skins, my friend asked me how I felt about the rumors, and my response was "If you were Steve Spurrier, and you had your pick of the NFL, would you work for an owner who wasn't willing to give Marty Schottenheimer two years?".

His response was "Only if you're arrogant enough to think you can do better than Marty did, and do it quickly."

The bad news is: The only way we get an experienced coach to come in here is if he's arrogant. The good news: All the really good coaches are arrogant.

[rdsknbill]

I was at the game yesterday. Sad to say. :doh: I have never seen a more lack luster effort in my life against the effing Cowboys.

Spurrier stays for one more year. Why I don't know :confused: I don;t think it will matter much. We are awful :confused:

[Dexter's Better]

Honestly. I believe we need to blow this team completely up. However, you can not do that unless you have someone (A good GM) who rebuild the team after you take such a drastic step - which we don't have.

[rdsknbill]

Exactly Dexter. As long as the Danny is our GM, we will always suck. After yesterday, I wanted to find a hole to crawl into.

[inmate running the asylum]

Originally posted by Blade

I almost hope the Skins get ramrodded in the last two games just to serve SOS with a wake-up call...

Either way, I dont expect much success next year... Sad fact when you lose hope for the following season before this one is even over.

What a difference a few weeks makes. Some board members were blasting me -- not Blade -- when the Skins were blown out by Buffalo and Dallas, and I said Spurrier was hopeless and I hoped the Skins lost their remaining games, so they could at least wind up 4-12 and get a top 5 draft pick.

I would still like to see the Skins fire Spurrier and hire Dennis Green. But what will more then likely happen is that Spurrier will be back; Dennis Green will be hired to a multi-year contract as Atlanta's HC; and then when Spurrier leaves after 2004, Dennis Green will not be availabe then.

[Dr. D]

seems like there is an empty hole in iraq now.

yea I think it would be hard to get a "real", proven coach as long as Danny and his ugly sister vinne are running the FO.

otherwise its more of the same until...........god, when can I ever HOPe things will change?

Danny is so young. He will haunt us forever.

[Om]

I'd be interested in hearing you make your case for Dennis Green, inmate. And please, take special care with the part dealing with why he is no longer the coach in Minnesota.

[Dr. D]

Naw, Inmate Blank will hire McKay and then HE will hire Ralph Friedgen.

Denny won't come here.

[The Sisko]

I want SOS gone, and soon. The only problem is Danny hasn't had enough loosing yet. We might as well let him get it out of his system with another loosing season under SOS rather than trying to land a top canidate with Danny and Co. at the helm.

There's going to be a lot of jobs available this offseason and I can't imagine any coach (besides maybe Dave Campo) that would pass up other jobs to come here. The silver lining is that because of the high turnover this offseason, a lot of the guys that will be fired were very good defensive coordinators and could improve our defense dramatically.

As for the Fridge, I heard him interviewed twice here and he continues to categorically state that he wants to remain at MD. He sounded as though he really enjoys coaching at the college level and doesn't want to leave.