By Bernie Miklasz
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Wednesday, Jan. 18 2006
In 2002, young Minnesota offensive coordinator
Scott Linehan received glowing
praise for his creative work with the Vikings' attack.
Quarterback Daunte Culpepper called Linehan "a godsend."
Wideout Randy Moss, in a reversal of his usual unhappiness, declared, "I love
Linehan. He knows his stuff."
Linehan deflected the praise.
"That's very nice of the players," Linehan said at the time. "But I don't even
begin to say that I'm in any league with guys like Mike Martz."
Now, less than four years later, Linehan can say he is in Martz's league,
especially if, as expected, he is appointed to succeed Martz as the Rams' head
coach. Linehan, who served as the Miami Dolphins' coordinator for the 2005
season, only needs to pick up the endorsement of Rams owner Georgia Frontiere,
and the job is his.
If Rams president John Shaw closes the deal to make Linehan the team's fourth
full-time head coach since moving to St. Louis in 1995, what will Linehan bring
to Rams Park?
By all accounts, Linehan has a brilliant mind for offense. He got tremendous
production from a splendidly talented crew in Minnesota, but he also squeezed
the most from a moderately talented offense in Miami.
Linehan is creative in the passing game, so much that Culpepper openly
acknowledged a drop-off in his QB performance when Linehan left the Vikings to
go to Miami. But Linehan is no one-dimensional pass master. He likes to rely on
the Joe Gibbs system of offense, which includes powering up with two tight ends
in a dedicated mission to run the football.
But a clever Linehan also likes to bedevil defenses by running the ball out of
passing formations. He spreads the field with wideouts, loosens the defensive
alignments, and then slams the ball inside. (It's easy to imagine Steven
Jackson doing a lot of damage in this style of offense.)
"You have got to be able to run the football to be successful at any level,"
Linehan said last year. "I love to throw, but if you can't run the football,
you're stuck."
Expanding beyond his fondness for offense, Linehan has a vision for the entire
team. This is no offensive coordinator wearing a head coach's headset and
disguise. Linehan made this clear in his first round of interviews with Shaw
and Rams director of football operations Jay Zygmunt. He showed up with
detailed opinions on what the Rams were doing wrong, what they needed to do
better.
Linehan stressed the need to revamp the defense, vowed emphatically that
defense and special teams would be a priority. Linehan expressed his intention
to hire an "A"-list defensive coordinator, and offered several names as
candidates. Linehan already had mapped out tentative plans for a coaching
staff. And this was in the first interview.
As I pointed out in a column that appeared Jan. 9, the Rams shifted their
philosophy after talking to Linehan. Concerned about the shortage of proven
offensive coordinators and worried about finding a prominent offensive
coordinator to pair with a defensive-oriented head coach, Shaw accurately
concluded it was smarter to bring in an offensive-minded head coach and match
him with a strong defensive coordinator. That's because the current coaching
pool is loaded with quality defensive coordinators. So why not have strong
leaders on both sides of the football?
If the Rams make it official with Linehan, they'll join the hiring trend that's
sweeping through the NFL this offseason. Rather than recycle fired head
coaches, NFL teams are turning their rosters over to a new generation of young
coaches.
The New York Jets hired Eric Mangini, 35. Green Bay went with Mike McCarthy,
42. New Orleans chose Sean Payton, 42. Minnesota picked Brad Childress, 49. And
Houston is said to be committed to hiring Gary Kubiak, 44. Linehan is 42. None
has been a head coach before, so obviously there's risk involved.
How will these young lions respond to the pressures, the demands, of being a
head coach? Can they lead, delegate and put out small fires instead of making
them bigger? Can they handle the media crush? No one can safely predict how it
will go until a young coach is thrown into the pit.
But there are no guarantees about recycling former head coaches, either. (See:
Steve Mariucci, George Seifert, Bobby Ross, etc.). And as the Elias Sports
Bureau points out, nine of the 22 head coaches who have won a Super Bowl began
their NFL head-coaching careers in their 30s. They are: John Madden (33), Don
Shula (33), Jon Gruden (35), Mike Shanahan (36), Tom Landry (36), Hank Stram
(37), Chuck Noll (37), Bill Belichick (39) and Dick Vermeil (39).
Other 30-somethings - including Dan Reeves, Jeff Fisher and Bill Cowher -
started young and led teams to Super Bowl appearances without winning the big
game (so far).
For those of you who would condemn the Rams' choice of an "unproven" head coach
to lead the Rams, I politely pose these questions: Who was Andy Reid before
Philadelphia hired him? Who was Cowher before Pittsburgh made him head coach?
When Carolina hired John Fox as head coach, the general reaction was, "Who?"
Linehan has been an NFL coordinator for four seasons after spending 13 years as
a college assistant. Linehan has, to this point, succeeded at every opportunity
as he moved up the ladder. He has been building and planning for this moment.
Linehan seems completely prepared for this big chance, as he showed by scoring
a touchdown in the interview with Shaw. And as long as Linehan can assemble the
kind of defensive staff that will prevent touchdowns, the Rams should embark on
a promising new era.
Linear Mode
