Shaking Things Up
                                              1/26/00

    I am a firm believer that in the majority of cases, a coach will lose his ability to get
the most out of his players after about 5 years. The "C" word creeps in. The word is
complacency. Players often go all out when a coach is new; they want to impress the
new head man and possibly avoid being cut, because a new guy brings with him
unpredictability. Sometimes a coach relaxes after several years. Players start to take
advantage of that, and recognize where they can bend the rules or when they can dog
it. I think that may have been the case with the Vikings. Of course poor draft and free
agency decisions played a part in the Viking's sour ending in `99, but coaching and
complacency was a big reason for their failures as well.

    Green should not be allowed to use the recently fired coaches as scapegoats. He is
as much at fault as they, but expecting him to fire himself is a waste of time. Although
his firing would be just, changing the coordinators and a few position coaches is the
best alternative.

    Foge Fazio and Ray Sherman verse Emmitt Thomas and Sherman Lewis. Huumm...
Thats a pretty easy choice for me. The latter provides more experience and a higher
degree of X's and O's knowledge. I know it is not popular to hire guys who were
recently fired, but they were good solid choices nonetheless. Their relationship with
Denny and familiarity with the division is a plus. For those who don't already know, I
live in Honolulu, Hawaii, and the University here recently finished the biggest turn-
around in college history. They wen't 0-12 in `98 and 9-4 in `99. June Jones, head coach,
was on the news this evening announcing the hiring of a new defensive coordinator.
He said something interesting. He said that coaching chemistry is just as important as
gameplans. Denny said something about that recently also. Maybe the chemistry was
not right amongst the former staff.  What you read in the paper might not tell the story
of how the coaches worked with eachother and the players.

    Now back to the "C" word, complacency. I think players sometimes need to be
shocked. They need to be benched, cut, or balled out. Obviously with players making
the same mistakes week in and week out, and with some just not playing up to their
capabilities, motivation was lacking. Of course players have to motivate themselves
to some level, but the coaches due have to be a supplement.  I think new coaches can
be the "shock" needed to get some players in gear.

    For those who defend the released coaches, I ask, "do you think that they did a
good job." Lets go down the list. Ray Sherman, had a high ranked offense, but it
slipped in scoring, turned the ball over at an alarming rate, and had problems getting
plays in on time.  There was a herky jerky feel, there was not a smooth flow. He did
a good job no doubt, but he could and should have done better, especially in first
halves of games when we seem to always struggle and fall behind. Foge Fazio, had to
work with poor talent, but I have to say that his schemes were unimaginative and easy
to thwart. The Vikings blitzes were almost always picked up and his coverage schemes
resulted in huge holes and guys running wide open all over the place. How can a
zone defense leave widereceivers and tightends open by 10-15 yards? If you get out
run by a faster player or out jumped by a superior athlete, that is one thing, but when
people are unaccounted for, thats coaching folks.  Our tightends were not used much,
but when they were, they didnt do much and Kleinsasser was underutilized. That was
Atkins' responsibility. Our inside LBs (Rudd and McDaniel) were underachievers in
`99. Both were lost in coverage many times and both saw their number of big plays
drop noticeably. That was Olivadotti's job. Of course the guy who should be fired the
most is Solomon, the DB coach, and it pains me to see that he will be back again in the
same spot next year. That is a very bad decision by Green. He may be the worst DB
coach in the NFL. It is a good thing that Emmitt Thomas is very good with secondary
coaching and can lend a hand.

    Sherman Lewis designed the offensive game plan for a SuperBowl champion. He
was not really given a fair shake in Green Bay. He was saddled with a injured and
error prone Favre(those INTs were all Brett's doing), no Chmura, and a subpar O-line.
They had an off year and he took the fall. One year is not enough for a new head coach
or coordinator. Lets see if Mike Sherman is fired if they fail to make the playoffs. I
doubt it.  Emmitt Thomas played in two Superbowls and coached in two. He had the
#1 ranked defense verse the pass in `98 and once had Philadelphia up to #4 overall in
yards allowed. Before last year he was considered one of the brightest defensive
minds around. Are we to believe that six months later he is a dummy all of a sudden?
I think he is the same coach, who like Lewis didnt get enough time to show what he
could do. The Packers didnt underachieve on D in my mind, they overachieved, when
you consider the injuries, players fading, and a very young secondary.

    These guys will be upgrades no doubt. The sad thing is that if Green does not get
the Vikings atleast to the title game next year, these guys will be one and done again
and the Green era will have run its course.