Go to the mobile version of this Web site.

Login | Contact Us | Site Map | Paid archives | Alerts | Electronic edition | Advertise | Subscribe to the paper | Today's Extras
Subscribe

LINCICOME: First-timer coaches don't always make grade

By Bernie Lincicome, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published January 15, 2009 at 7:06 p.m.

Text size  

Related Stories

More Denver Broncos

More stories »

Optimism has a free pass until the Broncos' opener, maybe even until halftime of the Broncos' opener, leaving some 33 weeks of reassurance, allowing every choice to be seen as another packet of sugar in the candy machine.

How much more interesting is this than the usual lull until the NFL draft and then until training camp?

See, already there is a positive layer, like an extra sweater on a cold day.

Until anything at all is known, everything is assumed to be swell, as the obscure new coach of the Broncos builds a staff nearly as obscure as himself.

Josh McDaniels will grow into Denver or he won't. I suppose he will. So far it's been the other way around, as if the Broncos won the lottery for The Next Great Coach.

If things here were as they were, we would have only grumbling and apprehension, the last memory being the debacle in San Diego. Now there are new biographies to examine and glories to imagine, and we have a head start.

How you get to be a hot coaching property is not too clear. Mike Shanahan was one once. Or twice. The glow comes.

It goes. It was the brightest of late on McDaniels.

Lane Kiffin.

Excuse me. Names of ex-boy wonder hot shots who made poor head coaches keep flitting through my thoughts. I'll try not to let them in.

The Broncos and this city ought to be grateful for McDaniels agreeing so quickly to allow his very first head job to be one of the two or three best in all of sports.

Talk about your entry-level luck. This guy just fell out of the Patriots press box into a stretch limo.

Bobby Petrino.

McDaniels' chief credential for a head job is clear and admirable. Wisdom and talent. He stage-managed the NFL's best offense to records a year ago, had sense enough to not take interviews then, kept the Patriots vital without Tom Brady and then figured his time had come.

Since McDaniels is coming to a team with unrealized achievement, any improvement makes him coach of the year next season.

Scott Linehan.

If nothing else, McDaniels brings an expected freshness with him, unburdened by old grudges or familiar glories. He is no Bronco, never was, never could have been.

This is not necessarily the reason he was hired, but it didn't hurt that Pat Bowlen wants his own man and to be his own man. Bowlen acted quickly and confidently. When Bowlen speaks of a new day, he is including himself as the alarm clock.

Rod Marinelli.

Bowlen has never nitpicked about wanting to win, which means that free agency is in play as is almost any other notion McDaniels may entertain. You do not lop off a legend without being willing to indulge his replacement.

(A quick survey of untried coaches replacing celebrated coaches shows a general slump the next season, an exception being the 49ers of Bill Walsh winning the Super Bowl under George Seifert, beating the Broncos 55-10. But there are a whole lot more Ray Hanleys and Richie Pettibons.)

McDaniels is picking his own staff, defensive coordinator first, since that is where the most work is. And Mike Nolan may be just a little too established, a man with a traceable past, but someone has to show the head coach where to stand.

Romeo Crennel.

McDaniels might send thank-you notes not only to Belichick, his mentor in New England, but also to John Harbaugh in Baltimore and Mike Smith in Atlanta and Tony Sparano in Miami. Their first-year success made it easier for the Broncos to take a chance on somebody who had to bring his biography with him.

Makes it easier to ignore the Jim Fassels, the Jim Moras, the Marty Schottenheimers, the Steve Mariuccis, the Bill Cowhers. Yeah, right. If Cowher had nodded, he would have been smothered with kisses.

Instead of just wiping everyone off the roster, McDaniels must convince himself that the talent on the Broncos was not only injured, but must have been misused, not put in the right schemes to succeed, especially on defense.

Nick Saban.

The Broncos can benefit from the energy and innocence of someone who is unfailed. Shanahan had it when he came, not counting disappointing Al Davis in Oakland, which is as easy to do as crossing your legs.

To make a mark in Denver, following Shanahan, the glory will echo everywhere.

Neill Armstrong.

Not the moon walker. But he could have been. That's optimism.

Comments

  • January 15, 2009

    7:44 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    xxx writes:

    ------

  • January 15, 2009

    7:49 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    xxx writes:

    ----- I guess I give that article a 3?

  • January 16, 2009

    9:05 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    MTBroncofan writes:

    I'll never get back the time I spent reading this article. Bernie - Mr. Glass Half Empty Man - please find something else to write about for a while. Yes, first time coaches often stink. But plenty don't. In case you forget, there are several first timers in the playoffs this year... three of them are in the conference championships!

    Isn't this Mike Tomlins first head coach job? He was hired in 2007 and I think he's doing a pretty fair job.

    Ken Whisenhunt, to my knowledge was never a head coach in the NFL before he was hired by the Cardinals in 2007.

    John Harbaugh? This is his first year as head coach of the Ravens and has done a terrific job there.

    Tony Sparano? First year coaching the Dolphins and takes them to the playoffs, and they were the septic tank of the NFL in 2007 with a 1-15 record.

    Did any of these names cross your mind when you wrote this article?

  • January 16, 2009

    9:16 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    bronc4evah writes:

    I liked the line about each new acquisition being like a packet of sugar from the candy machine in the off season. You gotta admit that is so true when you follow the Broncos in the long off season. I do tend to be more on the optimistic side this time of year but it will never take a Super Bowl victory to keep me on the Bronco wagon -I'm a hopeless lifer. So, even though I've always been a fan and believer in Shanahan, I'm pulling for McDaniels to succeed with the Broncos, even if that means going in some different directions with the team.

  • January 16, 2009

    10:49 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    positivefreedom writes:

    I had some hope that Bernice would reference the Sporting News article or at least have some sense of objectivity and research. Let down again.... Why doesn't the Rocky save money and can this guy now?

    I found the Sporting News article, Jan 20, 2003, from Dan Pompei. Unfortunately, it was lacking research. Pompei, however, is a much better writer than Bernice - is it even fair to others to call Bernice a 'writer?' Pompei at least had many examples to show how some very good coaches - including Shanahan and Belichick - failed at their first head coaching gig then came back better after facing such adversity.

    This idea is intriguing. However, I wonder if someone with time on their hands could research the types of situations first and second time HC's faced in order to lend some credibility to their ideas. Did the successful first timers have better organizations/owners/QBs than the unsuccessful first timers? Or was the negative first time experience the catalyst that enabled many successful second timers to lead their teams to Super Bowl trophies?

    Trees can't stand without wind after all...

  • January 16, 2009

    11:17 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    RightDownTheMiddle writes:

    Good lord....what a bitter little man you come off as being Bernie.

    You need counseling.

  • January 16, 2009

    12:20 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    rcpainthorse writes:

    I don't get it! Can someone explain this article to me? It is a good thing that reporters aren't judged on how many articles their readers approve b/c this one here is like take a 55-10 beating. Someone please explain this article to me b/c I am evidently too dumb to get it.

  • January 16, 2009

    1:10 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    jvill writes:

    This article is the equivalent of the weather reporter telling us it may or may not rain tomorrow.

  • January 16, 2009

    2:12 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    milt30 writes:

    How does this guy still have a job writing for the RMN? Better yet, how did he get the job in the first place?

    Bernie Linicome.

    I just wasted 5 minutes reading this dreadful article and writing this comment.
    Lighten up Bernie.

  • January 16, 2009

    2:43 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    street2 writes:

    Lincicum is someone lost down his mothers leg!

  • January 16, 2009

    3:11 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    liesandpropaganda08 writes:

    Raccoons must be pretty fierce animals because Bernie can't seem to get rid of the one that has fallen asleep (or died) on his head.

    Go to the Post with that BS Linicome- over.

Post your comment

Registration is required. Click here to create your free user account, or login below.

Comments are the sole responsibility of the person posting them. You agree not to post comments that are off topic, defamatory, obscene, abusive, threatening or an invasion of privacy. Violators may be banned. Click here for our full user agreement.




(Forgotten your password?)




News Tip

Know about something we should be reporting? Tell us about it.

Sponsored links



Reprints