Quick! Name that Offensive Coordinator.
Some offensive coordinators names are heard every week throughout the national media. The names are heard when the teams perform well and when the teams are shut down. The names are heard, in some instances, more often than that of the head coach. It’s as if national reporters are collecting kickbacks from coordinators looking to ascend the final rung of the ladder.
Do offensive coordinators have agents that work tirelessly on their behalf so that they can get name recognition and keep their hat in the ring for the next Looking For Gruden search for genius coaches? If not, what gives?
How does it happen that average fan hears more about Jason Garrett than Miles Austin or Marion Barber? Can’t someone just hire Garrett to run their team and end the suspense? Couldn’t Dallas just get it over with? What would change? Not much. What about Darrell Bevell up in Minnesota? Isn’t it time someone gave him a real job? If Bevell is such a genius, what is Brad Childress doing? And how is what Childress does different from what Norv Turner does? What about Mike Mularkey? Hasn’t he learned enough, now, from Mike Smith to warrant another shot at the top job?
In 2008-2009, the man pictured above called the shots for the #2 scoring offense in the NFL. The man who led the number 1 scoring offense is working at Syracuse University trying to mold a winner. Both are as anonymous as hooded monks in the Alps.
In my book, they’ve accumulated far more “Genius Points” than their over-exposed competitors in Dallas, Minnesota and Atlanta whose offenses have routinely stumbled in December and January. Perhaps 2009 will be different. Perhaps the coordinators who get results will get the credit they deserve…then again, not everyone can call the shots in a billion dollar stadium or craft the game plan for America’s favorite feel-good story.
Sirius Bark by Temple3 