Dave Wannstedt And The Defense
February 6th, 2013
It was interesting that just hours after the 2012 season ended, Bucs coach Greg Schiano made such a fuss about competition, that every Bucs position must have some competition.
On face value, who can argue? Often, to get the best out of someone, said worker has to be pushed a little or have the fear of God put in them a lot.
With the hiring of Dave Wannstedt as special teams coach, Joe wonders if this same philosophy of competition extends to Schiano’s coaching staff?
As Joe pointed out yesterday, surely Schiano didn’t hire Wannstedt to just be a special teams coach; Schiano will lean at least a little bit on all the experience Wannstedt has at coaching defense.
Now Joe knows that some fans were — and are — outraged at defensive coordinator Bill Sheridan for the sieve that was the Bucs secondary. Yes, while Sheridan is responsible for the defense, one cannot nor should not overlook at how solid the rush defense was under Sheridan, as well.
If Sheridan is to be dinged for the bad, then he should also be patted on the back and lauded for the good in the spirit of fairness, and that rush defense was damned good. So Joe was not among the loud voices screaming for Sheridan’s demise.
Let’s say, heaven forbid, the Bucs secondary, even with an upgrade in talent sure to come this offseason, is still at the very bottom of the NFL in passing yards allowed, then would Schiano decide to plug in his old mentor Wannstedt at defensive coordinator and let Sheridan walk away?
It is just interesting that Schiano is all about competition at every level and he just hired a coach with decades of experience on the defensive side of the ball to be a lowly special teams coach.
If competition is good for players, is it also good for assistant coaches?
February 6th, 2013 at 8:36 am
Yo Joe, don’t you mean to label the heading of the article ‘Dave’ Wannstedt And The Defense? You called him Greg in the article’s heading and Dave in the article itself. Just looking out for you. Love the articles, thanks for putting out a great daily read!
Always appreciated. Joe’s coffee was still brewing. 😉
February 6th, 2013 at 10:32 am
The answer to the last question in the article is a resounding NO! You want cooperation and consistency, not competition. A position coach should be focused 24-7 on the improvement and performance of the position. Otherwise, you get a matrix-managed organization that usually ends in failure.
If Sheridan wasn’t doing his job, he should be replaced like Cooper or ligashesky, not threatened by another coach looking over his shoulder. There is no recent success in Wannstedt’s career that would give me any confidence that he would be any better than Sheridan. If the Buffalo fans posting on PFT are to be believed, with the exception of their play against the Pats, Wannstedt was an abject failure as DC. If you have to go all the way back to Jimmy Johnson to find a success on his resume, that is not very convincing.
I don’t know if Wannstedt can coach STs or not. There is nothing in his resume that says he can. I’ll trust Schiano’s wisdom on this for now. But next season is not, by any stretch of the imagination, going to be a walk in the park. From where I stand, Schiano and Wannstedt will be under the intense magnification of the same microscope that Freeman is under!
February 6th, 2013 at 10:43 am
I’m with Mac again on this one, Maybe Waanstedt will excel and find a special niche in coaching ST, since he has failed so miserably at coordinator.
February 6th, 2013 at 12:33 pm
I wouldn’t be surprised if they wanted Wansted for the DB job but it was to late they had already hired the other guy, so DW was left with only the ST job opening. He probably thought one of the new DC jobs would come his way.
February 6th, 2013 at 1:01 pm
Macabee Says:
February 6th, 2013 at 10:32 am
“I don’t know if Wannstedt can coach STs or not. There is nothing in his resume that says he can.”–Incorrect. He HAS coached Special Teams previously. Other than that, great take!
February 6th, 2013 at 1:23 pm
Piratic,
This is small potatoes, but read the last paragraph under the Bucaneers. Wannstedt has no experience coaching ST in the NFL and only managed ST when he was HC at Pitt which ended in disaster.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Wannstedt
February 6th, 2013 at 9:32 pm
Very bad hire, check his track record.