1. This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies. Learn More.

A Fair Look at Sparano

Discussion in 'Miami Dolphins Forum' started by vinivedivichi, Dec 19, 2010.

  1. vinivedivichi

    vinivedivichi New Member

    105
    94
    0
    Apr 13, 2008
    Tampa
    Hate to start another Sparano thread, but the others seem to be blatantly negative so I wanted to try to start a reasonable conversation about our future prospects with Sparano leading us.

    Is he worth keeping around? For most of this year I thought any talk about firing Sparano was at best premature, and at worst totally off-base, but I must admit that as the season goes on I see more and more that troubles me about our coach. Let's first take a look at what I believe are his good qualities and next we'll look at the bad.

    What Sparano Does Right/Reasons Not to Fire Sparano:

    - I think one thing we can all agree with about Sparano is that the team is behind Sparano - which is not something to overlook. I've never felt like the team quit under Sparano, and I think that he generally has the team ready to play every week, at least from mental perspective. The players like him and they seem to like playing for him. This is a great quality to have, and it's not easy to find these types of guys.

    - He preaches discipline, and it pays off for us. Under TS, we have been one of the least penalized teams each year. If penalties are a barometer of how well coached a team is (as some people say), then you'd have to say the fins are well coached.

    - Considering the fact that he took over a franchise in turmoil, fresh off a 1 win season, his win loss record is not bad at all. Without looking it up, I believe he was 11-5 in year 1, 7-9 in year 2, and probably 8-8 in year 3. That's not bad at all considering where we were before he got here. Not what we expected, but not terrible.

    - Do we have a coaching problem or do we have a quarterback problem? Think hard about this. If Henne was a decent quarterback, would we handcuff him the way we do? I don't think so. I think a lot of the flak Sparano gets for being conservative is a direct result of the quarterback play. I don't think this thread would exist if Henne were even an average quarterback - is that Sparano's fault? Henne is a checkdown quarterback that makes too many mistakes. Think about it - is there any worse kind of quarterback to have on your team?

    - - I admit this is very subjective, but for me personally, I don't feel about Sparano the way I felt about Wannstedt/Cameron. I remember feeling after a couple of years under Wanny that he would never take us anywhere because he simply wasn't a good coach. Cameron was in over his head, and that was apparent nearly from day one. I don't have that feeling about Sparano. I feel like he's made some mistakes, but he's done a lot of things right. He may not be the right person to take us to a championship, but my gut hasn't quite come to that conclusion yet.

    The Bad/Reasons to Fire Sparano

    - How much of the blame for Henne's lack of progression/regression is Sparano's fault? Everyone knows that Henne has essentially been programmed to be a no-mistake quarterback. That's a good philosophy in general, but Henne somehow has managed to become overly cautious while being stupidly agressive, both at the same time. He strikes me as a guy who has been over-coached. Some of that, if not all of it falls on Sparano and his offensive philosophy. He's pushed the big-armed Henne to become the second coming of Chad Pennington, but quite frankly Henne is not capable of that. He's not nearly as accurate, but he does have a much stronger arm. He's been coached out of one of his best attributes coming out of school, which is unacceptable. Successful coaches coach to their players' strengths. I don't think that is the case with Henne.

    - Sparano and his conservative coaching style. Uber conservative, smart, disciplined football can help a bad team play over its head, but can it help a decent team take the next step? As great as the 11-5 season was, I can't help but think that it was a red-herring. We drafted lower than we should have that year, and it seemed to cement a coaching philosophy for Sparano. Mistake free football in Sparano's eyes is winning football. While that in general is true, we seem to take that addage to an extreme. We don't take many risks, and as a result our offense is predictable and easily defendable. This team's offense is an extension of its defense, and it seems to be that way by design. I'm not sure that you can win championships with this philosophy in today's NFL.

    -The offensive line as well as the offense in general. Sparano is an offensive line coach by trade. Since he's been here, we have invested heavily, in the form of draft picks and dollars, in the offensive line and in most cases we have struck out. Long is a beast, but he was the number one overall pick. Smiley? Grove? Berger? Thomas? Even Jerry, to this point. They all are misses, and that's an astoundingly bad record for someone who supposedly knows the offensive line. Very disappointing. And how about the offense in general? Sparano, as an offensive coach, deserves a lot of blame for this offense. As an offensive coach himself, Sparano at any point could step in and take control of play-calling or gameplanning or any other aspect of the offense. He hasn't. Essentially, that is an enorsement of Dan Henning. Yikes...

    This is a probably an abbreviated look at the good/bad, but it's a decent enough starting point.

    There are some things that scare me about Sparano, primarily his overly conservative nature, but I also realize that knowing what we now know about Henne, conservatism was a necessity. Is he partially to blame for Henne's regression? I think so. But I also think that Henne's inability to read defenses is his downfall. Henne has been overcoached, but sadly he's just wasn't that good to start with.

    In conclusion, I think Sparano deserves another year, simply because he has done about as well as you can do without a quarterback. Look around the league the past three years and show me a team that has done better with a worse quarterback. There's not one. While there are certainly some things that I've seen from Sparano that worry me, I'm not ready to give up on him yet because I'm not convinced he's done a bad job. Don't we have to be convinced he's a bad coach before we fire him? I'm just not there yet.
     
    FinsAreLife likes this.
  2. dolfan22

    dolfan22 Season Ticket Holder Club Member

    Game mismanagement , failure to get effective coaches in place to handle what he can't , I like Tony in a lot of ways , but he is in over his head imo.
     
  3. Jaj

    Jaj Registered

    6,359
    1,671
    0
    Mar 23, 2008
    Los Angeles
    Perhaps he needs someone who is that guy on offense. A coordinator who for years has coached his teams to excellent production, has constantly shown that he improves the performance of his QBs, and knows how to run a game-plan.
     
  4. vinivedivichi

    vinivedivichi New Member

    105
    94
    0
    Apr 13, 2008
    Tampa
    I'll give you game mismanagement, but much of that seems to be related to the quarterback position. If you believe that the coaching staff has no faith in Henne, then some of the playcalling starts to make at least a bit more sense. Two minute drills are pathetic, but you have to think that has a lot to do with Henne.
     
  5. Dolphins1Beatles

    Dolphins1Beatles Ziggy Stardust

    4,749
    1,940
    113
    Oct 9, 2009
    New York
    My problem with 2008 is this: Chad Pennington, wildcat and easy schedule. Yes even with the easy schedule it is amazing to go 11-5. But, most of that is due to Chad Pennington having his best season ever, comeback player of the year award, and coming in 2nd in MVP voting. Without Pennington Miami would've finished in 3rd place, where they have in 2009 and 2010. And the Wildcat saved the season in 2008, and no longer works like it used to. So Sparano can't even get most of the credit for 2008, that's Pennington.

    I do think we should keep Sparano and fire Henning if we can't get Cowher though.
     
  6. vt_dolfan

    vt_dolfan Season Ticket Holder Club Member

    I dont know what to think.....

    I know Henning was terrible for this offense..and terrible for Chad Henne. I think Henning didnt like Henne...and Henne didnt like Henning...and it went downhill from there. Im dismayed Sparano stuck with Henning this long..I really am.

    I think....though...when you look at the failure of this 2010 Miami Dolphins team.....two words more then anything stick out.

    Running Game.

    Didnt have it...and you cant win with this type of offense...if you cant run the ball.
     
    dolfan22 likes this.
  7. Dolphins1Beatles

    Dolphins1Beatles Ziggy Stardust

    4,749
    1,940
    113
    Oct 9, 2009
    New York
    Yeah but the Dolphins don't run the ball. They threw 45 times today, Ricky/Ronnie got it 17 times. It's been like that all year. I do think we need to replace Ronnie with a FAST, young guy, and Ricky backing up.
     
  8. Jaj

    Jaj Registered

    6,359
    1,671
    0
    Mar 23, 2008
    Los Angeles
    There are a tremendous number of problems with Henne that we were ignoring and blaming all on Henning early on in the year. They're both morons. Take a step back at the end of the year observe the situation, see how things are going with Nolan and make a decision to get someone who you know just like Nolan runs an excellent offense.

    Take a look at Jay Cutler. His QB rating has jumped 12 points with an excellent OC.

    The guys available:

    - Alex Smith, McNabb, Orton, and Palmer.
    - All four of those guys are better than Henne. That I have no doubt.
    - Now who are the available OCs perhaps? Kubiak, Norv Turner, Childress
    - Pick a QB, pick an OC, what's the fit that you like with this group?
     
  9. vt_dolfan

    vt_dolfan Season Ticket Holder Club Member

    We cant run the ball...thats why they dont.

    I would be fine with resigning Ronnie Brown and getting a speed back as well.....
     
  10. Jaj

    Jaj Registered

    6,359
    1,671
    0
    Mar 23, 2008
    Los Angeles
    Problem with the running game is that the play calling is poor relative to personnel and the interior LG and C get no push.
     
  11. vinivedivichi

    vinivedivichi New Member

    105
    94
    0
    Apr 13, 2008
    Tampa
    The blueprint is a power running team that is able to play action fake to keep defenses honest. We don't run the ball well, and we don't throw the ball downfield. As bad as our running problems already were, the lack of any deep threat has made it that much worse.
     
  12. bluehaze

    bluehaze New Member

    612
    255
    0
    Dec 24, 2009
    Disagree 100%, they can't quit because they never get started. The team is never ready to play only time they come alive is when it's too late and they realize they are gonna lose. Sparano is a good guy and I feel for him but he's just not HC material.
     
  13. muscle979

    muscle979 Season Ticket Holder

    15,863
    6,275
    113
    Dec 12, 2007
    Evans, GA
    I hate watching our hated rivals respond to adversity by beating one of the top teams in the league and realizing our coach is not good enough to make that happen. I don't think we're even a lock against Detroit next weekend and they are God awful on the road.
     
  14. Killerphins

    Killerphins The Finger

    9,313
    4,169
    0
    Nov 11, 2008
    Orton isn't available.
     
  15. miamiron

    miamiron There's always next year

    2,354
    1,402
    113
    Jan 4, 2008
    Goodpoints,
    They threw the ball 45 times against the 4th best secondary in terms of yards allowed
    and ran the ball 17 times against the 32nd worst rushing defense/worst in the NFL

    Anyone see a problem here?
     
  16. dolfan22

    dolfan22 Season Ticket Holder Club Member

    He has game management issues period , he would with Peyton at QB and Manning is better than some offensive coordinators in this league imo. Like I said I like Tony in many ways , if he had someone running the offense in a way that Nolan is with the D , then we could live with some of his shortcomings . He had a joke for special teams earlier this season and now the offense is....what? pretty much a joke. He has to take a lot of that on himself , whether it is him personally failing , or him failing to put the right people in place to manage parts of the game he can't manage well , or is too occupied to do so effectively.
     
  17. Jaj

    Jaj Registered

    6,359
    1,671
    0
    Mar 23, 2008
    Los Angeles
    Actually there's a good chance Orton will be available as he will be possibly as FA if they cut his 8m salary or as a cheap trade.
     
  18. Silverphin

    Silverphin Well-Known Member

    11,035
    4,419
    113
    Nov 25, 2007
    To be fair, haven't are rushing woes started ever since we replaced the middle of our line?
     
  19. Jaj

    Jaj Registered

    6,359
    1,671
    0
    Mar 23, 2008
    Los Angeles
    They started with Ronnie's injury, Ricky wearing down, and the switch up front.
     
  20. Dolphins1Beatles

    Dolphins1Beatles Ziggy Stardust

    4,749
    1,940
    113
    Oct 9, 2009
    New York
    Yeah, so much for Sanchez not being able to win in the cold. He just helped beat the Steelers in Pittsburgh in the Snow. Henne is the 4th ranked QB in the AFC East.
     
  21. Ophinerated

    Ophinerated Preposterous!

    8,678
    803
    113
    Apr 1, 2008
    You also have to look at the first games of that year, prior to the introduction of the Wildcat... where were we then? About the same place we are now. The difference was the talent on the O-Line and the surprise of the Wildcat package itself on top of the weak schedule.

    Edit: Personally I think too much was attributed to Pennington. If you look at what happened at the beginning of 2009, you can see that Pennington wasn't the answer that year either. We didn't win a game until we gave the league yet something else to plan for and that was Henne. Later in the year teams figured out how to confuse Henne. What did we do as a coaching staff to counter this? Nothing. Same thing this year. There doesn't seem to be any adjusting on our side of the ball.
     
  22. bluehaze

    bluehaze New Member

    612
    255
    0
    Dec 24, 2009
    Yea the Jets win really rubs some salt in the wound...
     
  23. muscle979

    muscle979 Season Ticket Holder

    15,863
    6,275
    113
    Dec 12, 2007
    Evans, GA
    Rex Ryan certainly has his faults as a coach but I think he's better at it than Sparano. But instead of hiring him Parcells had to bring in one of his buddies from Dallas. I don't know if I'd really want Rex's big mouth with the Dolphins it's just irritating to think Parcells wasn't really interested in bringing in the most qualified candidate.
     
  24. FinsAreLife

    FinsAreLife Well-Known Member

    2,824
    762
    113
    Dec 7, 2007
    I think Sparano is a fine coach and should stay. He needs a new OC however. A good OC, another playmaker at running back and this team can go somewhere.
     
  25. mroz

    mroz Fix the OL Club Member

    25,868
    24,359
    113
    Oct 26, 2008
    SF Bay Area
    They ran it 17 times because the OL cant open any holes...
     
  26. Rocky Raccoon

    Rocky Raccoon Greasepaint Ghost Staff Member

    30,224
    36,965
    113
    Dec 2, 2007
    Jersey
    Meh I'm not ready to give up on Sparano UNLESS we can get Cowher.
     
    Dolphins1Beatles likes this.
  27. mroz

    mroz Fix the OL Club Member

    25,868
    24,359
    113
    Oct 26, 2008
    SF Bay Area
    You have obviously not seen Alex Smith play... As for McNabb... there is a reason he lost his job.
     
  28. mroz

    mroz Fix the OL Club Member

    25,868
    24,359
    113
    Oct 26, 2008
    SF Bay Area
    Sparano is Dave W. part II
     

Share This Page