Dolphins named special teams coach Darren Rizzi assistant head coach. Decision on interim HC was b/w the former URI coach and Dan Campbell. -via Twitter
Lots of shuffling going on here. The players are certainly getting the message that the team brass believes they have untapped talent. The question is, do they have the leadership among them to pull it out of themselves, or will they continue to drag along, rudderless.
I think they have all they need. I believe they need to use what they have. In my opinion they have more than people may realize.
It sounds like an astute political move by Campbell. I saw some tweets that allude to Rizzi taking ownership of some of the organizational duties for Philbin. Joe never gave him credit. Campbell did shortly after becoming HC. Rizzi was his competition. Campbell has shown the staff he will reward extra effort. He has given Rizzi an opportunity to be recognized as part of the solution if the season is turned around. He has improved Rizzi's resume regardless of the outcome, and he may have turned a rival into an ally.
Agreed. Even if he is not an allay, Rizzi would look unprofessional if he went out of his way to criticize Campbell. At worst Rizzi should respect Campbell regardless of whether they have a relationship outside of being coaches. At least Campbell has shown he has some sort of idea about how to "play the game" in the back office. Pretty astute move, pretty much forces Rizzi to play ball for his own sake.
Campbell has said he's getting advice from a bunch of ex-coaches at all levels in the NFL...seems like he plucked the right choice here. This dude is showing me he really gives a damn...and I like that a lot. I just hope the players can again take on the personality of their HC, like they did with Philbin...this time, it may be for the better.
Don't know if Campbell will be good or bad yet, or if he will be an improvement. But it is about time that the Dolphins had a head coach with passion and fire for the game. Players reflect the character of your head coach and his fire for the game. I don't know how many older Miami fans are on here, but I can remember Bill Arnsbarger's defenses having a fire and a passion for the game and they showed it by attacking and swarming the ball. You didn't see the defensive players taking plays off or not pursuing because they were across the field or not near the ball. I would love to see that again because it was fun to watch.
I saw Campbell's press conference where he talks about Rizzi and mentions this, which begs the question, what the heck did Philbin really do in Miami? He said Rizzi helped Philbin to make organizational decisions, scheduling and whatnot and also helped with game management on the sidelines. I thought that's what Philbin was supposed to have full control over? Thank God this guy was fired.
