This franchise needs a teacher that demands player growth

I love the fact that McCoy is viewed as a teacher with great understanding of his craft. NFL players today like to put up a front that they already know it all and don't need to be students of the game. A great coach doesn't buy into that nonsense. Even if a player is intelligent and understands the basics of the game that doesn't mean he understands everything vital aout the current X's and O's of the system that he is in. Being on the same page as a team (or even as an organization really) is a critical aspect of success at any level of play.

This past season, after having been on a 58 game winning streak my team at work went 6-4 (we even went 0-3 out the gate) before rolling on to 6 straight wins and the final game was for the league championship which we lost (we were hosed - had 2 TD's call back and denied an onside we clearly recovered in a close game). Anyhow, you'd think that at the HS level after 5 straight championships and undefeated seasons the kids and parents coming in would respect what you had done, and give you the benefit of the doubt that you might know what you are doing. Well, in all my 26 years coaching I had never had more doubters, more rude - loud mouthed parents, selfish intent on players and coaches, or immature me guys than I had this year. I also did a crappy job coaching them up compared to the job I usually do. I let all the negatives they brought in effect me and drain my energy doing non coaching things putting out fires and dealing with ignorant parents and players. I never had done less teaching than I did this year and frankly my assistants (all walk ons) didn't help out much either. It was simply an over-whelming job and apparantly I wasn't hungry enough to handle it after the former success I had had. Bottom line is kids come into High school and especially the older ones get to a point they don't think they need anymore teaching. Same with the pro's. I think that type of thinking always limits the potential of the player and team. Coaches, players, everyone involved needs to continue to learn and grow, especially the players and coaches in the scheme. I think one trait all the best players share is they continue to learn better ways to do things and to adjust to how others try to play you. It's an ongoing process you must master to be the best because there is always someone gunning for you when you are on top of things as a player or coach.

If McCoy is the young coach that can teach and understand, I can see him having a huge impact on our players. I liked Tony Sparano but I never felt we had a demanding teacher in him. I saw that trait in Shula (my all time favorite coach) and in Saban, both coaches demanded their players do it the right way, but they also made sure they followed up and held players accountable. Just teaching hard work is not enough -thats exactly what we got in Sparano. Hard work is only part of being a great player. We need a motivator and someone strong enough to do all the things needed to teach players and hold them accountable to learn the things we have to learn to not just make the pro's, but be a professional. Many of the problems the Dolphins franchise has gone through (inability to make routine plays, dumb penalties, play calling, lack of off season prep, obvious gametime confusion on responsibilites) are all things that have to be sorted out for us to be any better than what we have seen post-Marino. Highly paid WR's shouldn't be dropping a dozen touchdown catches in a competitive year. The OL shouldn't have rookies starting one year and off the roster the next season. Players should not be involved in all kinds of crazy drama in the off season year after year and then counted on as a key cog in the machine. These are all things we must correct if we are going to be a great franchise again. This franchise needs character and a bit of humble pie.

Our next head coach needs to come in and raise the bar in terms of what he expects from our players and front office. He needs to gain the respect of his players and like Harbaugh did in SF he needs to get his players behind him by saying and doing the right thing to build his team. There always comes a critical time to teach, a critial time to enforce, and a critical time to take risks. Our next HC needs to handle each of those types of situations correctly if he is going to turn us around. He may need to let some players go that we "think" we need. After he makes that decision, he'll need to replace those players with guys that will work in his system. Sparano was never able to do that, especially on the OL. I am convinced from what I have watched in our games that our players were often confused at critical times in games, that has to end. We need a teacher that can prepare our players for every scenerio and give them a scheme strong enough to handle anything that is thrown at us. The teaching will be critical in that process as will our players being the type of people that understand that there are still things they need to learn. Players that refuse to submit to that will never be guys we can win with in Miami. Say what you will about the Patriots, but Belichick brings in guys that submit themselves to his influence and teaching. Players will act like they don't want it or need it, but when they see that it upgrades their performance they buy-in quickly and become advocates of learning. Our next HC must bring in that culture to compete with the NFL.