My first reaction, naturally, was “Who?”. They let Whisenhunt get away and passed on Grimm in favor of a no-name coach. And the truth is that I still don’t know anything about Timlin except that he was with Minnesota last year, which is not something that makes me overly enthusiastic.
However, it is important to note that the last two coaches the Steelers hired had no experience either, and they did, shall we say, a pretty good job. Also, Chuck Noll won all of 1 game in 1969. Cowher did better and made the playoffs, but he had a better starting nucleus. So Timlin has the potential to do great things, being only 2 seasons removed from a Super Bowl championship and having the stars of that team almost completely intact. Hell, they almost made the playoffs this year.
Any thoughts on the hire? Insights? How about comments on the other coaching changes, like the Tuna punking out yesterday (hahaha Cowboys, he screwed you good!)?
No insights that aren’t already out there. We’re pretty happy with the decision in my house. Tomlin is from the “Dungy coaching tree,” like Lovie Smith and Herm Edwards, and for some reason I find that strangely thrilling. Those guys all seem to know what they’re doing – I trust Tomlin does, too. The Rooneys don’t mess around when it comes to picking coaches, so I can’t really help but be very optimistic. I don’t expect miracles, but I will gladly accept them.
Also, Tomlin is pretty hot. As ESPN.com’s Page 2 pointed out today, Tomlin looks like Omar Epps. So, I have swapped a coach who looks like my Daddy for … someone who could be my daddy, if he wanted. (Of course, none of this really worth mentioning, but there ya go.)
You might be interested in reading this column from Sunday by Minnesota Star Tribune writer Jim Souhan.
He basically says that the Vikings should have hired him as head coach (thanks to John Steigerwald for the scoop).
I think the Rooneys wanted Grimm or Whisenhunt but were wowed with Tomlin’s interview. I’m a little disturbed by this idea that they offered the job to Grimm and changed their minds (Mike Priscutta was still standing by his story this morning on WDVE that, at least, Grimm’s people belive that he was offered the job) which I don’t think is possible, but I don’t like seeing bad blood from former coaches.
Outside of PA, everyone else’s initial reaction was “Who cares?”
Take it to stillers.com. You don’t see Raiders, Cardinals and Dolphins fans in here blabbing about their new coach as if it actually mattered outside their little world of fandom.
Wow, that’s a pretty, um… intemperate response there, Trunk. Why shouldn’t people talk here about the new Steelers coach? I’m reading the thread, and I have no better connection to Pennsylvania than the last bottle of Rolling Rock I drank.
Pittsburgh was eliminated in mid december, but apparently because they won 4 superbowls in the 70’s the entire rest of the world is supposed to discuss what Big Ben had for dinner on the weekend that actual football was being played between good teams.
The defensive scheme in Minnesota this year was to stop the run at all costs. This worked well (until week 17) as far as that went, but they did poorly against the pass. It’s hard to say how much of that was Tomlin’s fault, but they did seem to leave themselves open to passing teams as a result of the scheme.
He made a pretty good impression in Minnesota this year, at least for a while. Our perenneially crappy defense became respectable for once. They were the best in the NFL against the run, but kind of got exposed against the pass (noteably by Tom Brady in a Monday night game), and they sort of fell out of contention after that.
Supposedly, Tomlin has a strong personal presence and is highly regarded by his players. Whether one year as a D Coordinator is enough to judge him as the right choice to coach the Steelers is an open question. Apparently he comes across very well “in the room” and impressed the Steelers with his interviews.
I’d be surprised if his timing wasn’t a direct response to Jones for his hiring T.O. Regardless of his intent though it’s the fans that’ll suffer since many of the top flight coaches are already gone. All that’s left are the likes of Cowher. Ugh. This’ll be magnified when whoever is hired then tries to assemble a staff.
Can’t say I blame Parcells one bit though. Jerks don’t come any bigger than Jerry Jones. Those of you that have reasonable, principaled ownership like Hunt, Rooney, Tisch, Mara, McNair… thank your lucky stars.
Actually, the Steelers have a considerable fanbase, mainly people that took it with them when the city declined. Besides, if you had troubled yourself to notice, I opened up the floor to all teams, all fans, and all discussions related to the coaching changes in the offseason.
Who gives a shit, Doors? If you want to talk about the Steelers on the SDMB, then, by god, talk about the Steelers. Everyone needs to take notice that you posted an OP on the Steelers and got reponses from interested Dopers. Hell, I opened this thread just because it’s about the Steelers’ new coach, and I’m a Chargers fan.
There’s always someone who wants to shit in sports threads - in fact, there’s always some who does shit in sports threads. But you don’t have to justify yourself or your thread or even engage with those people. And that’s coming from someone who generally likes Trunk’s posts and finds them interesting.
It’s just too bad we can’t get the edit function for other people’s posts.
Tomlin has “it” what ever “it” is. I like the fact LeBeau will be back as Def Co. Arians being promoted to Off Co. is good smart as well. I think the steeler D is going to get real damn scary.
I also like Whisenhunt, Grimm, and Spencer. Moving out of SteelerLand and heading to the desert.
I think my Cards are finally on the right track. Denny was able to draft and bring in talent. Now, Whisenhunt and crew will finally get things on track.
I’m a little worried about the hire, but hopeful. Worried because the resume isn’t long at all; hopeful because as **Doors ** says, the Rooneys have a good track record with coaching hires (of course they haven’t had to make too many of them).
I will say that I’m disappointed that they didn’t interview Kirk Ferentz from Iowa. I think he’s an awesome coach who could translate to the NFL very easily (though I have nothing to back this up with at all )
Tomlin also thinks quickly on his feet, cornerback Fred Smoot says.
'I could ask questions last year, and they’d have to go and talkabout it; you ask (Tomlin) a question, and he’ll answer it like that,'Smoot says, snapping his fingers. ‘He’s always one step ahead. And ifyou’re always one step ahead of your players, your players will seethat, and they respect that because they know you’re working as hard inthe office as they are on the field.’
also–
The year before Tomlin took over, the Vikings allowed 1700 rushing yards. The next year, they became the 2nd best defense against the run in the entire Super Bowl era (to Balt of 2000). They allowed a ton of passing yards because teams HAD to throw the ball. Look at the other defensive passing stats:
5th in NFL in defensive passer rating
5th in INTs
4th in passing TDs allowed
Allowed under 7 yds per attempt.
Does anyone believe the Vikings are more talented on defense that the Steelers? I’m intrigued by the idea of Tomlin and Lebeau creating havok together.
If Cowher stabs the Rooneys (and us Steeler fans)in the back like that he’d better never show his face in Pittsburgh again. If ever there was a case for PNGing someone, that would be it.
Persona non grata. Latin for “unwelcome”, it’s generally used when a person is thrown out of a country. Here it would be Cowher being unwelcome in Pittsburgh if he took the Dallas job after showing no loyalty to the Rooneys, who are nothing if not loyal, almost to a fault.
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