“Chargers-Best Opening-Worst Situation”

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Ever heard of 3-Mile Island?

Nuclear power plant that broke down, leaked radiation in Western Pennsylvania in the 1970s.

There are times when NFL coaching jobs come open, the places resemble 3-Mile Island.

There are 6-NFL coaching openings as of this morning in the league.

The Chargers have the best job available, and it’s not because I am talking about the Hotel Del, Balboa Park nor the weather.

Whomever walks in the door in a couple of weeks as head coach, inherits Philip Rivers as quarterback-leader. He will inherit a group of young-diverse wide receivers, and a stud running back. There is a Hall of Famer tight end and a good young one too.He will have a superb pass rusher, a couple of pretty good linebackers, and a collection of DBs who are pretty good.

Yes there are problems, an overpaid-underachieving, oft-injured offensive line, and a team with a Stadium problem, fan support issues, and a tough division..

But there are two pretty high draft picks coming (7-39), there will be some salary cap space.

In Denver, they have great leadership in John Elway, who may be a bit pushy as a GM.

But the Broncos have no run game, and young and struggling offensive line, a high priced wideout, who doesn’t show up every Sunday.

They have a fierce pass rusher, but now age and injury across a chunk of that defense.

And they don’t have a proven winner at quarterback.

Jacksonville is a mess. The incoming coach has a quarterback killer in Blake Bortels who piles up great stats in garbage time, but does not win. Not much of a run game, less of a pass catching group.

Some semblance of defensive talent. But they were (14-48) and got the last guy fired.

The Rams job is fraught with issues..LA has one of the worst offensive lines in football. They cannot block for a great running back, and have to block while the raw rookie quarterback, Jared Goff, goes thru a learning curve.

The defense plays hard, but is asked to play too much, and because of salary cap issues, they’ve let veterans go.

The GM is in place, but they have not made the playoffs in 12-years.

In Buffalo, the bluster of ex coach Rex Ryan was almost as bad as the wind blowing off the lake.

But there the issues revolve around the lack of a quarterback, not much of a receiver group, and a defense that is showing lots of miles to it.

San Francisco is dysfunction-junction. Does the owner know what he’s doing? Does the team President know what he’s doing? There is no GM now, and the coach Chip Kelly failed.

Three head coaches in three years? What does that tell you about leadership.

The 49ers have little talent on the roster, and what talent there is, QB-Colin Kaperneck. is no longer what he was when he first came in, a dynamic playmaker.

No the Chargers have the best job opening there is. Of course I said that in 2013, when they landed Mike McCoy, who missed his mark, and is now gone.

My biggest fear, time is running out on Rivers’ clock, or he gets hurt. If he ever goes down, then San Diego becomes Buffalo, without the cold and snow, or Jacksonville, without the heat and humidity.

Some of these NFL coaching openings are indeed like 3-Mile Island, nothing left, no one around.

The only negative in San Diego is the toxic relationship the Spanos family has created with governmental leadership and its own fans.

Get the right coach in here, and win, you can then don Hazmat suits and clean up the ill-will spillage with the fans and the civic leaders.

San Diego doesn’t have to be a 3-Mile Island spot on the NFL map.
America’s Finest City probably offers America’s best coaching opportunity.

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“Chargers-Fact-vs-Fiction”

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It was fascinating to listen to the rhetoric, the cliches, the philosophies handed down by Chargers President John Spanos and VP-and-GM Tom Telesco, 18-hours after the team blew out Coach Mike McCoy.

Give them credit for standing in line to take some pretty heated questions from the media.

But then again, some of their answers were weak and lame, much like their (5-11) football team.

Telesco admitted he made mistakes in roster talent acqusitions. He stopped short of saying he made a mistake in the hiring of McCoy in 2013.

I felt McCoy was the best hire the year the job opened, but no one could forsee that McCoy would reach a plateau as a coach, and never improve. No one could read that he lacked creative skills, was too conservative, and not very friendly, more reclusive.

Telesco has his way of doing things, and only time will tell if the players he has drafted can grow on the job, and stay healthy. And who knows now what becomes of the offensive line, where his team lavished some 80M in salaries and bonuses on a package of people stretching from the oft-injured King Dunlop to the grossly overpaid Joe Barksdale.

But at least Telesco is blunt honest about opinions and people.

Spanos must have taken notes from McCoy on dealing with the media.

Every sentence was riddled with a cliche, spewing some philosophy. He never stepped up and took blame for any mistakes in the operation of the team.

He couldn’t bring himself to say the franchise was in disarray.

I asked about what was in his heart when he sat in the owner’s box the last two home games, and saw the crowds overwhelm the stadium wearing Silver and Black or Chiefs Red.

He mumbled something about the Chargers being used to winning, not so recently, and it made me feel he must have gone outside the building to gaze at all the banners of past accomplishments, that hang off the Fortress. You know the ones that say AFC-West champion, or playoff participant.

I came away less and less impressed with his bland style, and not wowed by whatever he was saying that came off page 55 in his book of corporate philosophy.

He looks overwhelmed with the job, the job his Dad gave him, with very little qualifications.

Viewing him in the same light as people who used to be in that building, and had success, like AJ Smith and Bobby Beathard, is like comparing the weather at the North Pole and the Equator. They were qualified and earned their job. The kid was given his job.

But it’s onward and upward now. Bring on the interviews with all these candidates, with the hope they don’t screw this up.

Of the 6-NFL jobs now open, San Diego has the best to offer. Philip Rivers and a host of skill people.

Would you rather be in Buffalo, not talking snow, nor Jacksonville, or with the Rams or 49ers, with few players, and a paralytic quarterback situation?

Guess I’m rooting for Telesco to fix this mess, and I do think they can.

Guess I’m wondering if Dad (Dean) really believes son (John) can become an elite executive.

The Chargers are dealing with a bunch of fact, bad team, budget issues, lagging attendance, crumbling stadium.

The Chargers are dealing too with some fiction, they’re close, and they can make this team elite before the quarterback leaves and retires.

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“Chargers-Searching for Winner-For This Loser”

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Mike McCoy will be alright going forward.

The Chargers blew out their 4-year head coach after back to back disastrous seasons.

Part of me felt bad for him. Part of me thought he was delusional. Part of me thought he was disingenous. Part of me thought he was a bright light. Part of me thought he was not a winner.

The Chargers finished up the season with a typical loss. Score early, watch your quarterback throw interceptions, and wait around for the special teams unit to screw up.

It happened yesterday, just like it happened so many other times before.

In the end, McCoy never had a chance to show us how good he could be, because he had a better team on the NFL injured reserve list than he had on the field. But then again, everybody gets players hurt Sunday-by-Sunday.

McCoy lost me early in his tenure. He continually lied to the media about the extent of injuries, even when the truth would not have impacted competitive balance in upcoming games.

He lost me when at 12 noon a year ago today, he praised his assistant coaching staff for working thru the horrors of a (4-12) season. Three hours later, the club put out a gutless press release, firing 7-assistants. Scape goats.

He threw them overboard to save his job, got an extension he did not deserve, now he walks the plank too.

The numbers are staggering in San Diego.

Philip Rivers has 1-playoff win in 10-years. McCoy’s teams had 24-losses by 8-points or less. There were 12-blown fourth quarter leads in the last year and a half.

At home they were (6-12) the last year and a half. They were (10-26) over the last two and a half years. He was (1-13) vs the AFC-West since the middle of the 2014 schedule.

The bigger story, the team never improved as the seasons went on. Yes Andy Reid has had some horrible losses in Kansas City, so has Mike Tomlin in Pittsburgh, but by the end of the season, those teams normally win. Not here, not ever under McCoy’s reign.

It would be easy to pile on, that he continue to make stupid statements Monday after Monday to the media. He was borderline dishonest in dealing with a media doing its job.

In the end though, he was not cut from the same cloth as others to be a head coach. Mike McCoy was no different than Norv Turner, good at one thing, being a coordinator, bad at the other, being a head coach.

Nothing to be ashamed off. Lots of coaches are better being coordinators than attempting the head coaching route. Sadly, San Diego learned again that this was as bad as Kevin Gilbride’s or Dan Henning’s hire.

But he still has his resume and portfolio

He should resurface quickly as somebody’s else’s right hand man. Maybe in Denver if they sort the staff situation out after Gary Kubiak’s decision to step down.

Maybe re-linking with John Fox in Chicago, where they need lots of creative offensive help.

Maybe in Carolina with Ron Rivera. Maybe in Baltimore, where they’ve blown out 5-offensive coordinators in as many years. Maybe with the wreckage that is the Rams.

I forever remember what he accomplished the crisis time in Denver when he had to play and get Tim Tebow ready.

He walks away I am sure hurt, maybe even angry. But he walks away with a buyout from a contract that would have paid him around 4.5M next season.

No one knows what happens to the 20-assistants on the staff. John Pagano has been here 15-years as a key assistant. Ollie Wilson, some 14-seasons.

The Chargers? Team Spanos doesn’t have much of a track record doing anything right. This should be Tom Telesco’s hire, no one else’s, but then again Telesco hired McCoy in the first place.

Back in 2013, I said McCoy was the best hire out there, and he was walking into the best situation around, with Rivers and a bunch of skill players. But it deteriorated under his reign.

Dean Spanos has made so many mistakes, from football to business and in between, you wonder if he can get anything right? Under his leadership, the Chargers removed Bobby Ross and Marty Schottenheimer. That’s some history isn’t it.

Hoping for better days for Mike McCoy. Wish it would have worked out. Wish he could have made friends in the media, but the culture in the building at Chargers Park, the Fortress, won’t allow that. No one will give them the benefit of doubt when times get tough.

And in the end, coaches get hired to be fired in almost all cases. Looking for a winner to turn around this loser of a franchise..

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Great Coach-Greater Man-Great Loss”

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College football is mourning this morning, saying good bye to a gentleman, a great coach, but maybe a greater person.

LaVell Edwards has passed away at age (86) in Provo,Utah. He fell on Christmas Eve at home, breaking his hip. He developled complications and passed less than a week later.

He was not with Brigham Young here in town during their Holiday Bowl victory over Wyoming, a first, for a man who always in traveled with the Cougars, even in retirement.

There’s an empty feeling lots of places, when we got news last night of his passing.

Edwards was the architect of the great offenses at Brigham Young.

Yes, Virgil Carter might have been the first big thrower in Provo, but when they promoted Edwards to head coach, he took Cougars football to a level never ever thought possible.

He developed an assembly line of quarterbacks. Some were systems guys, robots making plays. Other’s were mechanical nightmares who grew on the job. Some were just born leaders and grinders, not necessarily loaded with talent.

But there’s no doubt about the greatness of what they ran at BYU.

It started with the tall and lanky Gifford Neilsen, who put up some nice numbers in the early years.

Then came the first of the big numbers guys, Marc Wilson, a prototype big NFL made quarterback.

From Jim McMahon, free spirit and street hustler, came fire and brimstone, spit and grime..

There was Steve Young, who was learning how to throw after having been more run than pass, when he first got to Brigham Young.

The born passers then arrived, from Robbie Bosco to Ty Detmer, systems guys who knew where to go with the ball, and how to read progressions.

Steve Sarkisian was the last of the bunch, who did good things for the two years he was there after coming out of the JUCO ranks.

Brigham Young rose in the rankings, and capped it off, not with just record shattering passing record seasons, but an unbeaten season and a national championship.

They came knocking on LaVell Edwards door. Would have want to go to the NFL? Would what he ran at BYU, work in the NFL? He was courted multiple times by the Eagles and also the Steelers.

He said thanks, no thanks, and stayed loyal to his mission, to work with players coming off Mormon missions.

He built that stadium in Provo, brick-by-brick, touchdown pass-by-touchdown pass. When his life’s work was done on the sidelines, he became a fund raiser at Brigham Young. He was stern believer in discipline, leadership, and working with faith.

He had a (257-101-3) record. There were 22-bowl appearances in 29-years. There were 27-years without a losing record. There were 20-conference titles. He helped put the Holiday Bowl on the map.

And to top it off, so many of his assistants wound up as head coaches, in the NFL and in college, from Mike Holmgren, to Andy Reid, to Ted Tollner.

LaVell Edwards was kind, gentle, simple and smart. He was classy to deal with. The epitome of what a good man is all about.

Not bad for a defensive coordinator in college, who became a head coach, and built brilliant offenses.

Great coach.. Greater man.

There is sorrow in every corner of college football this morning, but thanks that the man crossed our paths.

“What’s a Coach to Do?”

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It’s the final weekend of the NFL season, and the division winners and wildcard teams are about to head to the postseason.

Sunday has a couple of meaningful games, especially that NFC-North showdown between the Packers and Lions with first place at stake for the winner, and the loser becoming a wildcard team and having to play next week.

And of course, the AFC-West’s final go round becomes important, because the Raiders, who have lost QB-Derek Carr, will entrust the offense to backup Matt McGloin, when they close out against Denver. Kansas City meanwhile can win the West, with a Raiders loss and if KC takes care of business and beats down the beaten up Chargers.

But there are questions to be answered other places.

Dallas has clinched home field advantage for all NFC playoff games. Sunday is meaningless to them. They want to get thru it healthy. What do they do with their two rookie of the year candidates, quarterback Dak Prescott and running back Ezekiel Elliot when they take the field in Philadelphia?

Play them to pile up stats at the risk, what if they got hurt? Then Dallas has to answer the other quarterback question, who plays if Prescott doesn’t?

Do you risk playing Tony Romo, who has been a faithful backup since coming back from the stress fracture treatments for his back. Do you get him ready for post-season as an insurance policy it something were to happen to Prescott in a playoff game?

But are you taking a chance on Romo playing and getting hurt this weekend, and wiping out his market value, if you wanted to trade him in the offseason? Mark Sanchez is the third QB and could obviously start, in what has been a throw-away season for him.

You can use the same logic in posing the questions about Tom Brady and New England, as they go to Miami. He’s gotten them to (13-2), so you want him ready to start the second season, as they chase another Super Bowl trophy.

And ditto for Eli Manning and the Giants, who have locked it all down, but must play Washington.

And the idea of exposing Russell Wilson when Seattle plays San Francisco becomes a hot topic of debate in the Northwest.

Pittsburgh doesn’t care what anyone thinks. They are resting Ben Roethlisberger, Antonio Brown and Le’Veon Bell for the opening day of post season play. They won’t take part in the annual grudge game with Cleveland.

Tough call for the NFL too. Fans are still paying good money, and will ask whether they deserve to see the starters, not the scrubs, the final weekend of the season.

What’s a coach to do on this coming weekend of games?

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