I think it's more than silly that the Texans who have hired more black coaches in their entire existence than half the league is taking ANY heat for this over those other organizations. It's extremely insulting to just assume every black person hired is a minority hire, that kind of thinking is also part of the problem. All these guys want is the opportunity and that's what Lovie is getting. It's not realistic to assume they'd get good jobs, most empty jobs are empty for a reason. It's not like KC is about to fire their coach. It's not even a token interview because he was already hired by the Texans, already in the building, per se. They already knew what Lovie was about and yes likely just had to have the interview to have it but if you look back at things its clear they really liked Lovie and wanted to keep him around. It's not some wild stretch to believe that they were hesitant to pull the trigger on some of these other guys and thought Lovie was a safe pick moving forward. Everyone talks about how it's not really racism leading these decisions but about how these white coaches just have more connections and thus get picked because most teams already have a feeling who they want to hire...well...Lovie had connections with the organization and that's who they settled on. This isn't to say the landscape around the league didn't play at all into it, I'm sure it was a bonus, but to make it seem like it was the only reason or as some have suggested, came down from the league, it's just not fair to Lovie and I think the assumption that a black person got a job because of affirmative action isn't helping the situation. Hell, if they were REALLY wanting to just use a black coach to make the NFL happy why not hire anyone else and get draft compensation for it on top of it and you still keep Lovie on as DC? Seems that would be the easy move to make, after all, it's just a place holder, right? Why not collect another asset for your place holder...or could it be they actually like Lovie and want to give him the opportunity to coach the team?
You guys make this into way too big of a deal. The real "figurehead" or "puppet coach" test is who hires the staff. Lovie is hiring his own people. This isn't some puppet job where Nick is really running things.
No, the real test is if you post it in bold. Since you opted not to bold any text, I’m not sure if what you say can be true.
It’s not fair. But it is the landscape. These are not great jobs… nor were Cully or Lovie a candidate for it at the get go (and certainly were not candidates elsewhere). And it doesn’t stop even if black head coaches have some success… as teams move on if there’s the slightest bit of turmoil or the team underachieves. The only way real change likely happens is if/when the demographic of the owners change. That is one of the main issues with the league.
The Texans were the ones that announced their finalists and didn't include Lovie. If they were even considering him, they would have listed him in the group. No one needs to make any assumptions - the Texans TOLD us who they interviewed and who they were deciding between. The Texans don't get draft compensation for hiring a black coach - the team that lost them gets the draft picks. When the Texans hired Culley, Baltimore got picks. The idea is to encourage teams to give minorities an opportunity at the assistant levels and then be rewarded if they develop them into head-coach-material.
Um...No. Patriots don't have a DC. Some teams have an OC in name only because the HC calls the plays (that is one of Eric Bieniemy's issues in KC). Sean McVay in LA.
Surprised they don't make Josh McCown the DC, I mean he is just as qualified to be DC as he is to be the head coach, and that didn't stop them from almost hiring him.
I've seen this sentiment a few times so far, serious question; what's wrong with this? Why is it that big of a deal that Lovie isn't bringing in a Defensive Coordinator? With the continuity of Pep there on the offensive side, he'll probably never have anything to do with offense other than spectating and periodically calling timeouts. I'm not criticizing this opinion, I just don't understand what makes this such a "questionable decision?"
I understand, but considering the various issues that the Texans and Lovie have had over the last few coaching stops and hires, it would behoove them both to divide up these duties. I am a firm believer that football coaches get into trouble when they take on too much. An HC should be a CEO, and set a vision and a plan. Then they select people to help implement, tweaking where appropriate. You get a guy who wants to do everything and he will accomplish nothing. Also, Belichek historically has had DCs. Remember Romeo Crennel? Or, Matt Patricia?
It’s like they go out of their way to be contrarian in every single thing that they do. Every. Single. Thing. Teams have designated coordinators for a reason. There’s a reason why those jobs exist. It’s like when they made O’Brien head coach and GM at the same time. How did that work out? I’m probably overly pessimistic when it comes to the Texans organization, but for good reason. They’ve cornered the market on stupid lately, and this feels like yet another bad idea. The head coach has enough on his plate, he doesn’t need to assume additional roles. Plus, it can lead to one man having way too much power, and we’ve all seen how badly that can go.
I would think you'd want a DC for the same reason Sean McVay or Kyle Shanahan or Andy Reid have OC's. As a DC, all of Lovie's time during the week was focused on defense. As HC, that won't be the case. You want an extra set of eyes and ears on the defense and you want someone who's only job is to focus on that to bounce ideas off of, etc. The better question to ask is why *wouldn't* you want to have a DC? Generally speaking, if 31 teams do things one way, and the Texans are the 32nd team, the Texans are probably the ones doing it wrong.
Mistake. Lovie is not going to have time to oversee the day to day operations and be the DC. He needs a designated guy to get things organized defensively on a day to day basis and let Lovie give the final sign off on game plans and play calling. Cmon Texans
People get a little too wrapped up in "titles"... they can still have somebody who helps with the day to day organization on the defense and not have to pay them the going rate for a "coordinator". Chances are Lovie Smith wasn't doing every single thing for the defense last year as is. Some coordinators let their position coaches do the micro-managing and they're in the ivory (ebony?) tower overseeing everything. Some take a more hands on approach. Its also why some coordinators that are delegating and overseeing may translate better to head coaches... vs. the ones who are micro-managing and knee-deep in their side of the ball, and then it become much harder to do that when you have a lot more responsibility under you.
