The Ocho Word Press: "Todd Haley In; BA Out."

A friend of mine considers himself a budding sports writer and submitted a reponse article to my Todd Haley smashing. To avoid the impression that I try to supress criticism or critiques of my blog, I have decided to repost it, front and center.

AnonymousFeb 7, 2012 08:32 PM
Todd Haley In; BA Out.

I predicted the Steelers were firing BA when he was contemplating retiring to some friends at work before the whole story broke that he was fired. I also predicted on January 20, 2012 to a friend on facebook, that Todd Haley would be BA’s replacement before Haley was even interviewed for the job. I will take you though my thought process which made me believe the above was going to unravel before our very eyes.

As everyone knows in order for Todd Haley to be in, BA needed to be out, so I will start there.

To be brutally honest right out of the gate, BA should have never become the Steelers offensive coordinator. He should have just remained a position coach. I believe this to be true because of this past record as either a head coach or as a coordinator. Below is BA’s resume:

1975–1977 Virginia Tech
(graduate assistant)

1978–1980 Mississippi State
(running backs & wide receivers)

1981–1982 Alabama
(running backs coach)

1983–1988 Temple Owls
(head coach)

1989–1992 Kansas City Chiefs
(running backs coach)

1993-1995 Mississippi State (offensive coordinator)

1996 New Orleans Saints
(tight ends coach)

1997 Alabama (offensive coordinator)

1998–2000 Indianapolis Colts
(quarterbacks coach)

2001–2003 Cleveland Browns
(offensive coordinator)

2004–2006 Pittsburgh Steelers
(wide receivers coach)

2007–2011 Pittsburgh Steelers (offensive coordinator)

2012– Indianapolis Colts
(offensive coordinator)

Since I will believe BA should have never became anything greater than a positions coach I will focus on the horrible job he did as a coordinator and head coach.

Head coach of Temple
Record
1983 4-7
1984 6-5
1985 4-7
1986 0-11
1987 3-8
1988 4-7
Total 21-45 (I think this horrible record speaks for itself! Yikes!)


Offensive Coordinator of Mississippi State
Record

1993 3-6-2
1994 8-4
1995 3-8
Total 14-18-2 (I think this horrible record speaks for itself! Yikes!)

Offensive Coordinator of Alabama
Record

1997 4-7
Total 4-7 (I think this horrible record speaks for itself! Yikes!)


Offensive Coordinator of the Cleveland Browns

Record
2001 7-9
2002 9-7
2003 5-11

Total 21-27 (I think this horrible record speaks for itself! Yikes!)

Total Wins and Lose as a head coach or as an offensive coordinator before become the Steelers Offensive Coordinator; 60 Wins 99 loses and 2 ties (I think this horrible record speaks for itself! Yikes!)

Does this sound like someone you want to have been promoted to the Steelers offensive coordinator spot? No wonder the Steelers fired him, after having all the NFL’s best offensive tools at his disposal and only averaging 20 points a game this season with them. BA SHOULD HAVE NEVER EVEN BECOME AN OFFENSIVE CORRDINATOR of any NFL or College team!

Please stay turned, there is more of the story to follow…

The Feb 7 Story is a product of Ocho Word Press and is not necessary the thoughts and ideas of the owner of the blog.

From,

Ocho Word Press

Well, how can anyone argue with that!



With ease actually.

Some writers would point out that after his firing in 1988, the Temple Owls managed only a single winning season (the year after he left, with all the players he had recruited), for the next 21 years straight.

Others would try to argue that his role as OC at Mississippi and Alabama should be considered with historical context, to help explain why his failures as an OC were the downfall of the team.

Some may even go so far to point out that while Arians was dismissed from Cleveland after going 21-27 (43 winning %), the Browns have managed a 42-86 (32%) record since then.

All of those points are valid and factual, but I feel like there is more to a good coach than just his record.

For example, Arians was the first quarterbacks coach to work with Peyton Manning when he came into the NFL.




He did such a good job that the Browns hired him away in 2001 to be their new OC and to work with Tim Couch, hoping that he would be able to improve the league’s worst offense.



The Browns finished 31st (last), 23rd and 26th under Arians leadership. Unimpressive for sure, but considering that the Browns offensive rankings since then have been 28th, 26th, 31st, 8th (2007 - QB Derek Anderson), 31st, 32nd, 29th and 29th; I hesitate to place all the blame on Arians for the offensive struggles.

After Cleveland, Arians ended up in Pittsburgh as the wide receivers coach, and was promoted to OC after Ken Whisenhunt left for a HC job in Arizona. With 3 superbowl berths and two championships on his black and gold resume, he is now charged with bringing up Andrew Luck in Indianapolis; just like he did Peyton Manning a little over 10 years ago.



I have never been a big fan of Bruce Arians, but I did recognize his contributions to the Steelers organization. The Steelers have always been competitive and had such a good defense that a merely average offense was more than enough to win. If you average out the Steelers offensive rankings over the past eight years of his leadership, they place 14th on average. Not great, but better than average. The Steelers have been one of the better all-around teams in the league over the past decade, and Arian's contribution shouldn't be minimized.

While I prefer the "if it isn't broke, then don't fix it" management strategy, I can appreciate what the Rooney's were trying to do by giving Arians his walking papers.

Arians is a pass-happy coordinator and he gave Roethlisberger a lot of leeway to improvise and change the play at the line of scrimmage. The end result was plenty of winning, but at a cost; Ben takes an average of 40 sacks a year (2.5 per game). This is a poor formula for extending the career of one of the most beat-up quarterbacks in the league.



Ben may be only 29 years old, but the laundry list of injuries he has sustained is staggering: He had a major knee injury in 2005, a fractured face from a motorcycle accident in 2006, an emergency appendectomy in 2006, a concussion in 2006, shoulder injuries in 2007, shoulder injuries and a concussion in 2008, multiple concussions in 2009, chest injuries in 2010 and various foot injuries in recent years. Ben signed his $102m contract just 4 years ago and he has over 47m left on it, and he already cannot make it through a full 16 games without breaking down. As his durability continues to fade, the Rooneys are trying to take precautions to keep him healthy and protect their investment.



Keeping Arians wouldn't achieve that. Arians has won, knows what it takes to win, and has made it perfectly clear that a balanced offense is their best chance at winning. The Rooneys, on the other hand, want to return to a run heavy attack despite having a bad offensive line...and an injured starting running back...and poor running back depth...and no fullback. There was absolutely no precedent for the Rooneys to march into Arian’s office and demand a sudden a change in offensive philosophy. But what if they had a new OC, one that they could wield more power over, someone like running backs coach Kirby Wilson?



Where I believe they mis-stepped was by cutting ties with Arians before ascertaining that Wilson would be healthy enough to replace him for the 2012 season. They could have simply kept Arians for one more season and avoided potentially upsetting the apple-cart by bringing in a new OC. Arians is on record saying that he wanted to retire soon and hoped to finish out his career in Pittsburgh. Instead, he was forced into retirement by the Rooneys...for about a week until the Colts hired him as their new OC.

Whether or not Pittsburgh will miss Arians is no longer the real question. The real question is whether or not Todd Haley can improve what Arians has helped build. Arians has always been criticized by fans for being too predictable and scripted in his play calling. While Haley should be neither, I am uncertain that he, or his newly provided offensive philosophy, will equate to a better offense.