THE Redskins

How cool I am! I had my first request to write on a specific topic! (Thanks Althea!) In case you don't know, I am Redskins fan. (If you don't know that... who are you and where have you been?!?) This year was a rough year for us Redskins fans. We lost Sean Taylor, who was tragically killed in his home. We lost in the first round of the playoffs and at the end of the season, Coach Gibbs decided it was time for him to retire (again). I can only imagine that this was an extremely difficult season for him and the entire team.

So began the hurt for a new head coach. The topic canidate in my mind was Gregg Williams. He had done a fantastic job with the defense and had the support of the players who immediately came out after Gibbs retirement and supported him for the job. He also showed an extreme amount of class when he sent only 10 players out on the field for the first defensive play after Taylor was killed. (Nevermind the small fact that he forgot to tell Gibbs he was going to do that.)

To make a long story a little shorter, not only did Williams not get the job he got fired! At this point all I can think is WTH! All sorts of canidates start flying around, including Bill Cowher and many others. Snyder interviewed a variety of canidates, including several former head coaches. He waited until after the super bowl to interview a coach from the Giants. After all this he promotes Jim Zorn to head coach. Zorn had been hired as the offensive coordinator only a few weeks prior. Wow.. that came out of left field.

To give you a feeling of the pain Redskins fans have had to endure: This is our 5th head coach since Snyder bought the team. I guess we should be glad that he didn't spend 25 million for a five year contract on an unproven head coach (please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spurrier for more information).

So how do I feel about the new coaching staff? Well, I'm glad Bugel is still on the staff and it was nice to hear Zorn say he wasn't going to mess with the running game at his initial press conference. And Zorn.... well to quote Althea "We will see." Our track record with first time head coaches isn't exactly stellar. Spurrier and Norv Turner immediately come to mind. I mean, Zorn has a good track record as the quarterbacks coach for the Seahawks, but is that going to translate into a good head coach? Seattle's program has produced several good head coaches but is Zorn the next great one? Zorn has one familiar face on the coaching staff as Stump Mitchell was announced as the Running Backs coach. He has a good track record, having worked with Shawn Alexander and Ricky Watters. In his press conference he talked about relying on the people around him, so hopefully the rest of the coaching stuff will help guide him to a successful first season. I wish we would have kept Gregg Williams, but Blanche should be an easy transition since he has been working with the defensive line unit. After so many of the players came out and supported Williams it will be interesting to see what their reaction is to Zorn.

This guy rambles a bit, but he brings up some good points if you have a little more than three minutes to spare.



My final thought... I am hopefully optimisic that next season will be a good one. Zorn, are you the man to take my 'Skins back to the Super Bowl? "We will see".