The Dolphins Make Me Cry.com - Forums

  Do you like Coach Saban's one voice policy?


Posted on Thu, Jan. 26, 2006

One-voice policy cheats all the fans by Greg Cote, Miami Herald

     Nick Saban's Dolphins coaching staff numbered 24 at last count, although it might have expanded to 26 in the time it took you to finish this sentence. I believe the only opening left is for Special Aide to the Senior Executive Assistant to the Associate Long-Snappers Coach.
Latest census figures indicate the Dolphins staff trails only China in percentile population growth. The team's coach-to-player ratio is now approximately 1:2, and greater at some positions. The defensive staff, for example, features a Choreographer of Left Cornerback Subterfuge, instructing in the art of drawing offensive pass interference flags. Among receivers coaches, there are separate route-running specialists for zigging left and feigning right.

  The only thing the NFL's largest staff (by far) has in common is that every assistant on it is a mime. Mum. As quiet off the field as Trappist monks.

  Saban's ''one voice'' policy does not allow assistants to do TV interviews, appear on the radio or be quoted in newspapers. Nada. Zip. The assistants are permitted to address their wives and kids within their private domiciles, but only in monosyllables.


CHEATING FANS
  I don't buy the policy hinders careers. We never heard offensive coordinator Scott Linehan's voice his entire season here -- for all we knew he had a Scottish brogue -- but it didn't stop him being hired as the St. Louis Rams' head coach.
The harm in the policy (beyond the silliness of treating adults like children who can't be trusted with what they might say) is that it cheats fans.

  The Dolphins are a publicly held company in a very real sense. Fans invest their money, time and hearts.
Fans want to hear new offensive coordinator Mike Mularkey share his thoughts and basic tenets.
Fans want to hear new defensive majordomo Dom Capers describe his role.

  Saban brings two 2005 head coaches onto his staff and neither gets even the perfunctory courtesy of an introductory news conference? You hire two guys who have served a combined 19 NFL seasons at the head coach or coordinator level, but they can't speak for themselves? Weird. Wrong.
Instead, we are left with Saban's homogenized generalities about ''continuity'' despite the changes. Not to say Mularkey or Capers would be scintillatingly forthcoming or illuminatingly detailed. Be nice to find out, though. As defrocked head coaches, both are accustomed to a lectern and microphone, to speaking their minds.

  In their void we are left to surmise.
Saban said Wednesday that Miami will run the same offensive system (presumably with a Mularkey wrinkle or twitch here or there).

 This was good news, and not so surprising. Saban likes unpredictability, big plays. Mularkey -- when he has had the weapons -- has displayed similar aggressive tendencies. Don't think Buffalo the past two years. Think Pittsburgh, before that, when Mularkey deployed Kordell Stewart as a one-man gadget play.

  Miami's offense suits its personnel. An overemphasis on the ground game would lay bare this offensive line's weaknesses in ways more easily disguised by the pass.
Questions to be answered, though: How does Mularkey feel about maybe adding Terrell Owens? Does he favor a veteran upgrade at quarterback or will he push for a trade up and Jay Cutler? Or does he believe Gus Frerotte is good enough for another year and that the draft should target a blocker?

STAYING VAGUE
  Defensively, too, Saban is preaching continuity, which seems even more likely on this side of the ball than on offense.
Capers is a believer in the 3-4 defensive scheme that Saban installed this past season. But what will be Capers' input? His real purpose here?

  He signs on as a ''special assistant'' to Saban. It is one of those vaguely ceremonial titles that coaches sometimes give to their former mentors who are 83 but still want to shuffle papers and wear a whistle.

  Capers won't be that. Surely he is the de-facto new defensive coordinator, which is why current d.c. Richard Smith is outbound. Capers is too good and too respected a defensive mind to be wasted in a distant, advisory role.
Meantime it sure would be nice to hear Capers and Mularkey describe their plans and what about the Dolphins excites them.

Heck, at this point I'd settle for no comment.

I don't mind this at all.  It keeps the fans guessing, but really...who gives a crap.  All I want is on-field success.

Wins..that is the bottom line.  Cheated is a bit strong. The press gives Saban a hard time because in doing this he makes their job more difficult.

I didn't even notice that no one else was speaking to the media last year, once mini camp started.

word....but that's because we're not in the local market and being bombarded wiht fins news everytime theres a sports segment on the local news....

That is nothing but a reporter issue & he is using the fans in hopes to stir it up.

Fans as a whole do not care.

How many coordinators do you ever see on ESPN, read quotes from, etc. I hate when writers try to make non-issues a story.

The media is pissed cause they can't get the inside scoop on Saban to try to stir the pot.

This article, Greg Cote, is exactly why the staff is as they are.  To prevent people like you from doing what you'd normally be doing instead of bitching about the staff.

The fans don't feel cheated, you do.  You're not a fan, you're a jaded columnist with no sources for soundbites to twist out of context.

I couldn't have said it better myself. I know I really don't give a shit if I hear from all of these other coaches or not.

I just faxed my resume over to Nick...and believe I am uniquely qualified for this position! Yeah, baby...just let me get my foot in THAT door, and then watch for me to be named the 49ers OC sometime around 2011.  ;D

Could not agree more.  I read the article this morning, all the while thinking "bullsh*t bullsh*t bullsh*t"

This is baloney.  Keep in mind that during the Wanny years, not all the assistants were on the same page.  This is Saban's way of keeping things under control.