Spags wants his old job back as Giants DC and gets it

[HE WITH HORNS]

It was hard to hate Spags. He seemed like a nice respectable guy. It was Vanillahan that I wanted to punch in the face.

 

[RamFan503]

Good for him

This^^^

 

[Warner4Prez]

I'm not sure why, but I really liked Spags and to this day I still think the dude could have put a winner together. I feel 2011 was an aberration and that 2010 was the more in line with what they were doing.

Either way. This morning they talked about this hire on the local sports talk radio out of Minneapolis. Ben Leber is a frequent guest host on the show and he gave his two cents.

Essentially, Spags is one of the nicest and most respectful coaches he's played for. However, his defense had a penchant for trying to achieve the 'perfect play' on every down. He said players from NY told him they won games despite Spags' play calling. And when Leber arrived to STL there were guys here coming into their 3rd year in the system that still admittedly didn't know assignments and calls.

He said after he left STL that season and Spags went on to New Orleans, players were texting him for clarification on things 8 weeks into the season. The attention to detail and over thinking were painful.

I had no idea the extent of the scheme so this was all news to me. It also helps explain why rookies couldn't make the field under Spags, which was something that frustrated the hell out of me.

Anyway, just thought I'd share that as it was somewhat eye opening to me. Still think the guy could have gotten the job done and I still like what they were trying to do, but it's always interesting to get an inside scoop.

 

[Boffo97]

I'm not sure why, but I really liked Spags and to this day I still think the dude could have put a winner together. I feel 2011 was an aberration and that 2010 was the more in line with what they were doing.

I agree with you. Obviously, many don't.

I think a lot of people turned on him after being unable to get that Week 17 win vs. Seattle and go to the playoffs.

Then, next year, while NONE of the 1 year flyer "win now" vets panned out, 2011 was about injuries. Period. I don't know if any coach would have succeeded.

I've been on record that if we hadn't gotten Fisher (and I think the change was mostly because of that opportunity), I would have been a lot more pissed because every other candidate was a downgrade.

 

[Rmfnlt]

Let's face it, head coaches, like QBs, are polarizing on a fan dicsussion board.

Spagnuolo was no different.

The fact that he decided to cut ties with much of the history of the Rams went over like a fart in church.
Taking down the pictures, BTW, was never true BUT I think he did want to create a "new" culture... not rely on the old... I can kind of see that.
While it's nice to look back on "the good old days", the fact is he inherited an aging, really bad team that had just turned on their HC - Linehan.
I guess he figured it was time to create a new atmosphere.

Then, there was the Equipment Manager debacle. I'm not sure anyone ever found out the truth. I don't believe Hewitt ever found employment anywhere else, so there's that. He filed a law suit against the Rams in 2012, but I couldn't find out what the verdict ended up being.

To me, he did some things right, some things wrong and had some pretty bad luck (injuries).
2009 (1-15): Came in and inherited an old team and didn't care.
Fans point to how much of a reclamation project Fiusher inherited... IMO, that was nothing compared to what Spagnolo and Devaney walked into.
Look at some of these names:
McMichael
Barron
Bell
Brown
Incognito (talented, but....)
Goldberg
Lenon (Paris, not John... but played like John )
Gibson
You get the idea...
Draft was mostly miss... hit on Laurinaitis.

2010:
Drafted better that year:
Bradford
Saffold
Hoomanawanui - just had a heck of a game for the Patriots last week... I would argue that, without Amendola (another acquisition during his time there) and Hooey last week, the Patriots don't advance.
Selvie - very well respected in Dallas and they are glad to have him. Spagnuolo probably should have hung onto him. Mistake.
Still... they had 11 picks and only got a few good players out of that. But, things did improve... look back at 2006 and 2007, if you think they weren't improving. :eek:
Got them all the way to that last game of the season... against Seattle... I remember exactly where I was... and how deflated I was. Terrible effort... out of the playoffs and 7-9.

Then came 2011...
Shurmur gone, get the big name in McDaniels... but (and I always thought this was more important than it was ever given credit for) Dick Curl retires. Bradford is left with no QB coach... they say McDaniels can do both.
Well, we all know how that worked out.
The long developing plays, coupled with a still rebuilding Oline, results in Bradford going down twice with ankle sprains.
The secondary is as decimated as any I have ever witnessed in my 45+ years of following this team. You may recall, they were literally bringing in guys off the street.
Gambled that year on a few aged vets to "get them over the hump"... didn't work out (hope Fisher isn't contemplating that same move... rarley does it work)
The whole thing starts to crumble and, after a 2-14 season, he's fired.
But, they hit on a few more good players in the draft:
Quinn
Kendricks
Pettis (I still think he is a very servicable WR)

But, the bottom line is, he failed... the record says it all. Coula, shoulda, woulda doesn't matter in the cold, hard world that is the NFL.

Wish him luck back in NY... I don't believe we're playing them again, so why not?

 

[yrba1]

Thought Spags was bitter towards Coughlin after this happened

 

[MrMotes]

That reminds me of this golden oldie:

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/blog/sh...-wife-they-were-never-speaking?urn=nfl-wp8167

Spagnuolo told wife they were never speaking to Harbaugh again
By Chris Chase

St. Louis Rams coach Steve Spagnuolo was so upset with the 37-7 drubbing his team received from the Baltimore Ravens, that he told his wife they are never again speaking to Baltimore coach John Harbaugh.

The Rams coach and his wife, Maria, have been friends with John and Ingrid Harbaugh for years. Spagnuolo said before the game that Harbaugh is like a brother to him. That almost changed on Sunday, as the coach explained to Kathleen Nelson of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

"During the game and toward the end [I felt like I wouldn't speak to Harbaugh again]," he said. "Even when I was home with Maria, I said, 'We're not ever talking to him again.'"

I'd imagine losing by 30 in an NFL game could make dinner party conversation a little awkward. I know when my girlfriend and I wreck our friends in Trivial Pursuit, the tension lingers for days.

[Check live scoring and set your lineup with Yahoo! Sports' Fantasy Football app]

Spagnuolo was likely upset by Harbaugh challenging a fumble with under four minutes remaining in the game and the Ravens up by 30 points. Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco(notes) also threw a long pass to rookieTandon Doss(notes) with under two minutes left. Harbaugh later explained that he wanted to give his younger players some experience and preferred to get a first down to keep his defense off the field.

Regardless of the reasoning, Spanuolo was salty and remained that way until the next morning. It was then that he realized he had overreacted a bit.

"John Harbaugh is a competitor," he told Nelson. "I know that, and I've got no problem with it. I did feel one way yesterday but I calmed down and looked at it."

In other words, dinner with the Harbaughs is back on. But the next time the two couples socialize, Harbaugh should pick up the tab, just in case.

 

[Boffo97]

Taking down the pictures, BTW, was never true BUT I think he did want to create a "new" culture... not rely on the old... I can kind of see that.

Yeah, there's a lot of hearsay about Spags taken as gospel by some. Not only the false pictures story, but Hewitt's side of his non-renewal and the whole "control freak" thing I felt were either highly exaggerated for the sake of a story or out and out falsehoods. (Hewitt I still think was a locker room leak.)

Draft was mostly miss... hit on Laurinaitis.

Yeah, big problem was 2009 draft was just pure garbage. The Rams couldn't trade the pick because we didn't have slotted rookie salaries in place and pretty much everyone who could have been realistically picked at #2 sucked. Smith was regarded as the "safe" pick... and who knows what might have been if not for concussions.

I do feel a lot better about the Robinson pick given that at this point, he seems better than Smith ever was.

The long developing plays, coupled with a still rebuilding Oline, results in Bradford going down twice with ankle sprains.
The secondary is as decimated as any I have ever witnessed in my 45+ years of following this team. You may recall, they were literally bringing in guys off the street.

The OL was not only rebuilding, but they were decimated the same as the secondary was. That's what was so heartbreaking about that season... it wasn't just numbers of injuries, it was how concentrated they were onto certain units. Of course you aren't going to win many games. It doesn't matter who the coach is in circumstances like that.

Gambled that year on a few aged vets to "get them over the hump"... didn't work out (hope Fisher isn't contemplating that same move... rarley does it work)

He just might be. Spags was on a 4 year contract and 2011 was his third year. Usually teams either renew or fire a guy before that last year so they aren't faced with the problem of a coach being successful, then walking.

Fisher has a 5 year contract, and this is his 4th year. At the very least, one would think 8-8 would be necessary to save his job no matter what.

 

[MrMotes]

Yeah, there's a lot of hearsay about Spags taken as gospel by some. Not only the false pictures story,

Seems pretty true to me:

Picture this: A Rams Park minus (some) photos
By Jim Thomas
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. _ So what about those pictures, or lack thereof, on the walls of Rams Park? Marshall Faulk's comments earlier in the week, bemoaning the fact that photos of Rams greats have been taken down, struck a nerve with Rams Nation. While making the rounds Friday at the Super Bowl media center, coach Steve Spagnuolo and general manager Billy Devaney were only too happy to explain the interior decorating decision.
We've got pictures of Faulk all through the building, Devaney said. There's a ton of pictures of Kurt Warner, Isaac Bruce. Torry Holt. Ricky Proehl, and deservedly so. We've got the Hall of Fame players. I'd love to give people a dadgum tour of the building to show them how we recognize it.

There's just none in the team auditorium, where the walls remain bare one season into Spagnuolo's tenure.

When we first got there, there were a lot of pictures, Spagnuolo said. And in my opinion, a lot of pictures up there were just individual pictures. And you know the gist of what we do: Team First. So we changed it a little bit. We took ˜em all down at the beginning, and then put ˜em back up in the hallways _ all team-oriented pictures.

Now up in the second floor, there's still a lot of pictures of Kurt and Marshall and all kinds of former Rams.

(That's an area of the building where the players normally don't venture.)

But in the auditorium, in the actual room where we meet with the players, we have not re-put pictures up yet,Spagnuolo said. We're still kind of contemplating what we're going to do. I didn't think (the lack of pictures) had a big effect on anything either way.

The mindset is that (the team auditorium) was a work area. . . .We're just trying to interject nothing but team. Everything in that building was going to be a vision toward: It wasn't about one person, not about one guy, not about one area. But just completely team. But I have a tremendous amount of respect for the history, the tradition of the Rams. The players that have come before. What they did. Certainly 10 years ago, the anniversary (of the Super Bowl championship team).

 

[Boffo97]

Seems pretty true to me:

Picture this: A Rams Park minus (some) photos
By Jim Thomas
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. _ So what about those pictures, or lack thereof, on the walls of Rams Park? Marshall Faulk's comments earlier in the week, bemoaning the fact that photos of Rams greats have been taken down, struck a nerve with Rams Nation. While making the rounds Friday at the Super Bowl media center, coach Steve Spagnuolo and general manager Billy Devaney were only too happy to explain the interior decorating decision.
We've got pictures of Faulk all through the building, Devaney said. There's a ton of pictures of Kurt Warner, Isaac Bruce. Torry Holt. Ricky Proehl, and deservedly so. We've got the Hall of Fame players. I'd love to give people a dadgum tour of the building to show them how we recognize it.

There's just none in the team auditorium, where the walls remain bare one season into Spagnuolo's tenure.

When we first got there, there were a lot of pictures, Spagnuolo said. And in my opinion, a lot of pictures up there were just individual pictures. And you know the gist of what we do: Team First. So we changed it a little bit. We took ˜em all down at the beginning, and then put ˜em back up in the hallways _ all team-oriented pictures.

Now up in the second floor, there's still a lot of pictures of Kurt and Marshall and all kinds of former Rams.

(That's an area of the building where the players normally don't venture.)

But in the auditorium, in the actual room where we meet with the players, we have not re-put pictures up yet,Spagnuolo said. We're still kind of contemplating what we're going to do. I didn't think (the lack of pictures) had a big effect on anything either way.

The mindset is that (the team auditorium) was a work area. . . .We're just trying to interject nothing but team. Everything in that building was going to be a vision toward: It wasn't about one person, not about one guy, not about one area. But just completely team. But I have a tremendous amount of respect for the history, the tradition of the Rams. The players that have come before. What they did. Certainly 10 years ago, the anniversary (of the Super Bowl championship team).

I've read before on the P-D that the pictures story was false, but I admittedly don't have a link handy.

But, reading that short article does present a different side of the story than Spags just had all pictures taken down everywhere because he's a control freak.

 

[MrMotes]

I've read before on the P-D that the pictures story was false, but I admittedly don't have a link handy.

But, reading that short article does present a different side of the story than Spags just had all pictures taken down everywhere because he's a control freak.

That fact is Sapgs had some pictures taken down and not everyone appreciated it. There may be some exaggerated versions of the story that aren't true but the story itself is true...

 

[-X-]

I've read before on the P-D that the pictures story was false, but I admittedly don't have a link handy.

But, reading that short article does present a different side of the story than Spags just had all pictures taken down everywhere because he's a control freak.

Yeah, but, the pictures.

THE PICTURES!

lol. It's funny the things people will grab onto in order to try and encapsulate a person's legacy.

Pictures. :snicker:

 

[Rmfnlt]

Yeah, there's a lot of hearsay about Spags taken as gospel by some. Not only the false pictures story, but Hewitt's side of his non-renewal and the whole "control freak" thing I felt were either highly exaggerated for the sake of a story or out and out falsehoods. (Hewitt I still think was a locker room leak.)


Yeah, big problem was 2009 draft was just pure garbage. The Rams couldn't trade the pick because we didn't have slotted rookie salaries in place and pretty much everyone who could have been realistically picked at #2 sucked. Smith was regarded as the "safe" pick... and who knows what might have been if not for concussions.

I do feel a lot better about the Robinson pick given that at this point, he seems better than Smith ever was.


The OL was not only rebuilding, but they were decimated the same as the secondary was. That's what was so heartbreaking about that season... it wasn't just numbers of injuries, it was how concentrated they were onto certain units. Of course you aren't going to win many games. It doesn't matter who the coach is in circumstances like that.


He just might be. Spags was on a 4 year contract and 2011 was his third year. Usually teams either renew or fire a guy before that last year so they aren't faced with the problem of a coach being successful, then walking.

Fisher has a 5 year contract, and this is his 4th year. At the very least, one would think 8-8 would be necessary to save his job no matter what.

The "control freak" part makes me chuckle at times. Talk about control freaks? Jeff Fisher's picture is in the dictionary under that term.

If Spagnuolo was winning, being a control freak would have been just fine. But, he didn't, so it became a character flaw.
I don't know of too many head coaches in the NFL (or sports, for that matter) that aren't control freaks. The way I always see it is... if I'm the head coach and it's my job on the line, I want to do it my way too (Frank Sinatra theory ).
CEO's of major companies do the same... I'm reading the Jack Welch autobiography currently. Now... there was a control freak! Turned out, his way was right. Spagnuolo's didn't work out. Will Fisher's? We sure as hell hope so!

Smith? Yeah, I remember reading about how safe that pick was... but, there's no doubt that draft was a disappointment, when it really needed to be a home run.

Injuries? They happen, right? No coach is going to use them as an excuse. I think it's because, eventually, soneone's going to ask why "next man up" isn't working... and that comes back to the head coach.

I hope Fisher doesn't try the "get over the hump" plan... like I said, it rarely works.

Spagnuolo is Rams history... unfortunately, on the very bad side.

Glad he's gotten himself back to DC. Hope he can apply all he's learned and be successful again.

 

[Rmfnlt]

Yeah, but, the pictures.

THE PICTURES!

lol. It's funny the things people will grab onto in order to try and encapsulate a person's legacy.

Pictures. :snicker:

Given all the conspiracy stuff going on with the Rams now, arguing about pictures seems so silly, don't it?

 

[Boffo97]

The "control freak" part makes me chuckle at times. Talk about control freaks? Jeff Fisher's picture is in the dictionary under that term.

True enough. All coaches are, really.

In fact, the whole doing it for a "team first" mentality thing reminds me of the Pats coming out as a team rather than individual intros for Spygate Bowl 9/11... I mean Super Bowl 36. If they hadn't "won"* that game, I'm sure people would have called Belichick a control freak.

Yeah, but, the pictures.

THE PICTURES!

lol. It's funny the things people will grab onto in order to try and encapsulate a person's legacy.

Pictures. :snicker:

Hey, man! That's just straw manning!

It was pictures AND deciding to go with a different equipment manager!

 

[Rmfnlt]

True enough. All coaches are, really.

I'm sure people would have called Belichick a control freak.

I don't think there's any question that Bellichick is one of the biggest control freaks in the NFL.

But, he wins... so, in many circles, he's a genius.

 

[-X-]

Given all the conspiracy stuff going on with the Rams now, arguing about pictures seems so silly, don't it?

Yeah. And it was silly then too. It was one area of the facility.
WhoopDeeDoo. Even Kevin Demoff said it was blown out of proportion by the media at the time.

 

[MrMotes]

Yeah, but, the pictures.

THE PICTURES!

lol. It's funny the things people will grab onto in order to try and encapsulate a person's legacy.

Pictures. :snicker:

I totally agree.

What truly encapsulates Steve Spagnulo's legacy with the Rams is his 10-38 record.

 

[Boffo97]

I totally agree.

What truly encapsulates Steve Spagnulo's legacy with the Rams is his 10-38 record.

Actually, a TEAM'S record by definition cannot be to fault or credit of any ONE individual.

Lack of inheritance and massive injuries in 2011 had a lot more to do with that record than any shortcoming on Spags' part.

 

[-X-]

I totally agree.

What truly encapsulates Steve Spagnulo's legacy with the Rams is his 10-38 record.

To you. I saw beyond that, and others did too. His legacy extends beyond the Rams as well, so I don't try to whittle down a man's legacy to one layover in a 33 year coaching career that was beset by some of the worst luck any coach has ever experienced.

Setting aside the silliness about his idiosyncrasies, I think Spags is much better suited to be a DC anyway. It's not easy having control over an entire team and trying to run every aspect of it when your mindset is geared towards micromanagement. He'll have far more success as a long-time coordinator in the Dick LeBeau mold. Getting to implement his scheme seamlessly over multiple years and having veterans who can help him teach it to rookies and younger free agents. As a disciple of Jim Johnson in Philly, he's learned to become quite excellent at creating a pass rush and neutralizing some of the more potent passing attacks. I truly wish him nothing but success, because I respected what he tried to do here.