Who was worse, Spags or Linehan?

[PrometheusFaulk]

Would you rather have Ebola or Kuru?

Linehan ushered the decline, Spags prolonged in. Both were good coordinators but were totally outmatched as HCs.

I'm going to say Linehan was worse because there are still some players brought on from Spags' tenure that are contributing.

 

[HE WITH HORNS]

Vanillahan was a guy you just wanted to punch in the face, and he was a bad head coach too, very clueless. But at least he knew he was clueless.

Spags however, is legendary. He had his way, and even when it failed miserably he refused to change anything.
And 1-15? Really? He should have been fired after his first season. That's almost Rod Marinelli / Detriot Lions bad. If not for Steven Jackson putting the entire team on his shoulders, against the Lions nonetheless, we would have tied for the worst season record of all time.
Then he followed that up two years later with a 2-14 season as well. It takes more than ineptitude to lose that many games in two seasons.

 

[Boffo97]

It's shades of gray, they were both terrible. If we made a list of what each was really bad at there would probably be about the same number of negatives, the lists would just look a little different for each guy.

I disagree, but if you and I were able to find any common ground on this one, we would have done so long before now.

 

[Dieter the Brock]

Vanillahan was a guy you just wanted to punch in the face, and he was a bad head coach too, very clueless. But at least he knew he was clueless.

Spags however, is legendary. He had his way, and even when it failed miserably he refused to change anything.
And 1-15? Really? He should have been fired after his first season. That's almost Rod Marinelli / Detriot Lions bad. If not for Steven Jackson putting the entire team on his shoulders, against the Lions nonetheless, we would have tied for the worst season record of all time.
Then he followed that up two years later with a 2-14 season as well. It takes more than ineptitude to lose that many games in two seasons.

Dude yes
I was somehow to hesitant to post this same sentiment thinking I had to back up my desire to punch him in the face with some sort of facts
Thank you brother for giving me the courage in the future to actually say what's on my mind

 

[HE WITH HORNS]

Dude yes
I was somehow to hesitant to post this same sentiment thinking I had to back up my desire to punch him in the face with some sort of facts
Thank you brother for giving me the courage in the future to actually say what's on my mind

I bet Holt or Bulger wanted to, even if they couldn't. Players just didn't respect him, they can tell when someone doesn't know what they are doing.

 

[LesBaker]

I disagree, but if you and I were able to find any common ground on this one, we would have done so long before now.

It's in the past anyway, and those two were so bad that they so rarely come up that it doesn't matter I guess.

 

[Ozark Ram]

Who was worse??..... Spags or Linehan.... for me it is "pick your poison". They both were just not good coaches. Thank God their regimes are over and gone!!

 

[A55VA6]

Both of them are trash.. but I went Linehan. I hate that guy so much..

 

[mr.stlouis]

Linehan had no respect in the locker room, Spags had a bit more. Linehan was/is a total goof (not in a funny way) who's only purpose is to direct offensive play calling. No idea in hell why we hired him. It's like they picked rondomly.

 

[RustyRay]

Linehan was the worse coach.. He just turned all the players on himself...He was adverse to listening and it really hurt him...Cant be a know it all when you dont have the pedigree to back it up. Started well for him and then fell off a cliff...I remember feeling like the guy quit and just had no answers for anything that was going on...and that he couldnt lead men or coach his way out of a paper bag. He just failed miserably at everything.

Spags was a control freak...and imo let the little things take away from coaching the team. I thought he had real potential but then he fell off big time and seemed to focus on everything but football...he was busy taking down pics of Rams greats, and firing long time equipment guys....all things that didnt really mean anything to the team being good between the lines. He was also not very good at building a team...and hung onto over the hill and past thier prime players...playing them when it had no potential to help or make the team better...while letting younger guys either go...or not using the waiver wire to pick up potential guys that could help. He was the better coach overall...but seemed to get paranoid or something. Personel decisions and coaching hires were all really bad under Spags..and he and Devany failed the draft in the worst way possible...blowing high pick after high pick.

 

[brokeu91]

This feels like asking what is worse: diarrhea or vomit?

 

[MrMotes]

That didn't actually happen.

It certainly did. He also didn't tolerate former Rams greats hanging around.

Because the dude was a locker room leak. Had nothing to do with supposed insecurities.

That's just spin. People like Dick Vermiel and Marshall Faulk came to Hewitt's defense. I'll take their smarts and integrity over Spags every day of the week.

Spags is the losingest coach in Rams history and just about the losingest in NFL history. He followed that up with the worst defense (by yards) in NFL history which got him fired after one year.

Since leaving the Giants Spags has failed on an epic scale. Fisher came here and immediately dumped 2/3 of the roster, a roster that Spags spent 3 years building.

He was crap. But so was Linehan.

It's a tough call...

 

[Ram Quixote]

Let me put this another way. I always hope for the success of every HC the Rams hire and dislike mid-season firings. But from the beginning of 2008 and the 0-4 start, I was done with Linehan.

 

[Dodgersrf]

They did change the gameplan, and that's the problem. Because they changed it weekly depending on who they were playing.
And the problem with THAT, was the team had no familiarity with the playbook, and all were mostly rookies/2nd year guys on top of it.

I was referring more to in game planning.
Getting sam.killed in the first half, I always expected to see adjustments in play calling in the second half.
Never happened.

It's as though Spags was never properly prepared.

 

[HometownBoy]

Linehan no doubt, Spags had some things going and while he did tank soon after, he did manage to have our team play better than their previous bad play the year before, Linehan came, got his ass kicked a lot, got into fights with our players and generally was just an asshole to be around. Spags was a least some what of a decent guy and capable of rallying his players around. Linehan lost the team in the most complete fashion I've ever seen a coach lose the team, it was like watching a soap.

First it was Holt, then it was Jackson, didn't he also get into a spat with Bruce? Bruce never got mad at anybody, so if he did you know he was bad stuff.

 

[Dodgersrf]

One thing about that.... had he stepped in sooner to change McD's plans (remember, Spags is a defensive guy), everyone would have been calling "control freak!"

Damned if you do and damned if you don't sometimes. McDaniels was supposed to be a lot better for us than he was.

Yeah, your right about that. But Spags was a control freak. He created that persona on his own.

Getting your QB killed didn't seem like the correct call though.

 

[simonblaze]

Linehan put the rams in the hole to begin with...Spags couldn't get them out...

 

[Dodgersrf]

Interesting topic and a very tough call for me.

Both coaches were embarrassments, obviously.

In a verrrrry close call, I'm going with Spags as the worst.

Several reasons that I think give him the slight edge...

He took down the GSOT posters.
He fired the equipment manager because of his own insecurities. The equipment manager!
I hate micro managers who are control freaks. Period.
Hiring McDaniels after a strike shortened offseason for a 2nd year QB, then letting him install an O for which we lacked the proper personnel.
Continuing to play Bradford on a high ankle sprain (risking Bradford's career) in a pathetic attempt to save his own job.
After becoming DC for the Saints, he only further embarrassed himself. I mean record setting embarrassment. Linehan didn't.
Did I mention that I hate micro managing control freaks? Lol.

So I'm going with Spags as the worst, but it's close. Linehan was no prize, either.

Gawd, I'm SO happy we now have Kroenke, Demoff, Snead, and Fisher now!

I may change my vote.
The more I think about it the more I agree with the same issues.

 

[Dodgersrf]

Screw it.
ALL HAIL SNISHER!

 

[MrMotes]

If Spags had been successful, you could argue the control freak thing was what the Rams needed. But seeing as how he went 10-38, seems like a bad move...