Post by Deleted on Jan 6, 2017 11:56:28 GMT -6
How a 30-something coach turned around the Miami Dolphins
Eric Adelson,Yahoo Sports US 9 hours ago
DAVIE, Fla. — In at least one respect, it’s been slightly jarring for Miami Dolphins defensive tackle Jordan Phillips to ascend to the grown-man world of the NFL: he’s gone from Bob Stoops to Adam Gase. When Stoops took over Oklahoma as head coach in 1999, Gase was barely old enough to buy a beer.
“He changed my thoughts on head coaches, for sure,” says Phillips, who at 24 is only 14 years younger than Gase. “I never had a head coach like he is. He’s not that much older than all of us. It’s a different aspect. At Oklahoma, Bob was a really good coach, but I think the age – he [Gase] just understands us.”
Veterans concur.
“Awesome,” says offensive lineman Kraig Urbik, who is 31.
“Very in tune with the players,” adds defensive tackle Earl Mitchell, who is 29. “It’s something you appreciate, especially me, who’s been in the league a few years.”
In his first season as an NFL head coach, Gase has already done something mentor Nick Saban couldn’t: take the Dolphins to the playoffs. This despite the fact that Gase never even played college football. He seems to understand his players without having any war stories to share.
And perhaps Gase’s neatest trick is that he has built a player-friendly rep even though this season arguably turned when he put the team on notice.
“Gase’s warning to players,” read a Sept. 26 headline in the Miami Herald. “Shape up, or you’re the next one I’ll bench.”
Gase sounded downright Saban-esque after a near-loss to Cleveland, saying, “Whoever wants to do it right, those are the guys that we’re going to put out there. Talent’s irrelevant at this point.”
This came after his first win as a head coach. According to one report, team owner Stephen Ross presented Gase with the game ball and he declined to keep it as a memento.
The Dolphins then lost on a short week in Cincinnati, but they have only dropped three games since – one being a relatively meaningless home game to close the season against New England. A 1-4 start became a 10-6 finish and a playoff game in Pittsburgh this Sunday.
“We created a culture of young players in a competitive environment,” says assistant head coach Darren Rizzi, who is 46. “It’s not a given anymore. Let’s see how hard these guys practice. These are the guys who will give us the best chance this week.”
This has been done with hardly a smidge of Dolphins drama. Here is the franchise that gave us Bullygate and, more recently, constant chatter about Ryan Tannehill’s standing and disposition. “Enjoy your practice-squad paychecks,” the quarterback was alleged to have said to an aggressive scout team defense at one point under prior coach Joe Philbin. The reported quote was hotly denied and disputed, but even that showed a team lacking cohesion. There’s also notoriously surly Ndamukong Suh, the highly paid Pro Bowler who hasn’t always looked like he’s bought into what Dolphins brass is selling.
Gase had to both challenge and protect Tannehill and Suh – showing belief as well as backbone.
He’s been able to do it, stepping comfortably into the top job despite never having that sort of leadership role before. He got his start as a freshman at Michigan State by bugging then-assistant Dean Pees (now defensive coordinator with the Ravens) for something to do to help the team. He began by creating Excel spreadsheets, and when Saban left East Lansing for LSU, Gase went along with him as a graduate assistant. By 2003 he was working in scouting for the Lions. He was 25.
Gase’s work ethic has always overwhelmed concerns about his age or lack of hand-in-the-dirt football experience. He betrays little or no ego and he’s meshed with superstars who might swat another football nerd away like a flea. His work with Jay Cutler in Chicago in 2015, when he coached the enigmatic quarterback to the best passer rating of his career, perhaps more than anything else won him the attention of the league. He is brimming with ideas but doesn’t adhere too fast to any of them if they don’t work.
Despite his growing legend as a quarterback whisperer, the story of this season actually has to do with the offensive line. The Dolphins have used four natural tackles for most of the season, which might normally be a disaster but has paid off immensely. Branden Albert, rookie Laremy Tunsil, Jermon Bushrod and Ja’Wuan James have all thrived when healthy, and suddenly the Dolphins are one of the least-sacked teams in the league. Combine that with running back Jay Ajayi’s breakout season and now Miami has a toughness that it seriously lacked for years.
“Instead of second-and-9, it’s second-and-6, second-and-5,” says Bushrod, who played left tackle his entire career before moving to right guard. “Maybe we can get third-and-3. Maybe we don’t need a seven-step drop.”
All of a sudden the fair-weather Dolphins, who for four years had been waiting for Tannehill to throw them into the playoffs, now appear as more of a grind-it-out, playoff-ready team.
Some of that goes back to the aftermath of the Cleveland game.
James was benched after allowing a strip sack, and it woke him up. Maybe it woke others up, too. In the weeks afterward, James touched on the same duality others have noted about Gase.
“He’s definitely a players’ coach,” he says. “I think everyone here would run through a wall for him. He made sure everyone would do it his way. He challenged me. We responded.”
That seems to be the theme of the Gase era, young as it may be.