The job of an NFL Head Coach is all consuming, and Gase is no exception
Very few can successfully call plays and run an organization… can Gase?
I’m still a believer that Adam Gase can be part of the solution… if he continues to grow. But yes, that confidence has waned over the course of this season.
When Gase started off his tenure as the Dolphins Head Coach he had a weak roster, zero experience as a H.C., limited cap space, and made the choice to call the plays on offense, on top of all his other responsibilities.
That’s a lot to get thrown on your plate. A learning curve was to be expected.
But his inaugural season exceeded the expectations of the best pay per head services, and as much, if not more, was expected in Year 2.
We all know the rest. Ryan Tannehill went down and everything under the sun went wrong, including a prominent coach caught on film doing cocaine and trading away Miami’s most prominent offensive weapon.
The Dolphins 2017 Season has been marked by some of the worst offense ever witnessed in Miami, inexplicable inconsistency, and sloppy play riddled with penalties.
After a loss last week, the final post game comment by Gase (in the video below) struck me the wrong way for several reasons.
Adam Gase must always be Head Coach first and foremost to have success
Reporter, “Would you ever relinquish play calling”
Gase, “No, it’s the one thing I like doing.”
I won’t play amateur psychologist and speak about his body language, or try to mind read and say he meant this or that. Maybe he misspoke or was caught up in the emotion of the big loss.
But if you just take his words at face value…
…My first problem with his response is it focuses on his want, regardless of what’s best for the team.
Gase likes to do it, so it stays.
What if there was a better caller available? Or what if it was better for the team that he focuses on just being the H.C.?
My second problem is that he said of all his responsibilities as a head honcho of the Dolphins, the only one he likes doing is calling plays.
If you only like calling plays, then why are you the Head Coach?
As far a I know, if you don’t like doing something, then it’s a job and not a passion… and any endeavor in football must have a foundation of passion.
A H.C. must always have to team’s best interest in mind
Jay Ajayi only liked to run the ball, pass blocking and studying his responsibilities wasn’t his thing. So he didn’t do it. That was no good according to Gase, and Ajayi was canned.
If Gase had said, ‘No, I’m the best qualified’. Or if his response was, ‘Everything is on the table to get this team to win’. Then okay. Maybe he’s right or wrong, but at least the team comes first. That would be a consistent message.
A Head Coach must at least do these two things: be objective and exemplify everything he is preaching.
A fairly prominent detective novelist John Westermann once said to me, “If you want a chance to make it in this business, you must learn to murder your little darlings.”
In laymen terms: if you want to give yourself a shot at succeeding in anything, nothing you do must be too precious to be cut out or fixed.
I never made it as a novelist. But I hope like hell Gase can one up me and make it as the Dolphins Head Coach. Go Fins!!!