With the word coming down yesterday that the Washington Redskins were likely to announce their head coach shortly, here is a closer look at the finalists and their accomplishments:
Ron Meeks
Meeks is the 53 year old defensive coordinator of the Indianapolis Colts. He played some pro football in Canada with various teams in the CFL. His NFL coaching career began in Dallas as a lower level assistant before moving on to Cincinnati as defensive backs coach. It was a position he held for many teams including stints in Atlanta, Washington and St. Louis. In 2002 he was hired by Tony Dungy as defensive coordinator of the Colts.
His defenses have improved over the years, changing from terrible to a very good unit this season. The Colts defense shocked most experts by playing well above its rankings in the 2007 playoffs, helping the team capture the Super Bowl. The Colts play a cover two defense although they have adjusted to allow safety Bob Sanders to freelance a bit and play closer to the line than a normal cover 2 safety. If he does join the Redskins, you’d expect Meeks to look to use LaRon Landry in a similar fashion to Sanders.
When he was originally interviewed, Meeks was looked at as a guy used more to fulfill the Rooney rule rather than a legitimate candidate. After the Fassel non-hiring, he moved back into the picture and received further interviews with the Redskins. Most fans consider Meeks to be a longshot still, but he may actually be the favorite if the interview with Spagnuolo doesn’t go well. The Redskins don’t seem to hot on Mariucci and may be wary of dealing with the backlash of hiring Fassel.
Steve Mariucci
Mariucci has the biggest name of the lot and as we’ve seen in the past with Dan Snyder, a big name can go a long way in Washington. Mariucci was a three time division II All-American quarterback during his college playing days. His coaching career began in college with stints at Cal State Fullerton, Louisville and USC before joining the University of California where he was eventually promoted to offensive coordinator in 2000.
Mariucci parlayed that experience to land a pro job and was hired as the QB coach in Green Bay. He spent the next five years helping to develop Bret Favre into one of the league’s best quarterbacks. Mariucci then returned to the college ranks, being hired as the head coach at California. He led the Golden Bears to a 6-6 record and a bowl game in a tough era for California football. After that season, he was hired by San Francisco to his first NFL head coaching job. Mariucci held the 49ers job from 1997 until 2002, making the playoffs in 4 of his six seasons. He was let go after a dispute with ownership over his power in the organization despite winning the division in his final year.
Mariucci quickly landed another job, this time as the head coach of the Detroit Lions. His run with the Lions wasn’t very successful as the Lions never finished with less than 10 losses or above third place in the division. He was let go during the 2005 season and has worked as a TV analyst since.
When Mariucci’s name was first brought up, he was quickly viewed as a front-runner but the speculation has cooled greatly after he interviewed with the team prior to the Super Bowl. Many fans regard ‘Mooch’ as a guy who lucked out by being handed the keys to a powerful San Francisco team and riding them to a stellar record before flaming out in Detroit. He actually led a very quick rebuilding with the 49ers, as they moved from the Steve Young/Jerry Rice era to the Jeff Garcia/Terrell Owens era. He is only suspected to have one relatively short interview and would have to be viewed as a long shot at this point.
Jim Fassel
Fassel is the oldest of the bunch at age 58. Fassel’s coaching career began back in college and he had a head coaching stint with the University of Utah finishing with a 25-33 record in 5 seasons, while not reaching a single Bowl game. After struggling in the college ranks, Fassel moved up to the pros.
In his early years in the NFL, Fassel worked mainly as a Quarterback coach. He had stints with Arizona, Denver and Oakland along with the New York Giants. He earned praise for his work with successful QBs such as John Elway and Phil Simms. Fassel eventually worked his way up to a head coaching gig with the Giants. Most of his teams were relatively average hovering between 7 and 10 wins a season. But in 2000, the Fassel led Giants went 12-4 and made it all the way to the Super Bowl before losing to the Baltimore Ravens. After the Super Bowl season, the Giants returned to their average ways before flopping in 2003 with a 4-12 record. Fassel was fired after that season.
Soon after hitting the open market, Fassel was hired by friend Brian Billick to help try to revive a struggling Baltimore Ravens offense as offensive coordinator. Fassel had very little success in that role and was fired in the middle of the 2006 season. He has been working as a color commentator on Westwood One NFL radio broadcasts of late.
The Redskins job was very nearly awarded to Fassel a few weeks back. The Redskins intended to hire Fassel along with Jim Zorn and Rex Ryan to lead the team but the offer was dropped and he was told he was still in consideration. There are various theories as to why the offer to Fassel was dropped, but the backlash to reports of Fassel imminent hire was fierce. Fassel may have been the first coach to inspire a ‘fire the coach’ website before even being hired. One would think that whatever caused the original offer to be dropped would eliminate Fassel from serious consideration, but he’s almost landed the Redskins job twice now, so the Danny obviously likes him. In my estimation, he’s probably third in line at this point.
Steve Spagnuolo
Spagnuolo is the hot new kid in school. He’s 48 years old and coming off only his first season as a coordinator of an NFL team. Spagnuolo’s played college football as wide receiver for the University of Springfield. His NFL career actually began in Washington as a player personnel intern in 1983. After leaving Washington he landed various college positions, coaching all elements of defense (line, linebackers, secondary). He was defensive coordinator for a period at the University of Connecticut. He also spent a year as a scout with the San Diego Chargers.
After years of roaming, he landed a defensive coordinator position in NFL Europe with the Frankfurt Galaxy. He parlayed that experience into a job with the Philadelphia Eagles as a defensive assistant coach in 1999. With the Eagles he spent a few years coaching the defensive backs before moving to coach the linebackers in 2004. After two years in that position, he was hired by the Giants as their defensive coordinator in 2007. His one season with the Giants is well documented; the defense started out horrible but steadily improved throughout the year, culminating in a dominate performance in the Super Bowl. The Giants defense finished the year as the 7th best in the NFL, just ahead of a pretty darn good Redskins defense.
At this point Spagnuolo had to be considered the favorite. The Redskins committed to wait to interview him before the Super Bowl and he substantially increased his reputation on Sunday. He has been meeting with Snyder and Cerrato for the past day and a half and appears interested in the position. At this point, it is Spagnuolo’s job to lose.