First interview requests reported

When I was a kid, I was at the 1984 game at Three Rivers against the Dolphins. It was Dan Marino's second season and very excited to see the Steelers in person.

Steelers lost 31-7.

 

I wonder how many interviews there will be. There are a ton of names mentioned here.

 

didn't you post this in the other thread?

 

More is better in my opinion. I would rather they interview many people and get a sense of ideas floating around the league.

 

here and in the poll and in the what to look for and what will the steelers and how you feel about and would you take and

 

Art Rooney II is correcting the errors well. Thank you sir.

 

Add to 49ers OC Klay Kubiak to the interview list.

 

Really I had no idea! I knew his dad sucked as the HC for the Bengals but I didn't know that his grandfather was an NFL coach too! It must have been way back in the day back when there was a team that went 17-0 but I can't remember the name of the team or who coached them. I think they had a greasy QB who handed the ball off to 3 guys. I think their names were Zonka, Kick and Venus or maybe it was Mercury.

 

a 4 eyed QB

 

Pretty stupid post.

 

Can we throw a bone to Hines Ward for WR coach! Give us one piece to the legacy on what is expected to be a Steeler!!

 

No.

 

He was great as a DC at Michigan. He deserved as much credit as Harbaugh for their national championship. I haven’t followed the Chargers as closely. I’m a Michigan grad.

 

Not that impressed so far


Its looking like Brian Flores,

 

It's looking like Shula to me. I say this because of Rooney's fondness of the McVay/Shanahan system and who our lone two offensive choices so far. I actually wouldn't be surprised if Flores ends up being DC nonetheless. His tenure ending on a sour note in Minnesota is a massive red flag considering how things ended in Miami.

 

I did have a snarky post to retort this but I felt bad about it and deleted it because I usually agree with your posts on here.

 

I disagree... I think most of the other guys are way better than Flores IMO. I think Flores becomes an option if our first 3-4 choices all take jobs elsewhere.

I'd take Shula, Scheelhaase, and Minter in a heartbeat over Brian Flores. I'll have to do some more digging on some of the other guys, as I know less about Hafley, Evero, Weaver, and Klay Kubiak. Though, it is interesting that we requested Klay and not Klint yet. Not saying that we wont (we might still), but the guys we have on the schedule first are likely the guys we have the most interest in (and quite frankly, they're all super talented IMO). First 4 on the schedule are Shula, Scheelhaase, Minter, and Hafley.

 

Flores could be a good DC if we hired an offensive guy. Raheem Morris too maybe. Depends on what we hire.

Though, I do find it interesting how many Fangio-based (hybrid, adabtability, player and formation versatility) DC's we've brought in. Shula, Minter, and Evero all fit this bill to some degree... Hafley is a single high 4-3 guy, and Weaver and Flores are more of a disguise/pressure/stunts scheme.

It makes perfect sense that if we go an offensive guy, that McVey and Shanahan tree are the places to go. Their combined tree (McVey is a Shanahan tree guy) is crazy good. Sean McVey, Mike McDaniel, Liam Coen, Zac Taylor, Brian Callahan, Dave O'Connell, Zac Robinson, Klint and Klay Kubiak, Bobby Slowik, Shane Waldron... Lots of good HC's and OC's in that list.

Of the guys we have in for visits so far, Scheelhaase is my favorite. I've read excellent things about him, and I think a quote I read from a LAR pundit was something to the effect of "Scheelhaase is the closest thing to Sean McVey". Though, I have also read great things about Shula and he would be my #2 choice.

 

If I'm reading these tea leaves, if I was to project the staff it'll look like this:

HC Shula
OC Scheelhaase
DC Morris or Flores

Defensive candidates thus far are 40+ but Shula and the lone offensive candidates lack experience in playcalling. Shula just seems to be crossing the most of the boxes. This really seems to be a bad year if we're looking for a young offensive mind as the bulk of them aren't playcallers. Grant Udinski, Klay Kubiak and Scheelhaase have bright futures, but are a couple of coaching cycles away from being strong HC candidates. I'd love any of these 3 as our OC. We could always strap the title of Assistant HC on Klay or Grant as a means of promotion. Chandler Whitmer (Indiana QBC/Co-Offensive Coordinator) seems like a guy that can be the pass game coordinator on our future staff.

 

I don’t care if a guy is a couple cycles away from being a quality candidate or not. We won’t be looking for a coach in a year or two (no matter how this hire does) so if we want any of those guys, the time is now. We aren’t hiring these guys because they are going to call plays, we’re hiring them because of their leadership and the system they run. I don’t want to hire a “safer guy” or a “guy who is ready now” vs a year or two off and be watching someone like Udinski or Scheelhaase coaching in their 3rd conference championship game by about 6-7 years from now and thinking “man, we should’ve hired that guy when we had a chance”…

I do like Shula a good bit. I’m sure the Steelers like him a lot too. I just want the right guy for the job, even if he’s a year or two not quite ready for the gig. It might be Shula too, who knows? But I wouldn’t shy away from Kubiak or Scheelhaase because they haven’t called plays yet or their resumes are “not quite ready” by a year or two. I’m sure there are teams who hired Bobby Petrino, Cam Cameron, or Lane Kiffin in 2007 that would’ve preferred they took a shot on a one year DC who might not have been ready yet in Tomlin.

 

If we hire guys that aren't ready yet, then we'll fail them and fall into the trap of hiring a new coach a couple of years from now. They have to walk before they can run.