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January 2009
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South Florida Cowboys can't win in playoffs, either Jerry Jones might have let a great head coach get away The long journey of Tony Sparano Sparano working in the shadows Categories
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January 4, 2009
Just like their old friends at Valley Ranch, the Dolphins didn't win a playoff game. Coach of the Year runner-up Tony Sparano's team was roughed up pretty good by the Ravens, who forced the NFL's best ball-protecting team to commit five turnovers. With all the ex-Cowboys coaches and players in Miami, it might take a little while before they learn how to win in January. But it's a miracle that Miami made the playoffs. They were the NFL's biggest surprises, going from 1-15 to AFC East champions. The guys they left behind in Dallas were the NFL's biggest disappointment.  Comments (39) Leave comment
| E-mail entryThe entry "South Florida Cowboys can't win in playoffs, either" is tagged: Miami Dolphins December 29, 2008
And Tony Sparano is the head coach of it all. Sparano, a Cowboys assistant for five years, interviewed for the job Wade Phillips now owns. Could he have been the right guy to follow Bill Parcells? He's a task master. He related well to the players. He could have let Jerry Jones be Jerry Jones. And Jason Garrett could have been the offensive coordinator anyway. Comments (49) Leave comment
| E-mail entryThe entry "Meanwhile, down in Miami" is tagged: Bill Parcells , Jason Garrett , Tony Sparano , Wade Phillips November 4, 2008
Now that it seems obvious that the Wade Phillips era won't last long or end well, let's discuss who Jerry Jones should have hired after Bill Parcells bolted Valley Ranch. I'll fess up to being on the Phillips bandwagon from the start, and I would have been scratching my head if Jerry gave the job to Tony Sparano. A season and a half later, Sparano's Dolphins are making the NFL's most impressive turnaround while Phillips' Cowboys are one of the league's biggest disappointments. The Chargers are the challenger in the biggest disappointment category. They're coached by Norv Turner, the runner-up in a photo finish for the Dallas job. Jason Garrett was also seriously considered despite having zero play-calling experience at the time. Sparano never really had a shot despite being one of several Parcells assistants to interview. Instead, Sparano was stripped of his play-calling duties last season, although he had a lot of input in the game plans. The Cowboys clearly miss that input, and it's probably not a coincidence that the offensive line play has dropped significantly since the Dolphins hired Sparano. Jerry certainly didn't make anywhere near the effort to keep Sparano after last season as he did with Jason Garrett, who became the highest-paid assistant coach in NFL history. The primary reason for hiring Phillips was to fix the Dallas defense. The Dolphins' defense, running a 3-4 scheme with ex-Cowboys LB coach Paul Pasqualoni as the coordinator, has been better than the Cowboys' this season. Parcells' culture of discipline that Parcells created would have continued under Sparano. However, he still would have been a breath of fresh air for players who tired of the Tuna's voice. Sparano had already built a good relationship with several key players -- based on respect, not letting them relax. The Cowboys could use a coach like that. Comments (92) Leave comment
| E-mail entryThe entry "Jerry Jones might have let a great head coach get away" has no entry tags. July 10, 2008ESPN has an exhaustive and interesting story on the climb of former Cowboys assistant Tony Sparano through the ranks to become the head coach of the Miami Dolphins. Bill Parcells relates a recommendation that Tom Coughlin gave for Sparano. "Tom told me that Tony was one of the two best assistants he'd ever had," said Parcells, who then hired Sparano as part of his Cowboys staff in 2003. "And it didn't take long to figure out what he was talking about." Oh, and Sparano likes himself some good ice cream shops. Comments (7) Leave comment
| E-mail entryThe entry "The long journey of Tony Sparano" has no entry tags. June 15, 2008Tony Sparano is hardly becoming the superstar that so many of his NFL head-coaching brethern are. And that's just the way he likes it. The new Dolphins coach is plenty comfortable working in Big Bill's sizable shadow, and has already laid the groundwork for his level of expectation in South Florida, according to Friend of Cowboys Blog Alex Marvez, penning the story for Foxsports.com. Unlike (Cam) Cameron in his lone season as Miami's head coach, Sparano has impressed players with his frankness and approachability. Comments (56) Leave comment
| E-mail entryThe entry "Sparano working in the shadows" has no entry tags. May 18, 2008In our ongoing effort to keep you up on the happenings of the Miami Cowphins, we bring you this piece from veteran Dolphins scribe Armando Salguero of the Miami Herald. Armando talks with nose Jason Ferguson about the standards that Bill Parcells and his army of personnel officials and coaches will set in South Beach. Those standards, as you might expect, aren't simply to improve on last year's record in Miami, which won't be real hard to do. ''No doubt about it, people misunderstand,'' Jason Ferguson told Salguero. ``Tony [Sparano] and Bill are not here to say, `OK, we'll do a little better than we did last year and that's our goal.' ``Our goal is the same as every other team in the league and that's to win a championship. That's our goal.'' Parcells' oversaw impressive turnarounds in his last two stops -- taking the Jets from 1-15 to 9-7 and the Cowboys from 5-11 to 10-6. But this job might be a little bit more like the situation was when he got to New England, an organization that needed to be gutted and rebuilt around young players, in 1993. In that spot, Parcells got a more modest immediate return, taking New England from 1-15 to 5-11, then making the playoffs in Year 2. Comments (11) Leave comment
| E-mail entryThe entry "Ferguson has faith in Old 'Boys Club" is tagged: Jason Ferguson January 17, 2008Tony Sparano mentioned during his introductory press conference in Miami that he grew up a Giants fan. "My father, to this day, is a Giants fan," he said. The Cowboys' offensive line, Sparano's unit, had perhaps its worst performance of the season in the second half of the playoff loss to the Giants. I won't go any further due to fear of the fellas in the above YouTube, but you folks can connect the dots. Serious coaching talk coming up after Jason Garrett's press conference. Comments (7) Leave comment
| E-mail entryThe entry "Sparano conspiracy theory" is tagged: Miami Dolphins , New York Giants With the news that Jason Garrett will return as offensive coordinator for the 2008 season, the Cowboys coaching staff dodged a major bullet. Had Garrett bolted, Phillips might just be looking at replacing a coordinator, an assistant head coach and five of his eight position coaches (a dynamic Jacques Taylor addressed vigorously this morning.) In that way, Jerry wooing Garrett back to Dallas was a coup. But there are still some decisions to make. The Cowboys could still be replacing every position coach on defense, in addition to their offensive line coach. Follow the jump for a rundown where the guys from the 2007 staff stand. Comments (18) Leave comment
| E-mail entryThe entry "Assessing the staff" is tagged: Jason Garrett , John Garrett , Kacy Rodgers , Paul Pasqualoni , Ray Sherman , Skip Peete , Todd Bowles , Tony Sparano , Wade Wilson January 16, 2008Here's a statement from Cowboys coach Wade Phillips on his old assistant head coach, and the new man-for-the-job in Miami, Tony Sparano: "I talked to Tony today and told him how proud I was of him and how happy we are for him. I also told him how much I appreciated how helpful he was to me this past year. He has been a big contributor to this organization for the past few years, and we wish him the very best. He’s a quality football coach and an outstanding person." Comments (12) Leave comment
| E-mail entryThe entry "Wade congratulates Sparano" has no entry tags. Tony Sparano's introductory press conference in Miami is over, which means there might be a few calls being placed to Dallas right now as he works on assembling his staff. I sat and transcribed a lot of it for those you that are "at work" and checking out Cowboys Blog. Here's the part we got before the rewind/fast-forward function on my DVR went haywire: How do you to start to turn things around? I think part of it, obviously, you have to go through a culture change. I don’t really care what happened in the past, that isn’t my concern. My concern is what’s happening today, right now as we’re standing here. We’re going to surround our players with outstanding teachers, outstanding coaches, and we’re going to work them as hard as we can work them. And at the end of the day, we hope that that’s going to be good enough. How will you build a staff? Just as Jeff said, I got offered the job this morning at 9:30. So at the end of this meeting, I’ll start to worry about coaching staff and do some of those things. We’ll start to put some of those pieces together. Obviously, it’s the first move for me, and one of the most critical moves. Again, I’ve been in some of those situations. And I just think you have surround yourself with the best people that you can, and some of the people that believe in your philosophy. Comments (4) Leave comment
| E-mail entryThe entry "Sparano answers 'em all" is tagged: Miami Dolphins  AP Here's Dolphins coach Tony Sparano's opening statement from the ushering-in press conference in Davie, Fla. We'll pass along more shortly: "I need to take this opportunity to thank a bunch of people. Mr. Huizenga, I want to thank you so much for the opportunity you’ve given me. I really do appreciate this opportunity and this chance and I’m looking forward to the challenge. Also need to thank coach Parcells. I’ve coached for a lot of great people and worked for a lot of great coaches, Marty Schottheimer, Tom Coughlin, Chris Palmer. Coach Parcells has taught me the most and prepared me the most for this job. So I want to thank him tremendously. Also, Jeff Ireland, who I have the utmost respect for and who I’m looking forward to working with here with the Miami Dolphins. Comments (23) Leave comment
| E-mail entryThe entry "Sparano in Miami" is tagged: Miami Dolphins , Tony Sparano Today the inevitable happened, as Bill Parcells' reshaping of the Miami Dolphins as Cowboys East continued with the hire of Tony Sparano. And you better believe this is a big loss for Dallas. As Tim posted earlier, if there was a bad cop on Wade Phillips' staff, Tony was it and there's little questioning that his no-nonsense, straight-forward style left an army of beneficiaries at Valley Ranch. You can say he had Pro Bowlers, but it was Sparano who helped develop Jason Witten into that kind of tight end and Andre Gurode into that type of center, and it was he who guided Leonard Davis to a career year in his first season as a Cowboy. Now what? Well, this certainly isn't over. Secondary coach Todd Bowles, linebackers coach Paul Pasqualoni and defensive line coach Kacy Rodgers all have expiring contracts, and all three were brought to Dallas by Bill Parcells. Don't be surprised if Bowles is assistant head coach under Sparano and Pasqualoni is defensive coordinator, and Rodgers could well join both of them in Miami. Tony Sparano, a proven play-caller, was the reason I thought all the worry about Jason Garrett getting a head coaching job was overblown. All that changed when Bill Parcells scratched his football itch. Suddenly, Sparano became a hot coaching candidate, and he ended up beating Garrett out of town. More on that from Hashmarks' Matt Mosley, who thinks Sparano to Miami could hurt the Cowboys more than Garrett to Baltimore/Atlanta/wherever. Wade Phillips is under fire for being too soft on his players. Sparano, the assistant head coach this season, is a no-bull, no-excuses kind of guy. "He just knows how to push the buttons," TE Jason Witten said Monday. "He understands how to get the most out of you, and at the same time he doesn't overdo it. "The one thing that separates Tony from a lot of guys is he's going to figure it out, he's going to do whatever it takes to put you in a situation to be successful. There's no excuses, and there's no second-guessing. There's none of that. He's going to leave it on the line. And I think as a player knowing that your coach is doing everything possible to give you a chance to succeed, that's the biggest compliment you can ever give them." Comments (16) Leave comment
| E-mail entryThe entry "Coaching staff loses best butt kicker" is tagged: Bill Parcells , Jason Witten , Wade Phillips No shock here, but Todd Archer reports that Tony Sparano will be named the next head coach of the Miami Dolphins. Stay tuned for more. Todd's got this report on Cowboys assistants Tony Sparano and Jason Garrett taking second go-rounds today on the head coaching carousel. For Sparano, it's Miami (should be a matter of hours before he and Big Bill trade vows); For Garrett, it's Baltimore and Atlanta. It's safe to assume Sparano's a goner. Garrett, I'd say, may be gone too. As is in Todd's story, Wade Phillips makes in the neighborhood of $3 million a year. Redskins offensive coordinator Al Saunders, the league's highest paid assistant, is at $2 million per. Now, normally a first-time head coach will make somewhere between what Phillips and Saunders do, so that would make it realistic for Jerry Jones to match the financial terms of an offer to Garrett. But as we've been saying here, Garrett's was the top pick in Baltimore at the beginning, along with pipe-dream candidate Bill Cowher, and has done nothing to damage that standing. And now, he's in position to drive his value through the roof. As this is being written, Garrett's resting up in between meetings with Falcons officials and it's expected that both Atlanta and Baltimore will compete to wrestle him from Dallas. That's where the problem arises. Say in the course of the bidding way, either of those teams offer, to throw out a number, $3.5 million a year. What then? Jerry can't possibly pay his OC more than his head coach. Or can he? It's interesting, to say the least. Keep it here in the morning for updates. January 15, 2008Armando Salguero of the Miami Herald reports that Dolphins GM Jeff Ireland boarded a private plane to Dallas this morning and will return with Tony Sparano this evening. So unless something goes unexpectedly off course, the Dolphins are navigating toward having a new coach in place by sometime Wednesday. And the latest step in the process just happened when that jet carrying Ireland took off. Seems as if the only question, as far as the Cowboys are concerned, is how many Dallas assistants will reunite with Sparano and Bill Parcells in South Florida. Comments (21) Leave comment
| E-mail entryThe entry "See ya, Sparano" is tagged: Bill Parcells , Jeff Ireland , Miami Dolphins January 13, 2008Cowboys assistants Tony Sparano and Jason Garrett addressed questions today about their futures, and neither would elaborate on anything beyond the fact that both will be at Valley Ranch tomorrow to wrap the season up with their staffmates and players. Sparano interviewed with the Ravens, Falcons and Dolphins during the bye week, while Baltimore and Atlanta also talked with Garrett. Sparano is widely expected to get the job in Miami under God of Football Bill Parcells and GM Jeff Ireland. Meanwhile, NFL sources said as late as the end of last week that Garrett is the primary target of the Ravens. Comments (25) Leave comment
| E-mail entryThe entry "Sparano, Garrett address openings" has no entry tags. January 11, 2008South Florida Sun-Sentinel writer Ethan Skolnick spent a couple days this week at Valley Ranch. And after scanning Cowboys photos, working on a story on (ahem) possible future Dolphins coach Tony Sparano, he starting looking for a smile from the assistant. Skolnick didn't find one himself. But he did find evidence of it happening. Like this piece of heresay: What makes him smile? Comments (3) Leave comment
| E-mail entryThe entry "Searching for Sparano's smile" is tagged: Miami Dolphins January 4, 2008From Todd Archer ... According to a source, Tony Sparano will interview for the Miami head coaching job Saturday. More to come later. UPDATE: Here's a link to the story. Comments (20) Leave comment
| E-mail entryThe entry "Sparano to interview with Dolphins" is tagged: Miami Dolphins , Tony Sparano December 31, 2007In addition to possibly losing Jeff Ireland to the Dolphins, Todd Archer reports that Tony Sparano is expected to talk to the Falcons about their head coaching position. Comments (27) Leave comment
| E-mail entryThe entry "Sparano to Atlanta?" is tagged: Jeff Ireland , Tony Sparano |
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