And the carousel begins coming to a halt. The last three significant coaching jobs available all were filled in short order Thursday. That brings this years carousel to a crawl as there aren't anything other than coordinator jobs sitting out there. And while those jobs may be interesting to some, we won't delve into that minutiae.
Your wrapup:
Stanford: Stanford has found there man. He is David Shaw, the teams offensive coordinator for the past 4 seasons. Shaw will replace Jim Harbaugh who moved on to the San Francisco 49ers.
Shaw is a Stanford grad and the 1st alum to take over the program since 1980.
Here is the official release from Stanford's website RIGHT HERE
And here is Mr. Shaw meeting the local press: (Thanks GoStanford.com)
Pasqualoni/Courtesy: syracuse.com
UConn: This may be the most baffling of all the hires this carousel season. Paul Pasqualoni is your new head coach in Storrs. While certainly a coaching veteran who had a reasonable run of success in the Big East at Syracuse, he was not someone that was immediately thought of as the perfect guy to grow the program.
Pasqualoni comes from the Dallas Cowboys and has bounced between them and the Miami Dolphins as a defensive assistant the past 5 years. He replaces Randy Edsall, who is now at Maryland.
Your official release from Connecticut's website is RIGHT HERE
John Fox/Courtesy: carolina panthers
Denver Broncos: And the final rider to get off the carousel is John Fox, your new head coach in Denver. Fox has been on the carousel for only a month after being released by the Carolina Panthers.
While in Carolina, Fox had a ton of early success and really, up until the past two seasons, the Panthers were a tough, competitive team. The weren't so much the past two years, which begs the question...why?
We aren't sure, though the national media certainly pushed Fox very hard as "The" candidate. We wonder if it's because they like him or if it is just because they didn't watch the Panthers this past season or they blame the teams utter failure on upper management? Who knows.
Either way, he's the man and honestly, is a decent choice for Denver, coming off of the Josh McDaniels experiment. We'll see how well it play out. Fox will be introduced to the Denver viewing public Friday afternoon.
And that brings this years Carousel to an end. Much like the movie Logan's Run, it's a time of re-birth. It's a time where some coaches lose their coaching lives in one place only to be re-born somewhere else. It's also a time where new coaches are born and others climb the ladder of success.
**Ed Note** We forgot about our friends in Oakland, though it's easy to do. They are going to be promoting assistant Hue Jackson to the top job, we just don't know when they'll make it official.
For those wondering about the movie reference, watch it below. In a strange way it all just kind of makes sense.
Marvin Lewis is staying as head coach of the Cincinnati Bengals. A press conference is set for 4:30 to announce Lewis is returning for his ninth season as coach.
Lewis agreed to a contract extension after two days of negotiating changes in how the front office functions and integrates with the day-to-day operations of the football team.
Mike Brown wanted to keep him, offering an extension last season. Lewis wanted to stay, but only if he got more influence over the personnel decisions.
The Bengals are coming off a 4-12 season. They've had only two winning records during Lewis' eight seasons, and in Cincinnati, Lewis' career record is 60-69-1.
Cincinnati has only two winning records in the last 20 years, both under Marvin Lewis, but the Bengals haven't won a playoff game since 1990. And parts of the HQ would maintain that Carson Palmer hasn't been the same since the surgery on his throwing shoulder...
Now if only he could throw to more guys like Shipley and Gresham... And not get caught in situations like this... ((HT: NFL on CBS/Youtube))
((ht: adam schefter-ESPN//jason lacanfora-NFL.com))
The carousel keeps spinning and could be taking a strange turn. Reports are surfacing on two fronts this morning.
One: The chief domino in where the coaches will fall into line, Jim Harbaugh may actually end up with the Miami Dolphins. Stunned? Yeah, so were we.
According to NFL.com's Jason LaCanfora on Twitter: "Dolphins have had contact with Jim Harbaugh, who was in Florida last week for Orange Bowl. Continue to hear this could happen"
This could be interesting but. Apparently, Harbaugh will not decide until he hears what Stanford QB Andrew Luck decides to do. Luck, generally considered the best NFL ready QB in College Football, is an underclassman. He's eligible to go pro, but there is no consensus one way or the other as to whether he will.
Stay tuned.
As for Marvin Lewis, it appears he's staying in Cincinnati. Again, somewhat surprised, but we had a thought it might happen.
Per Adam Schefter on Twitter: "Bengals expect HC Marvin Lewis now will remain in Cincinnati. The two sides expect to resolve any issues within the next 24 hours"
Seriously, we were in the minority that thought Lewis would stick around with the caveat being what the Brown family wanted to do with his requests/demands. We, quite frankly are amazed that they may give in, though realistically, the team would have a hard time finding a coach better than Lewis. The Bengals, we think, realize who they are and can get better, but only if the organization makes some changes.
There is a lot to keep an eye on today and this week with today traditionally being a big day for coaching hires and fires in both the NFL and the NCAA.
Here are your story lines:
The big domino in all this is Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh. Where he ends up will determine what happens with quite a few others. Harbaugh is coaching Stanford in the Orange Bowl Monday night.
His name has already been attached to the Michigan job, should they fire Rich Rodriguez, but reports are surfacing that he's not interested.
Quite honestly, Rodriguez hasn't been fired yet after the Wolverines collapse late this season and into their bowl game. Athletic Director Dave Brandon says that he'll make a decision on Rich Rod's fate, by sometime this week.
The Detroit News speculates about what is next RIGHT HERE. Note in this story that the fall back plan may include San Diego State head coach Brady Hoke, who could actually be the best choice here.
The popular call: Harbaugh is going to the NFL, quite possibly with the 49ers, with the Broncos and former Stanford alum John Elway, making a case as well.
Other Coaching News:
We talked this weekend about the Vikings keeping Leslie Frazier and NFL.com's Michael Lombardi reporting the Jason Garrett will get interim removed from his head coaching title. There's much more.
Marvin Lewis/Courtesy: uglyfours.com
Will Marvin Lewis stay in Cincinnati? Doubtful. There have already been published reports that Marvin may be the one walking away from this marriage. He's let it be known he'd stay...but only on his terms. And quite honestly, his terms aren't unreasonable...except for the fact that he's in Cincinnati.
Marvin's contract expired yesterday. And we know he is meeting with team president/owner/alleged G.M Mike Brown today. We don't expect Brown to capitulate since he believes he's smarter than pretty much everyone else.
The local spin from WCPO Sports Director John Popovich RIGHT HERE
Yahoo Sports speculates Marvin could end up with the job at Pitt RIGHT HERE
Jeff Fisher/Courtesy: girlofwords.com
ESPN's Adam Schefter tweets "Niners target remains Stanford HC Jim Harbaugh. But team is also preparing to speak with Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis"
Another big name coach, Jeff Fisher. Fisher's Titans struggled mightily at the end of the season and didn't look totally interested in, well, much of anything the last few games. Combine that with the highly publicized battles between Fisher and owner Bud Adams' pet project, one Vince Young and you've got the possibility of the leagues longest tenured coach being unemployed this week.
The teams executive committee and Fisher are, according to reports, scheduled to meet later this week and decide what to do.
The Tennessean's David Climer wraps up the tumultuous Titan season...RIGHT HERE
And there's more.....
The Browns have parted ways with Eric Mangini leading to all kinds of speculation. From Team President Mike Holmgren taking the job, to perennial coaching job favorite Jon Gruden.
However, the name that keeps popping up....believe it or not, fired Carolina Panthers head coach John Fox.
From NFL.com's Jason LaCanfora via Twitter: "From what I've gathered on the Browns situation, I see John Fox landing there as head coach with Mike McCoy as offensive coordinator"
It does make some sense, Fox and Holmgren have known each other for years and Fox did have early success in Carolina. However, the Panthers have struggled mightily the past couple of years and though nobody directly pointed the finger at Fox, some blame has to go his way for losing his team.
As for McCoy, he is/was the Offensive Coordinator in Denver, but the Broncos don't currently have a Head Coach, and there is no guarantee that he'd get to keep his job, so it makes sense since Fox is a defensive guy and McCoy has gotten some props for what he's done in Denver.
Other nuggets:
NFL teams looking for coaches: The Carolina Panthers, San Francisco 49ers, The Cleveland Browns. Expect the Miami Dolphins and possibly the Jacksonville Jaguars to join that list along with the Cincinnati Bengals.
Possible Coaching names to watch: Mike Zimmer, D-Coordinator in Cincinnati, Atlanta Falcons O-Coordinator Mike Mularkey, possibly Bill Cowher and probably Jon Gruden...since he's attached to every job.
College Coaching Carousel: It all depends on what Harbaugh does. If he goes NFL, then Brady Hoke will be in play. Also, expect someone to take a run at Chris Peterson in Boise and Gary Patterson of TCU. Neither of them will leave. Mike Leach's name will continue to pop-up for jobs as well. And we are hearing that Mangini has already been attached to the opening at UConn since Randy Edsall left to go to Maryland.
All in all, it will be a busy next few weeks, as always, check in here at the Online Sports Guys for the latest in all of this.
Here is the most appropriate video clip we could find, from the movie Logan's Run, welcome to Carousel:
PM UPDATE: Leslie Frazier had the "interim" tag taken off his title in Minnesota...
Jack Del Rio is safe in Jacksonville... even though the team is 4-11 in December and January under Del Rio the last three years.
Del Rio is the first coach since the NFL merger in 1970 to lead the same team for eight years without capturing a division title.
Gary Kubiak remains head coach in Houston, but they'll need a new DC as Frank Bush is out. Houston also fired secondary coach David Gibbs, LB coach Johnny Holland and assistant LB coach Robert Saleh.
Bum Phillips showed up at Texans practice last week and chatted with owner Bob McNair. People are now thinking that Wade Phillips may be the new DC.
