Saturday, December 18, 2010

Donovan McNabb is done in Washington


The Donovan McNabb era in Washington official came to an end yesterday when Mike Shanahan announced that he had bench him for the last 3 games of the season.  The era came to an end for a multiple reasons, the main being that the Kyle Shanahan, offensive coordinator for the Redskins, did not think McNabb fit the offensive scheme that he was running.  Though, I do agree that Donovan was not playing well this season, his struggles are more compounded into the dysfunction of the organization.  In my opinion, the Washington Redskins are the worst run franchise in sports.  Since Dan Snyder bought the team in 1999, the organization has been going downhill.  The way in which he wanted to build a team, with quick fixes from free agents, has been the main reason for this downfall of this once proud franchise.

With all the failures that the organization endured over the past 10 years, Dan Snyder decided that he needed to change his philosophy in building his team.  He then went out and hired Mike Shanahan and Bruce Allen to run his football operations for his organization.  As it turned out, he hired 2 men who have the old Snyder philosophy.  This is the main cause for McNabb's faults this year.  Shanahan has not managed any facet of this team correctly.  His handling of the Haynesworth situation to the way he has constructed this team, he has not been able to change the culture of this team.  With all of his decisions, he has failed both the organization and the fanbase and it proves to almost everyone, the Redskins are still the worst run organization in sports.

Will Muschamp's First Impression

As most of you know, Will Muschamp was introduced as the University of Florida's head football coach in a Tuesday press conference and these are my impressions and thoughts about him and his hiring.

Tuesday, December 14th, the University of Florida introduced its new head football coach, Will Muschamp.  As he walked up to the podium, I was wondering how he would conduct himself during the press conference and would it leave and impression on people.  In my opinion, he left a big impression.  From the beginning of the presser, he had an energy that was noticeable to everyone who was watching. It was a relentless energy that comes off throughout the presser.  This unrelenting energy was a great thing to see out of a coach because, as most seem to have saw, that Urban Meyer didn't show that energy throughout this lackluster season in Gainesville.  Bringing this energy back was the first thing that he needed to do for this team and for the fan base.

Throughout the press conference, he seemed to bounce around.  I think this was due to the moment and all the excitement that he was feeling.  Also, you could tell during the press conference, he was trying to prove to people that he was the right coach for the job.  There had been a lot of questions about his inexperience as a head coach and his philosophy on how he is going to run his program.  He answered  them with energy, but he seemed to say them over and over again.  I guess he was just trying to make his point on how he was going to run things.  One thing I was impressed about was that he wants to get rid of the off the field problems that have encompassed the program in the Meyer era.  We have had a lot of off the field problems with the football program and if Muschamp can change that, it will go a long way in helping our off the field image.

I was also interested in his football philosophy.  When it was first announced that he was going to be UF's new football coach, I was wondering what philosophy he would bring into UF.  We have played the spread option throughout the Meyer era and was wondering what offense he would bring in.  He said he was going to bring in a pro style offense with mixture of the spread.  I really like having the basic philosophy of a pro style offense because their wouldn't be as much gimmicks with this offense.  He also said he believes in running the ball, which I appreciate.  I tended to see that he brought along Nick Saban's (one of his mentors) offensive philosophy along with him from Texas.   His defensive philosophy will be an pro style, attacking defense.  This is good for the team because the players the Gators have will fit right into this philosophy.  I really like which styles of offense and defense he will use for this team.

I really like some of the things that he plans to put into place.  I really love his energy that he will bring to the program and to the fan base.  I really loved almost everything to come out of the press conference, but I still  worry about his inexperience, especially since we all expect championships every year at UF.  He says he understand this, but I'm afraid he will be overwhelmed at times this year.  Though I do have my worries,  I am overly optimistic for this coaching hire and I believe he will be the right man for the job.  

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Lattanzi Land: NFL Picks - Week 15 Thursday Night

My cousin Josh and I are still going at it with our picks. I'm only a game behind at the moment, but if you want to make your pick for the game tonight, just leave it in the comments section on his page.


Sunday, December 12, 2010