It's Always Darkest Before The Dawn - Mike Nolan Interviewing With The Dolphins

Get your, "Good things come to those who wait" type cliches ready because Nolan will be a Dolphin.

Okay. Deep breath. This off-season has not exactly gone well. The zombie horde that is the NY jets is playing in the AFC Championship game. We have to listen to more Brett Favre bullshit than should be legal. The Dolphins fired their defensive coordinator and have been dissed by two different coaches. Al Groh wanted to be a college defensive coordinator. The Steelers linebacker coach, Keith Butler seemed to rather stay a linebackers coach than the Dolphins DC.

Not exactly the feeling of being "the team to join" like last year. The reality is that the Dolphins are a 7-9 team with aging OLBs, a problem at free safety and in the possession of two of the lowest rated interior linebackers in the NFL.

Then this happened. The madman that is Josh McDaniels decided to allow (or asked him to leave) Mike Nolan to give up the reigns as Denver's defensive coordinator.

That is the same Mike Nolan who took the 29th ranked defense (2008) and in a single year had them ranked 7th. That's with some Dolphins castoffs and some talented retreads (Brian Dawkins).

Nolan's exodus is most likely tied to the former DC in New England, Dean Pees, who resigned following the Patriots loss to Baltimore.

So Josh McDaniels gets his shitty but loyal guy and the Dolphins are now aggressively seeking Nolan, who should be in South Florida to interview by Wednesday.

Nolan even has some experience with Parcells, as he was the DC for the jets in 2000 when Bill Parcells was team president.

What is incredible about this is that Nolan is both young and fiery. He is a guy who players are loyal to and who runs one of the more aggressive, blitz oriented 3-4 schemes.

Mike Nolan is, in short, the cure for what ails the Dolphins defense. Does Patrick Willis mean anything to you? Well, Nolan drafted and worked with Willis.

Rolondo McClain anyone?

Bill Sheridan "Practically" In and Al Groh Is Next?

Hey Tone, who's going to coach me up?

As you all surely know, Paul Pasqualoni has been terminated as the Dolphins defensive coordinator. Add to that the departures of both the inside linebackers coach and outside linebackers coach and you have three vacancies.

The substantial word on the streets, AKA the best secret left unhidden, is that the NY Giants former defensive coordinator and linebackers coach, Bill Sheridan, will be joining the Phins as the linebackers coach. Whether this will be coaching the inside or outside, or perhaps both, is unknown.


Sheridan coached only one season as the DC in NY, and the Giants defense finished 13th in the league. They broke down after the first six games, mainly in the secondary, and allowed several 40+ point games at the end of the season. This was enough to force the Giants to terminate Sheridan.

The thing about this though, as you are probably already thinking, is that he is being hired to coach the linebackers not run an entire defense. This is something he is very good at. From 2005-2008 the Giants fielded a very solid linebacking corps, which included the likes of Antonio Pierce and more apropos to the Phins 3-4 system, Mathias Kiwanuka.

Kiwanuka, due to injuries to other personnel, successfully converted from 4-3 end to 4-3 outside linebacker on the strong side. He played very well for a 266 lbs guy in coverage. He then rotated back and forth from linebacker to defensive end when Osi Umenyiora went out in early 2008 during training camp.

You can obviously see the thread I'm tugging on. Sheridan turned a defensive end into a 4-3 outside linebacker. In other words he can really coach. My guess is that Sheridan will handle coaching up Wake to play in coverage and keep him on the field more next season, let alone getting more out of the two interior guys whoever they may be next year.

So the Sheridan signing is genius in my opinion. Teach Cam Wake to play in coverage. Let him destroy QBs on every other down. That and squeeze everything we can get out of third round selection, Micah Johnson. Sorry. That part might be fiction.

The secondary aspect about signing Sheridan is that it also brings on board a guy who can run an entire defense, which could be handy if we bring in the next guy I'm about to talk about.


Al Groh. Let's get a couple of things about the former University of Virginia head coach straight before talking what signing Al Groh would mean. Groh is not Dick LeBeau. He is not the recently deceased Jim Johnson. He isn't even Dom Capers. This is not a guy who has eight million blitzing schemes drawn-up on his shower curtain. He is yet a hard-nosed guy who will run a gap control defense that concerns itself with pressure more than glittery blitzing. He is basically a more accomplished version of Pasqualoni.

Groh has thrived under Parcells in the past. Groh has been nearly every kind of coach on the defensive side of the ball and has a lot of experience at head coach, even for a year at the professional level as the guy who followed Bill Parcells after his stint with the jets.

Groh has coached defensively for Parcells at nearly every stop the Big Tuna has made. The exception is Dallas.

What Groh would create is a stabilizing force who could both "coach up" and "fire up" players like a head coach as well as provide system continuity between what Pasqualoni was running and what he will install.

Like I said before, it is an upgraded version of what we already have. The guy did turn Chris Long into a defensive phenomena. Too bad Long he ended up on the Rams, never to be heard from again.

Back to Sheridan. Bill Sheridan is fifty years old and could potentially be groomed to fill in for Groh if he again finds himself courted as a head coach on the collegiate or professional level.

All that speculation aside, there are a couple of other names that are out there. One of them is former Browns head coach and longtime Parcells disciple (of the Belichick clan) Romeo Crennel. Romeo would be fine with me, as he seems to win player's respect and has run defenses that have maximized talented 3-4 down lineman in the past. Think Willie McGinist and Richard Seymour.

Crennel's agent has said that the Chiefs have first shot at Romeo's services and that in football agent speak sounds like a deal.

One other name that came up, and I think was totally preposterous, is Bengals defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer. His contract was up and he had turned the Bengals defense into a viable unit (after drafting a shit ton of top flight linebackers mind you). He is a 4-3 guy and no way in hell are they switching to that. Anyway, the Bengals retained Zimmer. So that is a moot point.

What I'd like to know is what blitz crazed mad scientist is out there coaching the 3-4 on the collegiate level. Where are thou, Dick LeBeau junior?

This Is Don Shula's Orange and Teal Earth

Until they drive the spike through my cold, beer-soaked hear I will be "talking Super Bowl."

In Fear and Tembling the Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard defines pure faith as absurd. In Kierkegaard's reasoning there is only one single example of pure faith and one clear instance of its reckoning.

Kierkegaard believed that the singular moment of faith in the history of mankind was the moment when Abraham brings his son Isaac to the mount as sacrifice, as god has asked him to do so. God had promised to Abraham that his son would become great and father many nations. God had promised a blessed life for Abraham's son. Thus god's request for Isaac's life was contrary to god's own previous law and and this makes the entire situation paradoxical for a reasoning man.

Abraham wasn't a reasoning man. He was a man of faith. The contrary notions do not occur to him. Only the will god and his need to execute it does.

Soren Kierkegaard has been dead for well over a hundred years. He never knew that on January 1st, 2010 there would be another instance of faith, surpassing even that of Abraham's. I mean, he controlled his own playoff spot. All he had to do is obey god.

We Dolphins fans however must rely purely on faith. I know the Phins will go to the playoffs because I have faith in them.

If they don't, well, then I'll go worship Baal or something.

GO PHINS! Let's beat the shit of the Steeler's and their extra gay mascot.