Dominos, Falling

One of these men is an accomplished head coach

The old man was right, history does repeat. But what he failed to tell me when I began this mission is that it also inverts. Today, we have the strange case of the San Diego Chargers...

Last month, Marty Schottenheimer's offensive coordinator Cam Cameron left the Chargers to become the head coach of the Miami Dolphins, that team reeling from huckster Nick Saban's quick exit for the money after two seasons. Then in quick succession, Marty lost linebackers coach Greg Manusky (new 49ers defensive coordinator), tight ends coach Rob Chudzinski (new Browns offensive coordinator) and defensive coordinator Wade Phillips (new Cowboys head coach). Believing that overcoming a public cold war between Chargers GM AJ Smith and Marty was a smaller challenge than rebuilding a senior coaching staff, Chargers owner Dean Spanos let Marty go.

Curly R aside: how's that whole PR thing working out for you, Nick? Tip from non-football coach: any word describing ah an ethnic person is touchy enough and those that contain either the term 'coon' or 'ass' should be avoided.

Enter Norval Turner, who had been atop the Cowboys coaching list before being passed over by Jerral W. Jones, in favor of Wade Phillips. Yesterday, Norval was named head coach of the Chargers, complete with a four-year contract. Generally, I'm with the San Diego Union-Tribune's Nick Canepa: the least-bad move for a team with few options.

Norval Turner
San Diego is a homecoming for Norval, in more ways than two. Don Coryell, Hall of Fame coach of the Chargers from 1978 to 1986, passed his offensive philosophy over five seasons on to one Ernie Zampese, who in turn passed it on to Norval between 1987 and 1990 when the two worked together on John Robinson's Los Angeles Rams staff. Norval went on to join Jimmy Johnson's Dallas Cowboys staff in 1991, running an offense that won two Super Bowls in his three seasons there.

With great fanfare despite his heritage as the playcaller for the hated NFC Beast rivals, Norval was hired in 1994 by Jack Kent Cooke to be the Redskins coach following the sad Richie Petitbon debacle. Norval never marshaled discipline or particularly winning ways in Washington, managing 49 wins, 59 losses and a tie in 6 and 13-sixteenths seasons. Heath Shuler (D-NC 11) and Gus Frerotte manifested a quarterback trainwreck like none since Billy Kilmer and Sonny Jurgensen. Michael Westbrook kung fu'd his way right out of the league and we saw the reuniting of Alvin Harper with the coach that won him two Super Bowl rings in Dallas to the tune of two catches in twelve games.

Other milestones in Norval's career in Washington: in 1994 the Redskins lost all eight home games, a feat never before accomplished by the Redskins in a 16-game schedule; in 1996, the Redskins opened the season 7-1...before going 2-6 to finish 9-7, and out of the playoffs; 1997 was a sawtooth season for the Redskins, with the team never winning or losing more than two in a row to finish 8-7-1; in 1998, the Redskins had almost the reverse of 1996, starting the season 0-7 before finishing 6-10; 1999 was Norval's only 10-win season in Washington, and the Redskins made the playoffs before a bad snap by Dan Turk, mishandled by brother and client Dan Turk; finally, in 2000, Norval was fired by new owner Dan Snyder after losing to the Giants. Dan Snyder told Norval to wait in his office for the owner to come back and meet with him. Two hours later and tired of being treated like a child sent to his room, Norval left and went home. He was fired the next day. The Redskins were still in playoff contention.

After his dismissal from the Redskins, Norval joined Mike Riley's staff in San Diego for the 2001 season as offensive coordinator, then on to two seasons in 2002 and 2003 as offensive coordinator working for his old Dallas co-coordinator Dave Wannstedt. Norval was head coach of the Raiders in 2004 and 2005, getting fired after tallying 9-23. In 2006, Norval went to work for Mike Nolan, his former defensive coordinator in Washington. Last season, the 49ers were in the bottom half offensively in scoring and passing, but enjoyed the wicked coming-out of running back Frank Gore, a player that made a lot of fantasy players happy. The 49ers reportedly offered Norval good money to stay in San Francisco.

Courtesy of Blogging the Boys via Hogs Haven, Norval never ran too hot an offense despite his reputation as a 'mind,' averaging 17th over his entire time as an offensive coordinator or head coach. I have a great deal of respect for Norv, but I think he is unable to manage it all. He is an excellent coordinator in a system that does not require emotional leaders at the coordinator level. Norv will work with whatever players you give him, and has a middling track record of player development when he is the head coach.

Norval is the third Redskins head coach to earn the Curly R history treatment, after Jack Pardee and Marty Schottenheimer.


Cam Cameron
Continuing coaching lineage, new Redskins head coach Norval Turner hired University of Michigan's quarterbacks coach Cam Cameron to be the Redskins quarterbacks coach, a position he held for three seasons from 1994 to 1996. In this period, Norval and Cam working together the Redskins offense got better. The first season, John Friesz and Heath, was all about the system and the team scored overwhelmingly on the pass as Norv continued to force it even when clearly bad. In the second season, Heath and Gus, the offense was more balanced but not as good overall and in the third season, Heath for one half and then all Gus, the Redskins took that balance and ran power offense with big ground scoring.

Despite a chaotic upbringing in the league, Gus managed to go to the Pro Bowl after that season and going into the 1997 season, it was In Gus We Trust (check 1m30s) in Washington.

Before the 1997 season, Cam left the Redskins to become the head coach of his alma mater, Indiana University, where he compiled an overall losing record of 18-37 in five seasons and is quote "credited" with the development of former Indiana quarterback and current Redskins receiver and returner Antwaan Randle El. It is true that Antwaan was an explosive player in college, like Michael Vick and Eric Crouch, just a player that opposing teams cannot answer. But last time I checked, football was played on both sides of the ball and Cam was, er unable to see his vision through to fruition at Indiana.

And this catches us back up with the timeline. Before the 2002 season, Cam returned to the pro league, as new Chargers head coach Marty Schottenheimer's offensive coordinator. After the 2001 season, the Chargers did not retain head coach Mike Riley and offensive coordinator Norval interviewed and was not hired. Rather than wait around to see what happened with the next coach, Norval packed his carpet bag and headed off to Miami. Marty was hired and liked the offense ok so he found the next best thing: Cam Cameron, thus completing the loop from Don Coryell to Ernie Zampese to Norval Turner to Cam Cameron back to Norval Turner so maybe it's more like a figure eight with a fat bottom and a little loop on top.

After getting his bearings (and sticking with Marty after the Chargers nearly fired him after the 2003 season), Cam ran a consistently top-drawer offense, ranking 20, 16, 3, 5 and 1 in points scored in his five seasons (stats from here).

Now Cam gets to do what Norval did, all those years ago except without the Super Bowl rings giving him fingercramps, go off and coach his own team. Cam is cut directly from the Norval mold and I think he will be a great coordinator and will need to make it happen fast not to be let go in three seasons. A wonky guy with his head in a playbook, a guy that tries but can't conjure words to motivate millionaires to do what they get paid for I don't think can survive long as head coach except in a special system, those that have checks and balances and the Dolphins don't and I thought the Chargers did but they just fired Marty Schottenheimer.


Marty Schottenheimer
Think I covered that one pretty well here. You don't fire a guy that wins 60% of his games because he's a prick. Being a prick is a potential side effect of being a successful NFL coach. My guess is that AJ Smith convinced Dean Spanos that AJ Smith is most responsible for the Chargers overall performance, not Marty Schottenheimer. Everyone knows it takes two.

The conditions for coaches like Cam Cameron and Norval Turner to win big have to be just right. They are simply not there period for Cam, and for Norval, next season or the next may come his best chance. After that, experience tells me the team will begin to get bored and those that seek leadership from coach will find it is only there in the playbook.



Norval Turner from here. Cam Cameron from here. Marty Schottenheimer from here. Act fast kids because all these webpages are likely to expire.