Texans Fire Richard Smith!!
 

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/6186849.html


Merry Christmas!!

Richard Smith Fired
 

Looks like the Texans are doing the deed and firing defensive coordinator Richard Smith. They also fired Hoke & Franklin. Here's the link from the Chronicle.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/6186849.html

wow, that was quick. I guess after several years of low defensive side performance something had to give. wonder who the replacements will be.

I hate to wish the guy ill will, but I hope we have a shot at Dick Jauron if he gets fired. I'd also call Mike Nolan. We need to once and for all get someone who knows what the hell they're doing on that side of the ball.

BTW, Hoke and Franklin were fired too. Can't say I'm surprised seeing Hoke go. They should have fired Marciano too.

Seems they are keeping Frank Bush, Johnny Holland, and Ray Rhodes.

Bush will either be the DC or DL.

Holland stay with the LBs.

Rhodes is with the safeties.

Now what?
Could Bubba McDowell be given a shot at the DBs, he interned here the last two summers.

Not seeing to many big named DC wanting to come in to a ready made staff, most want their own guys. Now Gregg Williams did step into the Jags job without his guys, so maybe. But remember Williams made $2M last year from Washington, how much money is he going to want?

After much research Nolan feel off my list. His defense always played worse for him then the guys he replaced. And the 49ers played better defense once he left.

Have the 49ers said anything about Singletary?

Would Gray be a cheaper answer to Williams? Will the Titans rehire Williams to replace the hot DC Schwartz?

Thanks. One of the best first posts I have seen!!!!!!

What about Sean McDermott... The Eagles secondary coach as a replacement? I doubt the Texans would have interest but it would be nice to bring in someone who has learned under one of the best DC in the game and has been in 43 defense that dials up the pressure.

Maricano is considered one of the best ST coaches in the league. I know our coverage teams were a bit down this year, but you'd be hard pressed to find a better replacement.

By who? I never heard anyone publicly say he one of the best and I don't think anyone is beating down the door to hire him away. ST has been average to mediocre at best for the last few years. It has noticeably gone downhill during that time, IMO. If we hold that standard with the other coaches like Smith, Hoke and Franklin, then we should hold it with the ST coach as well. IMO, our ST was atrocious this year. From the debacle in Jacksonville to the brain-dead on-side kick against the Raiders. I'm not sure what the hell they were doing in Oakland constanly kicking the ball short and giving them great field position. Sure, we could blame Kubiak, but they're not firing the HC so it's the ST coach who should take the fall in this case.

I actually think the defense improved this year over last year. Last year we couldn't get pressure on the QB even when we blitzed. The first part of this year it was the same thing all over again. Then, about the middle of the year, something mysterious happened: we still coudn't get much pressure with the front four, but suddenly our blitzes were working much better.

If you look at our stats, the db's and lb's seem to have had a pretty fair amount of sacks. That is encouraging to me. In other words, if we can get better results from just three spots (both tackles and the end opposite Mario), our defense could be much improved next year. It was actually a pleasure finally watching our defense force QB's into bad throws and bad decisions. That's something we seldom saw before the middle of this season. I wish I could put my finger on why it happened. Some have given Dunte most of the credit, but I'm not buying it. That's because we had poor results almost all last year, even before Dunte got injured. I'm wondering whether something concerning coaching happened to make us improve. Maybe Kubiak got more involved and started changing some of the things Smith was doing. Maybe Bush got more involved. Maybe it was because we were giving more playing time to guys like Adibi, Deljuan Robinson, and Bulman. Anyone have any theories about this?

Players have to make the plays. No scheme can make a bad player great. So the defense played better when better player got on the field.

Rhodes will handle all the DB's. That was my understanding anway, at least for now.

I doubt it...they might make him some kind of paid assistant to Rhodes though...but I would guess that will have a great deal to do with the new DC.

Greg Williams took the J-Ville job as a fill in until something else came along. He was getting the money from Washington, and was on a one year trial with the Jags. I think he would prefer to have some of his own staff in place this go around...but it wouldn't be that out of the ordinary for a few coaches to remain in place from the previous staff. Hoke was a hold over from Capers.

Dunno why the assistants, especially Franklin, had to be sent packing to, but Smith was clearly a scapegoat.
I think Franklin did an outstanding job. OK Amobie hasn't panned out but the Texans don't have the kinda guy playing next to him that can let him play his game, as TJs not the guy to compliment Okoye.
But Franklin has got to be given a lot of credit for Marios developement and that's very important to the organization because after David Carr there's been no player whos success was as important to the team as Mario because of the controversy in drafting him, not to mention the monetary investment. And Franklin found some real diamonds-in-the-rough (3 of them), in Bullman & Cochran & DeLJuan.

I can kind of see your point, but there are 3 young first round picks on the line and only one of them has really developed. Not that that is totally Franklins fault, but couple that with the lack of consistent pressure from the front four and I see why he's gone.

Hoke has been given a lot of pub for being a good young coach, but I commented a hile back that players seem to regress the longer they are with him. Faggins, Robinson, and Bennett all regressed to some extent after their rookie years (or first significant playing time). The secondary has been an issue for just about the whole time the Texans have been in the league....and Hoke has been the man in charge there the whole time. He's not always had the best talent (Matt Stevens) to be fair. Either way I guessed he was on the way out.

A new D-coordinator, assuming it's not Bush, will want to bring in some of his own people too. This gives them some room to do that.

Don't know how much input Franklin had in the schemes but Mario said a few weeks back that the D line's first responsibility is to stay home and read and react to what the offense is doing. I think this is a terrible scheme for Amobi, as his strength is his quickness and his weakness is trying to hold the line. If Franklin was partly responsible for implementing this scheme, it does reflect poorly on his ability to scheme to his players' strengths.

I agree as to Hoke. The limited talent he was given didn't greatly improve under his tutelage. As an aside, I'm still amazed that a team with as little secondary talent as this team has had since day 1 let both Marlon McCree and Aaron Glenn walk for nothing. While they may not have been great, we were never in a position to just let servicable players walk. If Hoke played any role in this talent evaluation, he bears some responsibility for that as well (although it would be coming 3 years too late).

Totally agree. Every one of our players ,other than maybe Weaver, are better suited as one gap type guys. Okoye, Johnson, Bullman, Deljuan, and so on. I never understood why they used them liked they did. I understand how much riskier it is to tell all your lineman to shoot the gaps, but that's the roster they've got. The brunt of the scheme falls on Richard Smith's shoulders, so I don't blame Franklin at all for that. His group didn't perform well though, so he's gone. It might not be fair, but that's the way it works.
I wanted McCree back, but he played better than anyone could have expected the season after he left, so hindsight makes that decision look even worse. Glenn was definitely on the way down, but the C&C suck factory thought we we're much further along than we were and placed too much faith in the young players on the team. They totally under-estimated Glenn's positive effect on the players around him from a mentor/role model perspective.

If you look back to Okoye's pre-draft evalualions, they all said that he was terrific at shooting the gap, but only had average to below average speed and strength. That being the case, I can't help but wonder why the Texans drafted him if they weren't planning to use him as a penetrater.

Another question I have is who was mainly responsible for the overall scheme of the defense? The idea of playing read and react. The Idea of having two small tackles but not using them to penetrate. The idea of having smallish LB's to go along with small DT's. The idea of not moving corners from side to side. The idea of not playing more press coverage. Our whole defense seemed passive most of the time. I wonder who was most responsible for that?

I cant say I am sad to see Smith go. While his pre-snap vanilla def scheme was a good idea it just didnt work. And for some reason it was so complex that it made schemes like the Steelers and Ravens have seem like elementry classes, because every time the def was made "less complex" they always played better.

I cant say that Hoke suprises me much either, while he may be highly touted his results have been poor. I will give him a nudge for having no great talent on the roster though.

Franklin isnt a big suprise either, while I understand that he is suppsed to be a good line coach the line played way better after Bush showed up.

I wouldnt be at all suprised if Bush was named DC very soon, as he was Kubiaks guy from the start. I think Smith was just given a bit of rope becasue he was already in place and the organization prodes itself on image, immediatly firing a DC who hadnt been given much of a shot when he wasnt told he was the interm DC is not somethig the Texans Org. would do. It is entirely possible that Smith and Kubiak have been drating for a different def closer to what they expected Bush, or the next coordinator to run, rather the def that Smith was trying to run.

I also wouldnt bee suprised if there was no secondary coach hired unless they are an assitant to Rhodes.

As for Marciano, I cannot quote anything, but my understanding is that he is one of the best ST coaches in the out there also. This year was was bad for ST coverage and return wise. Pittman, while supposedly being one of the better LS out there was bad, supposedly because of his drug tests. JJ has had serious issues not only carring the ball tight but, some missed catches and bad mental mistakes. Brown has been off and the last 4-5 games almost all his kicks seemed very short, his miss real close, and passing on a 51 yarder make me think that he may be having either mental or physical issues.

If you look at alot of the depth on our team they are very young with a sprinlling of experience, but less ST players than we have had in the past. I think that some of the ST problems came from wanting better depth while passing on some of the ST abilities where as in the past it seemed the other way around, ST abilities would sway the decision over some of the position ability.

Ditto :D

Let the dogs run and attack.

I wonder what Capers is doing about now?

Bite your tongue!


I've already gone on record about wanting Sean McDermott. However, let me make a case for somebody else just for the moment.

Can anybody guess who was 4th in the NFL in total defense behind the Steelers, Ravens, and Eagles? They let their high-priced Defensive Coordinator from the year before go on his merry way and replaced him with Greg Blache. I'd imagine that name doesn't ring too many bells.

The Defense allowed only 288 yards per game, while the Texans allowed 336 (22nd). This defensive unit allowed 296 total points (6th), compared to the Texans 394 points (27th). The Redskins were able to do that with one less sack than us.

Now Blache has no reason to jump ship for the same job, but there is a guy on his staff who you might know. His credentials include playing for the Rams, Oilers, and Bucs. He coached at SMU before coaching with the Titans and Bills. He is on everybody's Rooney list when interviews for HC positions come open. Why not take a look at bringing in Jerry Gray to run the defensive side of the ball?

Seriously, he's with Bill Billicheck in New England.

http://www.nfl.com/teams/newenglandp...e=head&team=NE

Dom Capers

Special assistant/Secondary coach; born August 5, 1950, Cambridge, Ohio. Defensive back Mount Union College 1968-1971. No pro playing experience. College coach: Kent State 1972-74, Hawaii 1975-76, San Jose State 1977, California 1978-79, Tennessee 1980-81, Ohio State 1982-83. Pro coach: Philadelphia/Baltimore Stars (USFL) 1984-85, New Orleans Saints 1986-1991, Pittsburgh Steelers 1992-94, Carolina Panthers 1995-98 (head coach), Jacksonville Jaguars 1999-2000, Houston Texans 2001-05 (head coach), Miami Dolphins 2005-2207, joined Patriots in 2008.

One final name I'll drop tonight comes from Seattle. I'm not sure if Mora Jr. is going to be keeping everybody in place up there once he's the Head Honcho. Ray Rhodes has some ties up there too.

He's a little young, but so is Kyle Shanahan.

Zerick Rollins

Linebackers; born June 20, 1975, Houston. Defensive end Texas A&M 1995-97. No pro playing experience. Graduate assistant Texas A&M 1997-2000. Pro coach: Joined Seahawks in 2001.

I guess a few of you guys do not read the TT forum, so I will send you to the Z report on Chron.com.

Lance makes his prediction on the 3 jobs available. It makes sense.

For the DC, he is looking at Frank Bush, this has always been Kubiaks 1st choice. Not a reach here.

For the DB/CB David Gibbs of the KC Chiefs, formally of the Broncos. He is son of Alex. David has a solid track record and it would please Alex, which means he might stay longer.

Last but not least, DL the guys who was considered the top DL coach a few years ago, the man who help to shape Warren Sapp, Rod Marinelli. He might want to go this low, but make him asst HC/DL, he might jump at the chance to work with Mario and Okoye.

Interesting thoughts.

I saw that also. Makes some sense to me. The only thing that bothers me is the Bush pick. I'm just not sure what to make of him right now. Was he a non factor under Smith or was he the reason they played some games much more aggressively? If he was just a cog in the Smith wheel and didn't do much, I don't think we should want him. If on the other hand, there was some sort of trial period where he planed the defensive calls for the last 4-5 games, well then he is probably OK. I'm just not sure what sort of DC he is/would be. IMO, we have an opportunity to become a pretty big factor in the league if we can become say a top 10-15 defense. The offense is already pretty darn good and we will tweak that a bit in the offseason, but we just can't afford to screwup this opportunity to get the defense right.

Jerry Gray would be my first choice.

Remember all the big names we had listed when Kubiak was hired and he wanted Frank Bush and Richard Smith? Not Jim Bates, not Jerry Gray.

No matter what we want it's who Kubiak wants that matters. :mad:

All I can say is Hallelujah on the Smith firing! I know the offensive turnovers and redzone collapses didn't help the defense or help us win games. BUT, giving up over 30 points six times and averaging 28 ppg or whatever, that's ridiculous!

As for Bush, I find it hard to believe that as bad as this defense was, we had the answer under our nose the whole time. If Smith was struggling and Bush was the answer, why not let him call a game or two. Why wouldn't Bush try and help Smith? If he did try, then he wasn't successful and he doesn't deserve the job.

I banged the drum long and hard on this board for Richard Smith's dismissal, so I can't crawfish now, but it did seem that he was just doing what Kubes told him to. Oh well, on to a new DC.

I agree that Frank Bush is here, and he was the choice even before Richard Smith. I would sure like to see Greg Williams get a shot at our perenially underperforming defense, though. If Marinelli would come all the way down to being a defensive line coach again, I would love to see him do that for the Texans, but I think that is farfetched.

Heck yeah. I've brought up Gray's name here before, like here.

Well, he maybe didn't want Gray because he interviewed against him for the HC position. Awkward! So I don't think Gray was a serious DC candidate back then, but if Kubiak is serious about giving someone other than Frank Bush a shot, then Gray ought to be heard from again.

But as you say, Kubiak is probably more interested in hiring the familiar.

Speaking of...

Wow, how did I not think of this? Seems like an ideal hire for Kubiak. Would need to find a way to get the Chiefs to allow him to interview here, a la with something more than a lateral move, assuming Gibbs the Younger is still employed by KC in 2009 (situation with asst. coaches in KC is somewhat up in the air I think). Anyway, just asking him to be our DB coach if he is retained by KC would require their permission if I understand the rules correctly here.

It wouldn't shock me at all to see Ray Rhodes move up to DC. He has both DC and HC experience and he's already under contract. Jerry Gray wouldn't hurt my feelings in the least but I'm sure it will cost less to promote your experienced assistants who are already here and hire assistants to replace them rather than go out and sign a new DC.

While I wouldnt mind seeing Rhodes step in as DC, i seriously doubt that it would happen. He came out of retirement to be an assitant, and like Gibbs, stated that he didnt want all the responsibilities of coordinator. I think he is happy where he is.

I doubt very much that Rhodes would take the DC job. He has some serious health issues that prevent him from putting in the hours and taking the stress that comes with a DC position.

It really befuddles me to think that Kubiak would look within to fill the DC vacancy. The decision to fire Smith was not a last minute thing, Kubiak said he looked at the body of work and didn't see the progress required to bring Richard back. Now, if Kubiak saw this was coming, based upon the last couple of years (not the last couple of games) then it would have been prudent to give the duties to Bush in order to determine if there would be the NEED to bring in somebody from the outside or not during the offseason.

While I have thrown out some professional options, let me add some college spice to the situation. Here are three names worth considering for the vacancy.

Mark Banker – Oregon State, San Diego Chargers
Mike Archer – NC State, Pittsburgh Steelers
Vic Koenning – Kansas State University, Clemson, Memphis

These are three current defensive coordinators at the college level. Archer and Banker both have some professional experience. NC State was 16th in total defense, Oregon State was 11th in total defense, and Kansas State led the Nation in total defense. Here are their bio pages...

http://www.gopack.com/ViewArticle.db...&Q_SEASON=2008

http://www.osubeavers.com/sports/m-f...er_mark00.html

http://www.kstatesports.com/ViewArti...&Q_SEASON=2009

Because there is not a better place to put this, on the other board, TT.com, one of the regular poster, Dan B., had a interesting encounter with Frank Bush

A very interesting little post, and you guys should all read the entire thing.

On all the boards I have watched a large group of poster screaming about how Kubiak was not dealing with Smith and the Defense, and how was he going to promote a person that was part of the problem. How? Why?

1) Kubiak is media smart, and he uses the media to build his guys and the program. He never airs his dirty laundry. He does that behind closed doors, as any good manager should.

2) How could he consider Bush? Think about how Bush finally arrived here? He came in not with the title of Co-DC, that was Smith's job, and Kubiak was not going to slap the man (Smith) in public with a Co-DC title. He came here and wanted to fit in, the defensive playbook had been basically designed and in place. Bush was not going to come in and wholesale change what Smith (his good friend) had already done.

We do not know the behind closed door workings, and should expect Kubiak, and McNair to be much better to assess the team.

I agree after last year, more control over Smith should have been done. But we are not sure about what micro managing Kubiak was doing on the defense, or lack of time for defensive matter due to micro managing of the offense.

Maybe Kubiak has grown enough as a HC to see the errors of his past and this time we get better results. If not I do not see McNair making the same CC for to long mistake.

I understand the purpose of the Zone-Blitz. However, the benefit of "surprise" is outweighed by the risk of having Jesse Nading covering Devin Hester in the End Zone. I'm wondering if Kubiak informed Smith that that play was off limits.

Bush is the "Senior Defensive Assistant" so I guess he'll be heavily involved with any new defensive coordinator. Perhaps he will be the X.O. and make sure the trains run on time while the D.C. can think big strategy stuff.

I read that post yesterday and my impression was that although it was a fascinating read, it didn't reveal as much as the poster thought it did. It just reinforced my belief that it is REALLY hard to know what is going on inside an organization like the Texans.

First, it didn't say what calls Kubiak disallowed, or even what percentage of the calls. Or what types of calls. A lot of fans have wondered whether Kubiak was unhappy with the lack of agressiveness of the defense and therefore during the season forced Smith to be more agressive, but what Bush said seems to reveal the exact opposite: that the midseason increase in blitzing was something brought about by new personnel on the field who allowed them to blitz more.

The truth is, this organization is VERY tight lipped. Nothing wrong with that, actually. Their job is to win, not to inform. I myself hold out the possibility that Kubiak may not even have been the one who decided to pull the plug on Smith. It may have been the owner. After all, the announcement came the day after Kubiak had a long meeting with him.

If Bush was the X.O., then he basically handled the men, while Smith supposedly made the gameplan, to extend RP's analogy. Why didn't Kubiak give Bush more of a chance to "make the defense" to see how well he would perform? No, I still would like to see some new blood brought in to give us a fresh viewpoint on things.

are we seriously supposed to believe that Frank Bush discusses the inner workings of the Texans coaching staff with a waiter. Especially the part where Frank Bush talks with his waiter about how Kubiak is learning to stop micro-managing. I am sure Frank Bush is real eager to talk to the Chili's guy (or wherever they were) about shortcomings of his boss.

Total BS.