76 replies to this topic

[hepcat]

Calling the 2011 season a "false sense of success" is accurate.

[goodoleboy]

80%coaching 20% players...The 49ers went 13-3 last year with the same team they had prior that went 6-10. All they did was change the coach. The 49ers have had top talent for the past few years but didn't have a competent coaching staff to prepare them to win games. Maybe you've never played, but I've played on poorly coached teams and teams with good coaches. Coaching is the difference maker

If that is the case why even scout players. Its all coaching anyway. Fox must have been one hell of a coach when we went 12-4 a few years ago...right?

[SOJA]

couple of things- I wish the stupid radio announcer hadn't just said "Well I disagree with you on Godfrey" but had asked Polian "WHY" he thinks he is a good player

Second, this team is a few close calls and plays from having a COMPLETELY different spin on it. I don't think we are a mess, I think we are a few good decisions away from a playoff team

[Wine&Cheese]

Listen to it....he should have charged the Panthers for that insight....other than the Godfrey backing...he was pretty much dead on.

I agree... His credibility was instantly shot when he said Charles Godfrey was a "quality player". I thought to myself, there is no way in hell this guy actually watches the Panthers play making comments like that. He's an analyst now, just a talking head that follows the other talking heads in the national media.

Not a chance he watches film on a small market, 3-8 Panthers team, let alone a nobody safety like Godfrey.

[beastson52]

And Bill Gates thought computers would never need more than 640k of memory. Smart people screw up in their specialized field all the time.

Off subject but, your wrong. Bill Gates never said this. He said 640k "would last a great deal of time". Anyone in electronics or computer field knows you can never put boundaries or limits on these things because technology changes so fast. Not trying to attack you or anything just letting you know.

[LinvilleGorge]

I have to be missing something on Charles Godfrey. I've never been high on him. He makes some great plays, but it seems like he completely blows 2-3 plays for every one great own he makes. Good safeties just don't do that. However, both the Fox staff and Rivera staff seem high on him. Say what you want about either as a head coach, but those two guys know defense. If both of them like him, it's gotta be me who's missing something.

[CatMan72]

Remember, Peyton Manning is making John Fox look like an offensive genius...

[rayzor]

all i'm going to say is he's giving charles godfrey and the coaching staff waaaayyyy too much credit.

i think he's been given waaaaayyyyy too much credit for indy's success during the peyton year. his team sucked and he just happened to "win" the first draft pick the same year that probably the best QB in NFL history (or one of the best) entered the league. polian just rode the wave.

[rayzor]

fwiw, i just remembered a couple discussions going on around the time that polian was fired about why he was fired and the perception people around the league have of him.

i'm just going to past the main part of it just in case anyone is interested...and in case someone disputes my assertion that polian was overrated.

it's not about the losing seasons. there's a whole lot more going on.

i started a thread a few weeks back about some of the things that was going on inside indy and how polian never wanted dungy as coach.

cut and pasted for your reading pleasure:
pretty interesting read...esp. considering those who wish that polian had stuck around here.

The only Colts coach Polian has ever hired was Jim Mora Sr. The marriage ended badly, with Polian firing Mora after he refused to dimiss his then-defensive coordinator, Vic Fangio, following the 2001 season. Today, Fangio coordinates Jim Harbaugh's San Francisco 49ers defense, which ranks No. 1 in the NFL. Mora Sr. still has not spoken a word to Polian since their break-up ten years ago.
After Mora, the common myth is that Polian then hired former Tampa Bay head coach Tony Dungy. Not true. Polian never had any intention of hiring Dungy back in 2002. It was Colts owner Jim Irsay who wanted Dungy despite Polian's protests. To make the situation work, Irsay and Polian went to Tampa, met with Dungy, and worked things out. The rest is history, as they say.
Phil Wilson of the Indianapolis Star spoke about the hiring of Dungy yesterday on an Indianapolis radio show:

Dungy wasn't Polian's guy. I know that for a fact, that Dungy was not who Bill wanted. Jimmy [Irsay] basically got Bill on a plane. He went down to Tampa. They got Tony and Bill in a room and said, You work it out. Jimmy just made it clear: He's my coach.

It's always been speculated that Polian wanted to hire Nick Saban as the Colts head man after Mora was canned. Some of you might not know this, but Saban was who Polian wanted to hire in 1998. The deal never materialized. Polian settled for Mora.
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As Phil Wilson astutely points out, the problem with keeping the Polians around is, quite simply, many coaches don't want to work for them. The Polians have an awful reputation in league circles for being insufferable pricks (they act that way with everyone, not just media), and they are known as meddlers. They will want full control over the roster, and they will also want the next head coach to retain some of the current assistants working under Caldwell.
Wilson explains to radio personality Dan Dakich on his show yesterday:

It's complicated, as you probably have already surmised, when you've talked about with me or your listeners. If Bill is still in place, there's certain coaches he'll want to keep. And, a head coach who comes in is going to want some control. He's going to want to do things his own way, a little bit. Well, that's not the Colts.

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Look, we continue to beat this drum, and we will do so until Jim Irsay opens his eyes and realizes the obvious: Bill Polian and his useless sons must be purged from the front office at the end of the season. I don't know how Jim Irsay could sell to the fanbase that soon-to-be-thrice-fired Norv Turner is going to lead the Colts to a championship. And since it seems unlikely that any sort of credible head coach would ever come to Indy and deal with the overbearing asshats who currently run the front office, the question is: Why keep them?
Why keep the Polians? How do they help? How do they improve the quality of the franchise?
Their recent draft record is horrible. They spurn free agency. They can't hire quality coaches. People around the league refer to them as 'toxic.'


http://www.stampedeb...might-want-norv

btw...if you're wondering about that "toxic" quote:

As pointed out by Brad Wells of StampedeBlue.com via email and Jason Whitlock of FOXSports.com via Twitter, Bob Kravitz of the Indianapolis Star has crafted a compelling case for blaming the team’s current struggles on the son of Vice Chairman Bill Polian.
Based on interviews with several unnamed former Colts employees conducted in recent weeks, Kravitz writes that G.M. Chris Polian is a “toxic force who has brought this franchise to its knees for reasons other than Peyton Manning’s injury.” Apart from Chris Polian’s decisions as the man in charge of personnel, Kravitz explains that damage was done as Chris Polian stood on his father’s shoulders to leapfrog others on the organizational chart.
“[S]ince he started moving up the organizational ladder in the early 2000s for no apparent reason other than being a Polian,” Kravtiz writes, “he has been instrumental in hastening the exits of scouts and assistant coaches who led the Colts to previous greatness.”
http://profootballta...e-of-the-colts/

and i'll ask the same question...when was the last time he had a good draft? '06?

[rayzor]

oh yeah...i just remembered what polian said about mike shula and saying that he's one of the best QB coaches in the league.

where's the success? where's the list of QBs he's turned into studs?

i'll get you started:
1) ____________________________

[fieryprophet]

Off subject but, your wrong. Bill Gates never said this. He said 640k "would last a great deal of time". Anyone in electronics or computer field knows you can never put boundaries or limits on these things because technology changes so fast. Not trying to attack you or anything just letting you know.

That's what he says he said, now. The actual quote was an off-the-cuff remark he made during their New Mexico days, so I'm sure he didn't mean it literally. However, the point still stands.

[AceMan]

As soon as Godfrey came up, I got the natural inclination to disregard everything he said

[spartan_pantherfan]

Weather or not I agree there has to be something to Godfrey. Everyone from coaches ( past and current ) to commentators think he's a good player, as fans at some point we have to admit we may just be wrong. His misfires may be due to errors by other players or bad play call. Fox has made top defense year in and out loved him Rivera who has top D's on his resume loves him. Sometimes guns we are not as smart as we think we are.

[spartan_pantherfan]

Weather or not I agree there has to be something to Godfrey. Everyone from coaches ( past and current ) to commentators think he's a good player, as fans at some point we have to admit we may just be wrong. His misfires may be due to errors by other players or bad play call. Fox has made top defense year in and out loved him, Rivera who has top D's on his resume loves him. Sometimes guys we are not as smart as we think we are.

[Snake]

Dudes a dick, and was ran out of town by the colts. He still has sower grapes from the panthers days and he will never be happy with our success.