Jump to content

  • Welcome!

    Register and log in easily with Twitter or Google accounts!

    Or simply create a new Huddle account. 

    Members receive fewer ads , access our dark theme, and the ability to join the discussion!

     

Shula excited to be a coordinator again

jtnc

By jtnc,
in Carolina Panthers

Recommended Posts

jtnc Newbie

jtnc

Posted
Posted

MOBILE, Ala.

During his final year as Tampa Bay's offensive coordinator in 1999, Mike Shula coached a pair of proven running backs in Mike Alstott and Warrick Dunn and a rookie quarterback in Shaun King.

The Bucs put up pedestrian offensive numbers, but fell a game short of the Super Bowl.

Fourteen years later, Shula is an offensive coordinator again after the Panthers promoted him last week. He inherits a veteran running back corps featuring DeAngelo Williams, Jonathan Stewart and Mike Tolbert.

Instead of a rookie quarterback, Shula has a franchise quarterback – the same one he's worked with the past two seasons: Cam Newton.

“I'm excited because number one, our quarterback,” Shula said Tuesday following the first of two Senior Bowl practices. “And I'm excited because of the guys that we're coaching.”

Shula, 47, said his offense will resemble the one Rob Chudzinski ran for two years before becoming Cleveland's coach. But Shula, the former Alabama quarterback and head coach, wants to put his own stamp on it.

“I think we're going to try to keep all the good stuff,” Shula said, laughing. “There's going to be a lot that's going to look similar. But there's going to be other things that we'll continue to throw around in the offseason.”

Shula said he was proud of the way the players ended the season after a tough start. The Panthers won five of their last six games to finish 7-9 and in second place in the NFC South, enough to keep Ron Rivera in Charlotte another year and get Chudzinski hired in Cleveland.

Shula said the key is continuing to find new ways to utilize Newton, who enjoyed the best stretch of his two-year career over the second half of last season.

“Obviously, we want to make things as best we can to allow our quarterback to play fast. And I think he's playing faster,” Shula said. “I'm more excited about him now than I was this time last year.”

--Joseph Person

http://blogs.charlotte.com/panthers/

Link to comment
Share on other sites
carpanfan96 Grand Master

carpanfan96

Posted
Posted

OK, I think TE took a step up on the priority list. The team will get back to running the two TE sets more and will need a TE. Maybe draft one in the middle rounds or something along those lines. Also the RB crew should be excited for this move as they should see the ball a bit more then they did last season.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Salvo Newbie

Salvo

Posted
Posted

I'm cautiously optimistic. He doesn't exactly have the resume to push his own agenda and act stubborn in situations when flexibility is required. Of course, that doesn't mean anything now that he has an offense worth a damn. Kinda hard to gauge how well he will do since he was so bad the last time he called plays in the NFL.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing

  • PMH4OWPW7JD2TDGWZKTOYL2T3E.jpg

  • Topics

  • Posts

    • SCMunnerlyn1
      Carolina Still Not Respected

      By SCMunnerlyn1 · Posted

      Just as we won those close games we could have just as easily lost them. So the jury is out on if we were more lucky than good ( see the sweep by the saints) Were moving forward on paper. And how badly dont we all want to see us back to at least Above average form. Its about time. 
    • frankw
      Ranked Panthers as the Best this year!!

      By frankw · Posted

      If you're looking for a pat on the back it sounds good in theory until you realize they also had the 2023 Panthers as the top draft class.
    • Khyber53
      Carolina Still Not Respected

      By Khyber53 · Posted

      Going into the 2003 and 2015 seasons we were supposed to be the joke of the league each time. In 2003, John Fox was supposed to still be in rebuild mode. We had a guy named Peppers on the defensive line who was supposed to be pretty good. We had Rodney Peete as our starting QB and a line that was a lot of hope and not much experience. Our new running back was a guy the Redskins, errrr Commanders, had jettisoned for being too old. We had a good kicker and writers thought that was needed because there were going to be more field goals than touch downs. Heck, it looked like they were right up until just before halftime of that first game when we had to yank Rodney Peete and put in some Cajun duded whose name couldn't be pronounced. And Steve Smith? He wasn't Smitty yet. Moose Muhammad, well, he was close to being written off as a bust. You know how that turned out. And then in 2015, we had Cam Newton, who was electrifying to watch but hadn't really won anything yet. There was an offensive line in front of him that looked like it was made in a defunct Swiss cheese factory and our big hope on offense was the great Kelvin Benjamin. And then he got taken out for the year with a knee injury in training camp. Ted "Feet of Lightning, Hands of Stone" Ginn became our default go to guy beside our next best hope, yeah, Devin Funchess. Our defense was pretty good, a scrappy bunch with frikkin' awesome linebacker play and a cornerback who had done more than drank the Kool-Aid, but had snorted the powder. He played like a superhero and became sort of a bat-man during the season. By the Super Bowl he had completely lost his freaking mind, though, and managed to talk his way out of a contract with the team next year. No one was expecting us to win the NFCSouth that season, much less almost go undefeated and into the Super Bowl. So, 2026? Who knows? But our best seasons came when no one had a reason to believe in us, except us.
×
×
  • Create New...