Rick Venturi is the patron saint of NFL interim head coaches. A glutton for punishment, he’s done it twice, first with the 1991 Indianapolis Colts — he was never officially termed an interim, but he was an interim nonetheless — and with the 1996 New Orleans Saints. During those two stints, he took over terrible football teams that couldn’t win a game, so it was no surprise that his combined record in those two attempts was 2-17.
There are no quick fixes, no miracles, in the unforgiving NFL.
“There’s a reason there’s a job opening, because if everything was going wonderfully, there wouldn’t be an opening in the first place,” said Venturi, the Colts’ radio analyst and long-time college and NFL coach. “My dad used to remind me of that all the time.”
According to data collected by Sports Illustrated, since 1960 — not including Steve Wilks in Carolina this season — there have been 96 interim head coaches; 18 had winning records and three reached the playoffs, the most recent being the Raiders’ Rich Bisaccia last year. It’s not like other sports where an interim can light a spark under a scuffling team and immediately turn things around. In the NFL, if you’re bad under the original head coach, chances are you’ll be bad — if not worse — under the interim. Interim coaches since 1990 have a .347 winning percentage, according to the Washington Post.
The challenge figures to be even greater for Jeff Saturday, who was hired this week as the Colts interim head coach with no previous college or NFL coaching experience, the first man to do that since Norm Van Brocklin, who went straight from the playing field to the sidelines in 1961.
Venturi took over the godforsaken 1991 Colts after Ron Meyer got crossways with erratic owner Bob Irsay and was fired five games into the season. Venturi, by then a long-time assistant coach with a lengthy resume in college and the pros, was told to take the job and run with it. If he did well, he’d be strongly considered for the full-time job at the end of the season. The Colts went 1-10.
He ascended to the top job again in 1996, after Jim Mora, whose last Saints’ press conference featured the famous “diddly-poo” rant, essentially quit. Initially, the Saints brain trust wanted to bring in an outsider, Chet Franklin, to be the interim coach, but the coaches on staff — all of whom were on one-year deals — rebelled against the idea. They wanted one of their own, and got him in Venturi, even though he’d only been in New Orleans for a couple of months.
Venturi’s Saints went 1-7.
He knows how this works. And he knows what doesn’t work.
“Personally, I know I did a much better job in ’96 than I did in ’91,” Venturi said. “I always felt I was auditioning for the job, so I was doing things that I thought would be perceived well. The second time, I didn’t give a damn. I was myself. I did it from the gut. I made decisions quickly. There was no real difference in record, but we were competitive in New Orleans.
“Another factor, first time around, I maintained my duties as defensive coordinator, so I had a lot on my plate. Second time, I was the linebackers coach, and I had Jim Haslett as the defensive coordinator, so we were in really good shape. One of the best decisions I ever made in football was I moved Bruce Arians in as our play-caller. That was the first time he ever called a play; good trivia question, right?”
Venturi was asked what guidance he would give Saturday, at which point, you’re just hoping there are fresh batteries in the tape recorder. But here is the condensed version of the four major points Venturi believes Saturday needs to hit:
Take control
“The critical thing, the first thing is that you have to take immediate, total leadership of this team. There can’t be any gaps,” he said. “You have to take over, be decisive in all areas and you want to create change, even if it’s small, like practice schedule or the way you travel, maybe the tempo of practice. You want to show some changes but no. 1, you can’t play your way into this. You have to take over from Day 1 in terms of leadership.
Win over the staff
“This is more difficult now than it was in my situation, (because) there’s going to be some resentment among the coaching staff. Nobody’s going to admit it; everybody’s going to put their best face on it because that’s what coaches do, but they passed over some really good people who are qualified to bring in someone from the outside. You have to win that staff over, embrace that staff, convince and sell them on the idea that if you all pull together and win, everyone is going to benefit. If that’s divided, even subtly, you’re not going to get the thing done.
Win over the locker room
“Three, sell your team on why they’re going to get better, and that’s what I learned the second time around. It’s not about kissing babies or ESPN sound bites or, ‘I took snaps from Peyton Manning’ — that’ll last about three days. What you have to do is sell pro players on why they’re going to get better. Are you going to change the scheme, emphasize some different things, do some things with the offensive line? Show them how you’re going to help them win.
“The first day, everything is new. There’s juice, there’s always going to be a good feeling. I mean, what are they going to say? ‘Ding-dong, the king is dead, long live the new king?’ You never lose your first press conference. But players are motivated by one thing only: Does this coaching staff put me in the best position to win? And that’s what the long-term motivation has got to be and the rest of it doesn’t mean a hill of beans.
Stay in your lane
“That’s particularly important for Jeff. You’re not going to come in and be Bill Walsh in terms of X’s and O’s, or Buddy Ryan; he’s been hired because he’s legacy here and has perceived leadership skills. He has to show those leadership skills, and he’s got to let Gus Bradley do his thing and Bubba Ventrone do his thing, and whether or not you think Parks Frazier is a good move, at least it’s a decisive move.
“What’s really important is, anybody can put game plans together, that’s done collectively, just like putting together the practice schedule. The key is game management; that’s what separates the good from the bad football coaches. Personally, if you’re not a play-caller, it’s easier walking into a head-coaching job because that’s about managing people, more of a leadership role, which is right in his wheelhouse. A head coach maybe makes five big decisions in a game. This is going to be harder for Parks (Frazier), because he’s making 50-70 decisions and doing it in 20 second intervals, so that’s the bigger challenge.”
Like so many of us, Venturi emerged from training camp believing the Colts would challenge and maybe even win the AFC South. He is shocked by what has transpired, and he is not alone. But all is not lost, in his view.
“Sometimes the change of face, energy, a bit of charisma, they can inspire a team, and it might be what the doctor ordered,” Venturi said. “The other thing they have going for them is that they (play) two 2-6 teams (the Raiders and Steelers) sandwiched around the Eagles game, so anything can happen. I just don’t think this team is as bad as it’s played the last couple of weeks, so I’m not sure a little bit of a spark won’t make a difference. If you had said on Aug. 25 that this was going to happen, I would have said, ‘You’re totally nuts.’ I’m guilty too, because when they came out of camp, I thought this team was a real contender.
“But I think in this case — and you know me, I’m unfiltered and not a homer — but I think this team can be better. They’ve underachieved so badly, maybe they can find it. After the top three or four teams in this league, you can throw a blanket over the rest of these teams. I don’t believe for one second this season is over at 3-5-1.
“I thought Tony Dungy had a great point: He said he would have tried to talk Jimmy (Irsay) out of (firing Reich and benching Matt Ryan), because they still have the same number of wins as the (defending Super Bowl champion) Rams. I mean, who knows? The Titans and Mike Vrabel have done a remarkable job, but they’re not like the Bills or the Chiefs, who have that skill level. You know you’re not going to get a 40-point game (from the Titans). So I know it’s bleak, and it’s really bleak because of the last two weeks, but I honestly don’t think this is a lost season.”
History says they’re doomed.
But Saturday and the Colts insist they have very different ideas.
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