The Official Whisenhunt Musings Thread....

[Ed Burmila]

I don't know a thing about Whisenhunt I never thought he'd take the job
so I didn't do any reading up on him.

I don't see why Sherman is a retread though, he had one prior NFL HC job and did quite well at it. He was a virtual unknown before then, and now the Steelers are interviewing him for their job so they must think he's pretty good too.

Whisenhunt is the 3rd wunderkind assistant under Cowher in the last few years, Mularkey, Grimm, now him. Hopefully he's for real, it's a great organization so no reason to think he's not qualified.

I think this board underestimates how much Green Bay ended up disliking Sherman. I lived in WI throughout his coaching tenure and I can't emphasize how much the fans hated the guy - irrespective of his winning records. He was boring as hell, both in terms of his personality and his coaching style.

His record in GB might look pretty, but there's a reason they took him off the sideline.

 

[Red Hawk]

X


Happy?

 

[Ed Burmila]

Someone get Red Hawk the "longest post of the century" award!

 

[Red Hawk]

poll from steelernation on who they wanted for HC.

View Poll Results: Whiz or Grimm
Whiz 81 82.65%
Grimm 17 17.35%

 

[Treesquid PhD]

Nice post. I don't feel much either way about the hiring. I do want to see what happens with our assistant coaches before I praise anyone. Personally, I would like to see most of our offensive staff remain, but get some Steeler blood in here on defense. If all the assistant coaches stay the same, I can't help but think Whisenhunt has very little say in anything, and that scares me.

This seems like a solid hire, but we'll see...

I think this is the correct answer. Assuming a coach can will a bottom feeder team to take on the winning tradition of the steelers is a shortcut to thinking. There are more factors than "He was a Steeler OC hence he is going to turn the Cardinals into the Steelers" That's too easy.

All the coaches we have hired in the past had success previously, this is no different. There are significant chalanges he must overcome here that he doesn't have there. Hence this is not a potential Steelers in the making, it is the Arizona Cardinals and will take on it's own personaility. What that means in 12 months I don't know.

Wait and see, I am not going to clear my calandar for next January just yet.

 

[Red Hawk]

from foxsports

The next coach of the Steelers should be offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt.

In my opinion, Whisenhunt is the top assistant in the NFL, in terms of being ready for a head job. He is bright, savvy, and personable yet firm. Whisenhunt would be the perfect leader. And if Pittsburgh either doesn't have an opening or goes in a different direction, Whisenhunt should be the top choice in Arizona or Atlanta if there are openings in those cities.

Here's Haynes' take on Whisenhunt:

"Ken has done a great job calling plays. His play-calling is excellent. Plus, he is really involved even more as a motivator as well, especially on Saturday nights. He has really evolved as a motivator. And the players really respect him. It shows a lot in developing players and show you what type of head coach he will be."
In talking to Whisenhunt on Monday, he says he is solely thinking about the game against the Ravens.

We did ask if the staff had any regrets about playing Ben Roethlisberger as soon as they did.

Whisenhunt said, "Indications were in training camp and even when he was back that he was alright, but it is a tough situation. You just don't know what he is going through. It's really not a function of where Ben was early in the year. It is just that some things we were doing as a team, the quarterback was getting blamed. We were turning the ball over way too much. But you know the nature of the position — the quarterback gets the credit or the blame."

And lot of blame will go around if Cowher leaves and Whisenhunt isn't the choice.

 

[Ed Burmila]

I'm shocked at that poll from the Steelers board - 80%+ wanted Ken over Grimm.

 

[Skkorpion]

I wanted Chow. If Chow wasn't chosen, I wanted an offensive coach (barring Sherman who is a nothing HC IMO) who calls his own plays and runs the game himself, delegating the defense to his defensive coordinator.

So I'm okay with Whisenhunt and will jump all the way on board if he calls his own plays a la Bill Walsh, Holmgren, Andy Reid, Shanahan and others.

 

[AZ Shocker]

On the surface this looks like a great hire for the Cardinals. I was wanting a younger "never a head coach before" type coach. He'll be hungry, and more importantly he coached at a highly successsful franchise.

The Cardinals are notorious for taking re-treads. Never before did the Cardinals know how to hire an "unproven" head coach. They always played it safe and went with "names" hoping that coach would have the same success he did before wherever he was from (Philly, Minnisota). FINALLY they got smart and are saying we want to WIN! Forget about selling tickets (Buddy, Green). Now it's time to WIN!!!

I like the attitude change, but it can't stop there. It sounds like they paid Wiz good money and are going to allow a good amount for good assistants. Great idea Bidwills, welcome to the NFL! Also...now they really need to get an indoor practice facility so they can start the season less de-hydrated. Perhaps getting wins in Sept. and Oct. will improve our playoff chances instead of waiting 'til late Nov. and Dec. to win games. lol Seriously though...

All-in-all...I like the hire!

p.s. Now go build that Indoor Practice Facility with all that money you made on a sold-out season and naming the stadium.