Friday, January 13, 2012

Where are they now: Jeff Fisher's 2010 coaching staff

Now that Jeff Fisher is in the fold as the St. Louis Rams' next head coach, one of his first jobs, which he may even have a head start on already, is to assemble his coaching staff. It's natural to assume he'll look into his past, aka Remember the Titans, for some of his assistant coaching candidates. Let the speculation begin!

Jim Washburn. Washburn, 62, has been a defensive line coach almost all of his career and was Fisher's d-line coach from 1999 until almost everybody in Tennessee go fired last year. Washburn would become the coach responsible for turning Robert Quinn into the next "Freak". He, of course, coached the original one, Jevon Kearse. Washburn has coached some top-notch pass rushers, and during his stay at Tennessee, the Titans were consistently top 10 in sacks and pass defense. Pass rushers off the top of my head include Kyle Vanden Bosch and Jason Babin, who was crap as a pro until Washburn got a hold of him.

A problem in getting Washburn is that he's now in the second year of a three-year contract in Philadelphia. So, interestingly, Steve Spagnuolo could help the Rams out here. If he becomes Eagles DC, and wants his own guy to coach d-line, it opens the door up to re-unite Fisher and Washburn. Let's hope that happens; Washburn is a plum coach to have.

Dave McGinnis. McGinnis, 60, coached linebackers for Fisher from 2004-2010 and is currently still the Titan's LBs coach. So he's worked with Keith Bulluck and Stephen Tulloch. In the middle of his 5th season as defensive coordinator of the Big Dead, he took over for fired head coach Vince Tobin. In 3-plus years in Arizona he managed a record of 17-40. McGinnis is the leading candidate in the clubhouse to be Fisher's defensive coordinator.

Chuck Cecil started as a defensive assistant with Fisher in 2000, working his way up to defensive coordinator in 2009. He's one of Fisher's closest friends, and demands from above to replace Cecil was the catalyst to Fisher leaving the team after the 2010 season. And like Fisher, it does not appear that Cecil coached anywhere in 2011. The Titan defense was terrible in 2010, btw: 26th overall, 29th against the pass. Seems a good bet that Cecil, one of the all-time cheap-shot artists when he was a safety with the Cardinals, would join Fisher here at least as secondary coach.

Mike Heimerdinger was Fisher's offensive coordinator in 2010, and worked with him for 8 years during the previous decade, but passed away of cancer last September.

Norm Chow was Fisher's OC for three years but became head coach for the University of Hawaii just before Christmas.

Mike Munchak, Fisher's offensive line coach for 14 years, is now head coach of the Titans.

So your next Rams offensive coordinator may be Craig Johnson. Currently the Vikings' QB coach, Johnson coached QBs for Fisher for seven years and RBs for one, and gets credit for the development of Steve McNair and Vince Young and the resuscitation of Kerry Collins. Johnson's coordinator experience is limited to college, though, at Northwestern and Maryland. Like his record with QBs, though. Current Titans QBs coach Dowell Loggains was a Fisher hire who may be on his way up the ladder to coordinator but has coached in the NFL for just four years.

Alan Lowry, the man who cooked up the Music City Miracle play, has been the Titans' special teams coach since 1999. He's coached mostly special teams in the NFL for 30 years. And the Titans have had consistently good special teams under his supervision, both returning kicks and covering them. In his mid-sixties, though, I doubt he's a realistic candidate for a lateral move.

-$-

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