Chargers Fire Marty Schottenhiemer !!!

[El-Moldo]

Did you see that little BLOOPER pass by Rivers that was picked off by the New England defense. Guess that was Marty's fault?

[El-Moldo]

Quick. Someone name me a Big Time receiver on the Charger's team (other than a tight end). You can't. Marty did great with what he had to work with.

[LionPride]

Marty and his understudy Bill are the type of coaches that can make an average team very good, but can't make a good team great. Not sure why that is.

[Weapon X]

Coaching staffs annually get decimated after successful seasons in the NFL. That doesnt cause those organizations to start from scratch. Its a bad philosophy. They got rid of the last remnants of a successful game plan that took this team from the worst in the league to a Super Bowl contender in just 4 years. And what Marty ball controversy was there at the beginning of the season? This team was like 5-2 when Cameron took over play calling and both losses where too playoff teams. The only reason he took over was because he was the right fit to help bring Rivers along, Shottenhiemer had plenty of success during the beginning of the season. You have the best player on the planet, a first year starting QB, and a great defense. Who wouldnt play Marty ball? And people act like he was a defiant coach who wouldn't listen to his GM. His GM wouldnt even talk to Marty. Schottenhiemer tried to resolve their differences, but the GM wouldn't even want to discuss it. He had a go between talk to Marty like a 5th grader. That GM was the major problem in that relationship and its not that there was no confidence in Schottenheimer, the GM just didnt like him. I can't defend Schottenheimer's playoff record, but he didn't muff a punt, draw a personal foul after a big stop, and didn't fumble away pretty much a game clinching int. Plus, there are no good coaches out there right now to take over. I don't believe joe blow coach from the Ravens is going to take this team to the playoffs. Coaching isn't that easy. Bring Norv Turner in and see what happens.

[JungleJuice2]

It's unfortunate for the Chargers that A.J. Smith and Schottenhiemer couldn't resolve their differences. Smith seems to be a pretty good GM as far as their drafting is concerned. LT, Merriman, Brees even though he was traded, Rivers is young and has potential as well. The team was 14-2 and the head coach and GM weren't even talking. I can imagine that the team would be even better if there was some kind of chemistry between the two of them. I'm not sure whose fault it was that they weren't talking, but A.J. Smith will have to do a better job with his next coach.

[The Ancient Enemy]

The coordinators are the reason that team was as good as they were. Do you want a head coach who you have faith in, or one who has a history of choking in big games?

[Weapon X]

So the coordinators get all the glory for the success of the regular season, while Schottenhiemer gets all of the blame for the post-season loss? Makes sense to me, I guess? This wasn't a lack of confidence fire, it was there is only room enough for one guy in this town type of fire. If the Chargers didn't have any faith in Schottenhiemer they would have fired him the day after they lost to the Patriots.

This is very evident considering who they just named head coach. Norv Turner. Mr Yes man himself. This guy has absolutly no backbone and will fit well with A.J. Smith's plans. They just replaced a guy who has been successful everywhere, with a guy who has failed twice as a head coach in the league. They should have just hired Art Shell for crying out loud. Now, do you want a head coach who you have faith in or Norv Turner.

[The Ancient Enemy]

We're disagreeing Weapon, but its more just philosophy. Success in the NFL is measured by championships. I think this is a pretty rational argument if you're a franchise, or any business, really. If that sense, Schottenheimer is a complete failure. He has had multiple great teams and lost w/ every one of them. Whether or not you think he is a good coach, at the end of the day, is that statement not 100% accurate?

Norv Turner, though... look where he's been. He had to deal w/ the 2 worst owners in the league. I'm not sure there's no miles left on those tires.

[Weapon X]

The funny thing is that Im not even a Schottenhiemer fan. If they would have gotten rid of him the Monday after their loss to the Patriots I probably wouldn't have thought it a bad move. I just look at the situation and the timing of the firing and I just didn't think it was very smart. I can see them being worried about his lack of big game coaching history, which is legit, but by waiting so long they left themselves with an already picked through bunch of candidates to choose from. I look at the candidates available and my rational was that it would be better to push on with Schottenhiemer, then pick someone who 5 other teams didn't want.

Schottenhiemer is a 100% failure at winning a championship, that much is true, but he is still a pretty good coach. One can't deny that and with the proverbial monkey being shed annually off historic losers in sports, his time might have been coming. Cowher, Dungy, Manning, Red Sox, White Sox, just examples.

[ham55]

A major part of this that nobody has really discussed yet is the value of the coach being able to bond with the players and get them going toward the same goal in the same mannor. Schott was able to do that as most of the players were pretty shocked and upset about the firing. You won't hear about it now, but when football rolls back around here in September and they lose their first 3 games of the year under the new coach/coordinators, we'll see how happy the players are that they lost the 3 main components from a team that very easily could have won the Super Bowl.