Mike Shula as Potential OC

Please Randy, in the name of all things Canes, do not hire this guy. He is Patrick Nix 2.0, but with a name pedigree.

Mike Shula’s name has been floating around the internets as a potential candidate, and with good reason. What reason, you ask? No qualified one of course, just the fact his daddy made football a South Florida passion. Credentials? Ha. I bet when asked to “tell us about your background” in his interviews, he pulls out his driver’s license, points to the last name, and expects the interviewer to go “Ahhhhhhh,” extend a firm handshake, and point him to HR so he can sign his offer.

I sure hope this is just the media doing their usual laziness and filling paper space. Shula does not have one quality stop on his resume. The four positions where he directly attributed to the team’s offensive output were the following:

Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Offensive Coordinator, 1996-1999

Hmmm. I do recall these were the years Tampa’s defense was so fucking sick, all anyone would talk about was that if it’s offense could score 17 points a game, they would win 14 games a year. In fact, in the 1999 season against the unstoppable St. Louis Rams offense in the NFC title game, the Bucs D held them to 11 points. 11 points!!! And they still lost the game, because they only scored 6. He was fired after the season. Disaster? Yes.

Miami Dolphins, Quarterbacks Coach, 2000-2002

This is his best stop. He took over the first year after Dan Marino’s retirement, and Damon Huard developed into a servicable QB. They did make the playoffs a couple of years during his tenure, but overall, it was the same deal with the Bucs. Miami’s D carried these teams, and come playoff time, their O would sputter, and the Dolphins were sent packing. Disaster? Not quite, but not pretty either.

Alabama Crimson Tide, Head Coach, 2003-2006

This is the job that should most influence Randy’s thinking. Took over after the Texas-loving prick Franchione bolted town after a surprising 10-3 record in 2002. ‘Bama was hit hard with probation from the Debose years, and Franny wasn’t sticking around to wait it out. Enter Shula (after strip-club Mike Price of course). I give him credit for manning the rough years of the probation, the loss of scholarships, etc. His first two years were as expected; terrible. His third year, 2005, he put the whopping to Urban Meyer, albeit in Meyer’s first year at Florida. His 2005 team finished 10-2, with a Cotton Bowl win over Texas Tech. However, when this team was ranked No. 3 in the nation, and undefeated, was there any intelligent non-’Bama fan in the nation who actually thought these guys would win out? Didn’t think so. They were winning games like, a Mike Shula led NFL team!! It was only a matter of time until the offense lost games for them, and that’s what happened. In 2006, the team was expected to win 9, possibly 10 if they hit some breaks, and finished 6-6. Now, to me, 7 wins was what was expected, knowing his coaching prowess. Alabama brass thought otherwise, and Shula was fired after the season. It doesn’t help matters that Saban has taken his players to one quarter from the BCS title game in year two. So maybe we can say he recruited enough talent to win in the SEC, but I believe ‘Bama was overrated this year, along with the SEC. Florida was the only quality team. Georgia’s best win was against Michigan State (ha!). Alabama’s best win was against Georgia. Notice a pattern here? Back to Shula. Disaster? You bet.

Jacksonville Jaguars, Quarterbacks Coach, 2007-Present

This is obviouisly Shula’s rebound job, and we don’t really need to delve too deep here. He has had Brian Leftwich and David Garrard, and they both suck. But somehow, Gerrard is considered the QB of the Jags future, so more power to him and Shula. Garrard actually had a decent year, with a rating of 81.7 and a 62.6% completion rate. His 15:13 TD to INT ratio is horrible, but getting sacked 42 times would definitely influence that. Overall, it looks like this was more of a team failure than Shula’s position. Disaster? Nah.

Verdict?

Two full-blown disaster stops, one alright stop, and one ok one. Do we finally notice a pattern here, Randy? When Mike Shula is in charge of anything more than the QBs, it’s time to put on your lysol wind breaker, because I’m about to throw some shit in that there fan. Of course, the irony in all of this is Robert Marve committed to Alabama when Shula was there, and then de-committed after his firing. Ha!

Randy? One word: next!