In the wake of former Titans head coach Ken Whisenhunt being relieved of his duty after a very less-than-stellar 3-20 overall record while at the helm of a professional franchise, my question is what exactly made this such a hard decision for the Titans?
My knowledge about play calling and offensive and defensive schemes is far less than that of an NFL head coach. But I am almost certain I could have provided a record similar to that of Whisenhunt. It is my opinion several factors play into why such a record would occur.
The first thing would be a lack of motivation by the players from Whisenhunt. He could not motivate his team to play, despite not having any recognizable stars in Nashville. However, they are all highly gifted athletes and very talented individuals or let’s face it, they wouldn’t be in the NFL.
It was obvious to many, maybe he just couldn’t provide the match to light a fire under his team. Loss after loss has to, at some point, take its toll on players and a franchise.
One of the most talked about things here at the Southern Standard was his lack of fire after a loss. Every single press conference after a game was pretty much the same. “We’re close, we’re getting there.” Come on coach, really? How close? How are we getting there?
So it leaves little to say, I guess he wasn’t close enough and he wasn’t getting there fast enough. Next on my list would be perhaps no one player wanted to step up and take responsibility for the losses, a pass the buck so to speak.
Most great teams in history had players who would tell reporters it was them who let the team down. How many quarterbacks have you heard say I couldn’t get it done and I couldn’t get my receivers the ball? How many great linebackers have said I couldn’t make the tackles we needed? Those are guys I want to play for me.
I don’t recall anyone stepping up but maybe I missed it. I was only lucky enough to hear Whisenhunt and his broken “We are getting there” recording.
So now we are under the direction of Mike Mularkey and just one week in we already have a win. Maybe former coach Whisenhunt was closer than we thought? Nah, I joke.
We may never know how close they were under Whisenhunt but as long as the Titans are producing wins, quite honestly I don’t care who is coaching. One thing is certain, the new coach’s last name will certainly make for some quite interesting headlines if things continue to head south. Only time will tell. Right on.