Turner Hiring Announced by Chargers
Continuity was the buzzword as the San Diego Chargers introduced Norv Turner as their new coach during an afternoon news conference at their headquarters.
Hiring Turner as the replacement for fired coach Marty Schottenheimer and bringing Ted Cottrell aboard to replace departed defensive coordinator Wade Phillips means the Chargers won't have to change either their offensive or defensive system.
"We are going to hit the ground running," Turner said.
Turner was the Chargers' offensive coordinator in 2001 and installed the club's current offensive system. Just-departed Chargers offensive coordinator Cam Cameron formerly worked for Turner with the Washington Redskins.
Cottrell, who worked in the league office this past season, previously worked with Phillips.
Turner said when he and Cottrell met with Chargers players today, the players were encouraged to see the offensive and defensive playbooks would be virtually unchanged. Turner will try to build on the success of this past season, when the Chargers went 14-2 but lost in the second round of the AFC playoffs.
"We should start fast," Turner said. "We should be good early and we should be good late."
Turner said he will retain the Chargers' assistants who are under contract but will serve as the team's offensive play-caller. He has only one playoff victory in nine seasons as an NFL head coach with the Redskins and Oakland Raiders but this will be by far his most talented club.
"It's obvious to me the expectations for this football team," he said. "It's obvious to everyone. They are very, very high.... There's an excitement about this but there's also an understanding there's a responsibility."
The Chargers interviewed five other candidates but team president Dean Spanos and General Manager A.J. Smith settled Sunday on Turner.
"I consider him, and I know A.J. does, one of the best offensive minds in the National Football League," Spanos said. "... He was without a doubt the right choice for this job. We all look forward to him taking us to the next level."
Said Turner: "I felt all along if I had an opportunity to come in here and talk to them... I thought this could happen if I got that opportunity."
Turner had been passed over the Cowboys' head coaching job, in favor of Phillips, by owner Jerry Jones.
"I got to talk a lot more in this interview than I did in that one down there," Turner said.
By Mark Maske |
February 19, 2007; 5:30 PM ET
| Category:
Chargers
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Posted by: Patriots Fan | February 19, 2007 6:33 PM
Good luck to Norv, I'm still kinda pissed about how Snyder got rid of Norv here in Washington, firing a coach WHILE the team's in the playoff hunt? Bad juju.
I do think this may be his last shot as a head coach though, if he can't go deep in the playoffs with this team, there really isn't anything else he can do as a head coach...
Posted by: NorvFan | February 20, 2007 11:51 AM
I think this was the Chargers making the best of a bad situation. Norv is an experienced HC, so he will more quickly be able to come in and set up shop than a coordinator or college coach would have been.
And look at it this way: Most of Norv's Redskins teams hovered around .500 ball with mediocre talent at best. Neither Schottenheimer nor Gibbs have managed to do better since then. The Skins have been a cursed organization since the advent of free agency.
And Vince Lombardi himself couldn't turn around the Raiders so long as Al Davis is involved. The worst that you can say is that Norv was naive enough to actually take the job.
Posted by: ChrisO | February 20, 2007 3:57 PM
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It is amazing that NFL teams keep on hiring losing coaches.
Mr. Turner was a fabulous Offensive mind at Dallas but has flubbed as Head Coach. It may be The Peter Principle, or just being out of his element completely.
In a way, it's too bad. Schottenheimer was a great regular season coach but bad play calling in the playoffs or bad game plans led to losses. Even the Pats win over the Chargers in the playoffs was the result of poor planning. If you look at the game stats, you see that LT ran 10 times in the second half -- one of those was a penalty, so 9 official runs. They lost control of the clock and the game.
Good luck to Mr. Turner, but he should be an OC somewhere and the Chargers should have found a totally new guy to coach -- they have the guts of a great team ... but they'll probably go 9-7 or something like that.