Thursday, January 24, 2008

Smith gets stamp of approval

It's finally over. After more than a month of speculation and wonder concerning the Falcons head coaching position, Mike Smith was named officially to the helm Thursday afternoon during a news conference.

For those who haven't seen video of Mike's conference, he was incredibly impressive for the approximately 45 minutes he talked in front of the Atlanta media. He was engaging, he was straight-forward, he was intelligent and, yes, even funny. Imagine that: an Atlanta head coach with more emotion than the usual bewilderment we were used to before, ahem, the hog was called.

I admit that I doubted Smith when word began to spread that he was the man, but his demeanor Thursday changed my mind for the time being. I refuse to buy into anything until I see results come from this franchise, but the hiring of Smith might prove to be a great start. Seeing Michael Boley and John Abraham there was fantastic, and it has to be great for Smith to know that he has the full support of two of the most influential veterans on the team. Now he just needs to get to Alge Crumpler and D. Hall and he'll be all set.

I don't know if I buy into the coordinators Smith is bringing aboard. Brian VanGorder will be the defensive coordinator and Mike Mularkey is likely to make his being the offensive coordinator official some time Friday. VanGorder, while great at Georgia, is an anomaly. I just don't get him. He was at GSU, then with the Falcons, then with USC - where he says, "I'm a college guy" - then he comes back to the Falcons. I don't know how much you can believe or trust him. But I guess none of that matters if he puts together a great scheme that puts the Atlanta D back on the map. Mularkey has a lot to prove after a poor stint with Buffalo as head coach and a so-so time with Pittsburgh as offensive coordinator. The offense needs a lot of work, so it's nice to see a guy come in with a lot of experience. I just don't know how well Mularkey's philosophy is going to mesh with the talent currently on the roster.

By the way, Mularkey likes to run the ball with talented running backs. Darren McFadden anyone?

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