When I was talking with former Browns head coach Sam Rutigliano one day about building coaching staffs, I made it a point to ask him about one particular member of his first staff in 1978.
“So, I see you had ‘the Buck stops here’ as your defensive line coach,” I said in reference to big Buck Buchanan, the now late, great Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive lineman with Hank Stram’s Kansas City Chiefs.
“Ha!” Rutigliano said in disparaging fashion. “That guy was terrible. I kept him only one year.”
Rutigliano made some other changes to his staff after that first year, carefully piecing together the group of coaches who would end guiding the Kardiac Kids.
I thought about that as head coach Hue Jackson continues to make changes to his staff following this first season. Rutigliano did not make as many alterations as Jackson is making, but if the truth be told, most coaches switch up their staff to some extend after the first year.
A coach gets a job, as Jackson did a year ago about this time (Friday will be the one-year anniversary of his hiring) and begins hiring men left and right to fill out his staff. He has to act quickly, because when these hirings occur, a lot of coaches are after many of the same people.
If you lose your plan A guy, then you go to the plan B candidates. And if that guy’s gone, you reach for the C-listers.
When that first year is over, you have much more time to plan things and you know the landscape better. You also know what, and who, you like and don’t like. You also might have had your eyes are on a particular candidate for some time.
Firing staffers is easy. Anyone can do it. But the good head coaches are able to fill those vacancies with coaches who are better fits.
Since he was fired after just one season in Oakland in his only other head-coaching experience, this is Hue Jackson’s first time going through this. We’ll see how he does. After all, when it comes to rebuilding the Browns, the buck – at least as coaching is concerned — stops with him.
