YoHoChecko
02-16-2007, 10:56 PM
Stats Behind the Stats
The Other Schottenheimer
by
Max Gross
Many felt that Marty Schottenheimer deserved to be fired because he has not won a playoff game since 1993, including three tries as the #1 overall seed in the conference. However, at season’s end, team owner Dean Spanos disagreed. So when news broke Monday that Schottenheimer was being fired afterall, deserving or not, there were some questions as to the reasoning.
Many speculated that the Chargers had their sites set on USC head coach Pete Carroll, as there were vague signs alluding to such an outcome, not the least of which being that college football’s national signing day had just past when Schottenheimer finally got the axe, thus allowing Carroll to complete a successful recruiting season before jumping to the big leagues. While such a move may still ultimately take place, Mr. Spanos shed some light on his decision through the following statement, emphasis added:
Our fans deserve to know what changed for me over the last month. When I decided to move ahead with Marty Schottenheimer in mid-January, I did so with the expectation that the core of his fine coaching staff would remain intact. Unfortunately, that did not prove to be the case, and <b>the process of dealing with these coaching changes convinced me that we simply could not move forward with such dysfunction between our head coach and general manager.</b> In short, this entire process over the last month convinced me beyond any doubt that I had to act to change this untenable situation and create an environment where everyone at Charger Park would be pulling in the same direction and working at a championship level. I expect exactly that from our entire Charger organization in 2007.
Upon reading that statement, I immediately speculated that general manager AJ Smith and the head coach were unable to agree on the new assistant coaches. This is a strange dilemma because head coaches generally get to pick their own staffs. It would seem out of line for Smith to have any strong objection to an assistant coaching candidate. Then, the news broke. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it sooner, but I didn’t. The news? The assistant coach hire that caused the debate was, in fact, the <i>other</i> Schottenheimer: Marty’s brother, Kurt. Then it all made sense. Then I understood. Then, suddenly, A.J. Smith wasn’t out of line, and Mart Schottenheimer deserved to be fired.
Nepotism happens in the NFL all the time. The Cowboys just hired Jason Garrett’s brother, in fact. And Kurt Schottenheimer has logged a lot of years as an NFL coach. So perhaps the notion that Marty deserves to be fired for an attempt to put Kurt at the helm of the defense doesn’t make much sense. Well, if it doesn’t make sense to you, then you haven’t been following Kurt’s career. Aside from the fact that Kurt has no experience running a 3-4 defense, such as the one the Chargers’ entire personnel scheme is built for, I’m about to take the readers on a tour de failure through the career of the other Schottenheimer.
Kansas City: Secondary Coach
Our journey begins in 1995, when Kurt moved to secondary coach of the Kansas City Chiefs after a few years of other various assistant work. He took over a unit that had been a respectable 11th in passing defense, but a more-telling 19th in yards per pass allowed. I’ll use this opportunity to explain a personal statistical preference of mine. When looking at pass defenses, I value the yards allowed per pass attempt much more highly than I value total yards allowed. The reasoning is that a pass defense can look much better when coupled with a weak run defense and a weak offense, as teams don’t have much reason to pass against that defense. It can also look much worse with a good offense and a strong run defense. In short, there are too many variables that affect a pass defense’s total yards allowed, whereas average yards allowed measures how the pass defense operates in more isolation.
Returning to the story line, Kurt had a great first season. The Chiefs’ pass defense improved moderately in total yards, from 11th to 9th, but very significantly in average yards allowed, from 19th to 2nd. The team also ranked 5th in fewest touchdown passes allowed. Make note of this. 1995 would be far and away the most successful season of Kurt’s career.
In 1996, the Chiefs’ defense regressed. They ranked 22nd in total yards and dropped astonishingly far in average yards from 2nd to 20th. That decline continued in 1997, down to 24th in the league. 1998 would be Kurt’s last as a lowly position coach. He improved the defense up to mediocre, finishing 7th in total passing yards and 17th in average passing yards—one of the few times a team would improve while under his care.
Kansas City: Defensive Coordinator
That “success” in the secondary somehow translated to a job as a defensive coordinator in 1999, when his brother left the team as head coach. Kurt would, again, have a solid first season, but this season, 7 years ago, would be among his last positive impacts. The 1998 defense ranked 22nd in points allowed and 9th in yards allowed. Kurt’s team in 1999 gave up more yards, but the scoring defense improved to 13th in the league.
As would become a trend, however, there was no improvement from year one to year two. The scoring defense declined from 13th to 19th, and yardage dropped from 14th to 20th. Incidentally, this was reason enough for the Redskins to hire Kurt as their defensive coordinator in 2001. Well, this and the fact that Marty was hired as their head coach. There’s always that.
Washington: Defensive Coordinator
Up until now, it is easy to see Kurt as a mediocre coach, unworthy of praise, but also unworthy of condemnation. Bear with me, the past 5 years of his coaching career have been quite telling. For starters, Kurt inherited a beautiful situation in Washington, with the 8th best scoring defense and the 4th best yardage defense. In one year under the other Schottenheimer, they had fallen back in the pack, to 13th best scoring defense, and 8th best yards. It’s no slouch, of course, but it was a regression from the previous season. 2001 would be the only year in Washington for both of the Schottenheimers.
Detroit: Defensive Coordinator
From there, in a move typical to Matt Millen, he heard a name he recognized and the Lions brought him in as defensive coordinator to improve their struggling defense, which had finished 30th is points allowed and 26th in yards allowed. Surely, Mr. Schottenheimer would improve upon those paltry numbers, right? In fact, he didn’t. His unit in Detroit (perhaps a poor choice of words given the recent transgressions of Detroit coach Joe Cullen) finished a lowly 31st in both defensive categories.
2003 marked the only time in which a group under Kurt improved from year one to year two, though it would be difficult to get much worse than second-to-last. Indeed, improvement might be too strong of a word for a team that didn’t even crack the top 20 in scoring or in yardage. Kurt was dismissed, and the team did just as well the following year without him.
Green Bay: Secondary Coach
Kurt was able to land on his feet, though. While his days as a defensive coordinator may have died after his unspectacular stints in Kansas City, Washington and Detroit, the Green Bay Packers snatched up their division rival’s coordinator and named him as a secondary coach, to replace the recently-promoted Bob Slowick. In 2003, under Slowick, the Packers had finished 23rd in passing yards allowed, but an impressive 7th in passing average, as well as 12th in passing touchdowns allowed.
Kurt had only one season as the Packers’ secondary coach—this time around—and the defense was absolutely dominated against the pass. They finished 25th in yards allowed, and 26th in pass average, 32nd in touchdowns allowed. It was pretty clear that Kurt wasn’t going to stick around, but it could be surmised that losing Mike McKenzie made that decline take place. That counter-argument is dispelled by the vast improvement the Packers saw against the pass in 2005. A year removed from Kurt’s abysmal season, a similar unit, personnel-wise, was able to finish 1st in total passing yards and up to the middle of the pack at 15th in average yards allowed.
In a strange twist, following their year of improvement, new Packers head coach Mike McCarthy inexplicably decided to give Kurt a second try. In addition, they brought back Al Harris and Nick Collins, and added Charles Woodson to the mix. The Packers took a step back again, down to 17th in both total yardage and average yardage, while 27th in passing touchdowns allowed.
More subjectively, in his stint with the Packers, it was clear that in 2006 coaching was severely lacking. “Lack of communication” was continuously cited as the culprit for blown coverages and missed assignments. Additionally, one has to wonder if Schottenheimer had any role in the lack of development of rookies Ahmad Carroll and Joey Thomas in 2004, who failed to show any improvement throughout their rookie seasons.
St. Louis: Secondary Coach
In case anyone was wondering what Kurt was doing in 2005 when the Packers enjoyed their Schottenheimer-free success, he was busy destroying the Rams’ pass defense. Just like in Green Bay, where the pass defense was better both before Kurt came and after he left than it was under Kurt, the Rams went from good to bad in 2005.
In 2004, the Rams finished 11th in total yardage, 14th in average yards, and 20th in passing touchdowns allowed. Enter Kurt Schottenheimer, and 2005 crashed and burned to the tune of 23rd in passing yards, 26th in average passing yards, and 30th in passing touchdowns allowed. Following Kurt’s quick and deserved dismissal, the Rams’ pass defense improved in all three categories, including moving up to 8th in total passing yards allowed and 17th in passing touchdowns allowed.
Closing Thoughts
The (apologetically) lengthy journey I have laid out for you above outlines a coach who has worked in the NFL for several years, and yet has only had two or three seasons that could be deemed a “success,” or an “accomplishment.” He is a coach who has repeatedly entered situations only to leave the team worse off than before he arrived, and better off after he’s been shown the door. Even his successes were moderate, at best. He is a coach who has shown a lack of coordination of his units, be it a defense or just a secondary. He is a coach whose name and brother have carried him throughout his career, completely undeservingly.
When Marty Schottenheimer tried once again to give his brother a piggy-back ride onto the helm of one of the best, and most talented defenses in the league, AJ Smith stepped in. When Marty suggested hiring a defensive coordinator with no experience in the 3-4 scheme, AJ Smith said no. When Marty suggested hiring a career-long mediocre, if not terrible, coach to take control of the side of the ball that Smith believes gives the team its best chance at a Super Bowl, he couldn’t stand idly by.
When Marty Schottenheimer insisted on his brother, Kurt, to fill the defensive coordinator position, he had committed a fireable offense. Hopefully this will help the readers understand that the team did precisely what it had to do, given Marty’s demands and his putting nepotism above the success of the team.
The Other Schottenheimer
by
Max Gross
Many felt that Marty Schottenheimer deserved to be fired because he has not won a playoff game since 1993, including three tries as the #1 overall seed in the conference. However, at season’s end, team owner Dean Spanos disagreed. So when news broke Monday that Schottenheimer was being fired afterall, deserving or not, there were some questions as to the reasoning.
Many speculated that the Chargers had their sites set on USC head coach Pete Carroll, as there were vague signs alluding to such an outcome, not the least of which being that college football’s national signing day had just past when Schottenheimer finally got the axe, thus allowing Carroll to complete a successful recruiting season before jumping to the big leagues. While such a move may still ultimately take place, Mr. Spanos shed some light on his decision through the following statement, emphasis added:
Our fans deserve to know what changed for me over the last month. When I decided to move ahead with Marty Schottenheimer in mid-January, I did so with the expectation that the core of his fine coaching staff would remain intact. Unfortunately, that did not prove to be the case, and <b>the process of dealing with these coaching changes convinced me that we simply could not move forward with such dysfunction between our head coach and general manager.</b> In short, this entire process over the last month convinced me beyond any doubt that I had to act to change this untenable situation and create an environment where everyone at Charger Park would be pulling in the same direction and working at a championship level. I expect exactly that from our entire Charger organization in 2007.
Upon reading that statement, I immediately speculated that general manager AJ Smith and the head coach were unable to agree on the new assistant coaches. This is a strange dilemma because head coaches generally get to pick their own staffs. It would seem out of line for Smith to have any strong objection to an assistant coaching candidate. Then, the news broke. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it sooner, but I didn’t. The news? The assistant coach hire that caused the debate was, in fact, the <i>other</i> Schottenheimer: Marty’s brother, Kurt. Then it all made sense. Then I understood. Then, suddenly, A.J. Smith wasn’t out of line, and Mart Schottenheimer deserved to be fired.
Nepotism happens in the NFL all the time. The Cowboys just hired Jason Garrett’s brother, in fact. And Kurt Schottenheimer has logged a lot of years as an NFL coach. So perhaps the notion that Marty deserves to be fired for an attempt to put Kurt at the helm of the defense doesn’t make much sense. Well, if it doesn’t make sense to you, then you haven’t been following Kurt’s career. Aside from the fact that Kurt has no experience running a 3-4 defense, such as the one the Chargers’ entire personnel scheme is built for, I’m about to take the readers on a tour de failure through the career of the other Schottenheimer.
Kansas City: Secondary Coach
Our journey begins in 1995, when Kurt moved to secondary coach of the Kansas City Chiefs after a few years of other various assistant work. He took over a unit that had been a respectable 11th in passing defense, but a more-telling 19th in yards per pass allowed. I’ll use this opportunity to explain a personal statistical preference of mine. When looking at pass defenses, I value the yards allowed per pass attempt much more highly than I value total yards allowed. The reasoning is that a pass defense can look much better when coupled with a weak run defense and a weak offense, as teams don’t have much reason to pass against that defense. It can also look much worse with a good offense and a strong run defense. In short, there are too many variables that affect a pass defense’s total yards allowed, whereas average yards allowed measures how the pass defense operates in more isolation.
Returning to the story line, Kurt had a great first season. The Chiefs’ pass defense improved moderately in total yards, from 11th to 9th, but very significantly in average yards allowed, from 19th to 2nd. The team also ranked 5th in fewest touchdown passes allowed. Make note of this. 1995 would be far and away the most successful season of Kurt’s career.
In 1996, the Chiefs’ defense regressed. They ranked 22nd in total yards and dropped astonishingly far in average yards from 2nd to 20th. That decline continued in 1997, down to 24th in the league. 1998 would be Kurt’s last as a lowly position coach. He improved the defense up to mediocre, finishing 7th in total passing yards and 17th in average passing yards—one of the few times a team would improve while under his care.
Kansas City: Defensive Coordinator
That “success” in the secondary somehow translated to a job as a defensive coordinator in 1999, when his brother left the team as head coach. Kurt would, again, have a solid first season, but this season, 7 years ago, would be among his last positive impacts. The 1998 defense ranked 22nd in points allowed and 9th in yards allowed. Kurt’s team in 1999 gave up more yards, but the scoring defense improved to 13th in the league.
As would become a trend, however, there was no improvement from year one to year two. The scoring defense declined from 13th to 19th, and yardage dropped from 14th to 20th. Incidentally, this was reason enough for the Redskins to hire Kurt as their defensive coordinator in 2001. Well, this and the fact that Marty was hired as their head coach. There’s always that.
Washington: Defensive Coordinator
Up until now, it is easy to see Kurt as a mediocre coach, unworthy of praise, but also unworthy of condemnation. Bear with me, the past 5 years of his coaching career have been quite telling. For starters, Kurt inherited a beautiful situation in Washington, with the 8th best scoring defense and the 4th best yardage defense. In one year under the other Schottenheimer, they had fallen back in the pack, to 13th best scoring defense, and 8th best yards. It’s no slouch, of course, but it was a regression from the previous season. 2001 would be the only year in Washington for both of the Schottenheimers.
Detroit: Defensive Coordinator
From there, in a move typical to Matt Millen, he heard a name he recognized and the Lions brought him in as defensive coordinator to improve their struggling defense, which had finished 30th is points allowed and 26th in yards allowed. Surely, Mr. Schottenheimer would improve upon those paltry numbers, right? In fact, he didn’t. His unit in Detroit (perhaps a poor choice of words given the recent transgressions of Detroit coach Joe Cullen) finished a lowly 31st in both defensive categories.
2003 marked the only time in which a group under Kurt improved from year one to year two, though it would be difficult to get much worse than second-to-last. Indeed, improvement might be too strong of a word for a team that didn’t even crack the top 20 in scoring or in yardage. Kurt was dismissed, and the team did just as well the following year without him.
Green Bay: Secondary Coach
Kurt was able to land on his feet, though. While his days as a defensive coordinator may have died after his unspectacular stints in Kansas City, Washington and Detroit, the Green Bay Packers snatched up their division rival’s coordinator and named him as a secondary coach, to replace the recently-promoted Bob Slowick. In 2003, under Slowick, the Packers had finished 23rd in passing yards allowed, but an impressive 7th in passing average, as well as 12th in passing touchdowns allowed.
Kurt had only one season as the Packers’ secondary coach—this time around—and the defense was absolutely dominated against the pass. They finished 25th in yards allowed, and 26th in pass average, 32nd in touchdowns allowed. It was pretty clear that Kurt wasn’t going to stick around, but it could be surmised that losing Mike McKenzie made that decline take place. That counter-argument is dispelled by the vast improvement the Packers saw against the pass in 2005. A year removed from Kurt’s abysmal season, a similar unit, personnel-wise, was able to finish 1st in total passing yards and up to the middle of the pack at 15th in average yards allowed.
In a strange twist, following their year of improvement, new Packers head coach Mike McCarthy inexplicably decided to give Kurt a second try. In addition, they brought back Al Harris and Nick Collins, and added Charles Woodson to the mix. The Packers took a step back again, down to 17th in both total yardage and average yardage, while 27th in passing touchdowns allowed.
More subjectively, in his stint with the Packers, it was clear that in 2006 coaching was severely lacking. “Lack of communication” was continuously cited as the culprit for blown coverages and missed assignments. Additionally, one has to wonder if Schottenheimer had any role in the lack of development of rookies Ahmad Carroll and Joey Thomas in 2004, who failed to show any improvement throughout their rookie seasons.
St. Louis: Secondary Coach
In case anyone was wondering what Kurt was doing in 2005 when the Packers enjoyed their Schottenheimer-free success, he was busy destroying the Rams’ pass defense. Just like in Green Bay, where the pass defense was better both before Kurt came and after he left than it was under Kurt, the Rams went from good to bad in 2005.
In 2004, the Rams finished 11th in total yardage, 14th in average yards, and 20th in passing touchdowns allowed. Enter Kurt Schottenheimer, and 2005 crashed and burned to the tune of 23rd in passing yards, 26th in average passing yards, and 30th in passing touchdowns allowed. Following Kurt’s quick and deserved dismissal, the Rams’ pass defense improved in all three categories, including moving up to 8th in total passing yards allowed and 17th in passing touchdowns allowed.
Closing Thoughts
The (apologetically) lengthy journey I have laid out for you above outlines a coach who has worked in the NFL for several years, and yet has only had two or three seasons that could be deemed a “success,” or an “accomplishment.” He is a coach who has repeatedly entered situations only to leave the team worse off than before he arrived, and better off after he’s been shown the door. Even his successes were moderate, at best. He is a coach who has shown a lack of coordination of his units, be it a defense or just a secondary. He is a coach whose name and brother have carried him throughout his career, completely undeservingly.
When Marty Schottenheimer tried once again to give his brother a piggy-back ride onto the helm of one of the best, and most talented defenses in the league, AJ Smith stepped in. When Marty suggested hiring a defensive coordinator with no experience in the 3-4 scheme, AJ Smith said no. When Marty suggested hiring a career-long mediocre, if not terrible, coach to take control of the side of the ball that Smith believes gives the team its best chance at a Super Bowl, he couldn’t stand idly by.
When Marty Schottenheimer insisted on his brother, Kurt, to fill the defensive coordinator position, he had committed a fireable offense. Hopefully this will help the readers understand that the team did precisely what it had to do, given Marty’s demands and his putting nepotism above the success of the team.