ROB FUCKING RYAN IS PURE SPECULATION, I HATE THAT SHIT JUST MORE STUFF TO FIRE US UP. WHAT PISSES ME OFF IS THAT THE PLAYERS ALSO "LOVED" HIM A LA TOM CABLE. FUCK THAT. ROB RYAN'S DEFENSE WAS GARBAGE. NO BLITZING, PREVENT D, MAN COVERAGE, BLAH. FUCK OFF. I DON'T GIVE A FUCK IF THE PLAYERS LOVE THEIR COACH, I WANT TO FUCKING WIN FOOTBALL GAMES MOTHERFUCKERS!!!
...Rob would install a game plan which the players were excited about to only have Al Davis scrap it the day before the game. Is it Rob's D or Al Davis's D that is garbage?
Cable commented publicly that once the season was underway, he made all the decisions regarding which players he would start, the gameplans, etc. He made that comment in response to people stating that they believed Al Davis made a lot of these decisions. That Davis would mandate to the coach that certain players be played (during the season), or that the defense would be run a certain way. Even beliefs that Al would call down to the field during the game to request changes. Cable said that wasn't true. That he didn't speak regularly with Al during the season, and that these decisions were his to make once the season began. I think Kiffin said the same thing when he was coach.
Maybe you'll think I'm naive, but I believe that. In Kiffin's case, we know that Al sent Kiffin letters warning him that he was doing things that were inappropriate in the eyes of Al. But other than that, Al didn't meet with Kiffin face to face during the season or tell him how to run the team. He basically let Kiffin take enough rope to hang himself (with cause).
I tend to think that Al let Cable do what he saw fit during the season. Al picked most of Cable's staff before he promoted Cable to head coach, yeah, but once the pieces were in place I think he sat back and just watched to see what Cable could do. Didn't Al make the statement, "you have to let coaches coach"? Or am I thinking of someone else?
Remember the week going into the Dolphins game in late November? The week started with Cable saying that Gradkowski would start, then a couple days later he switched and said Jason Campbell would start, that there was no QB issue, then at game time Sunday they put Gradkowski in. If Al were calling the shots, you know Campbell would have been in there. It did seem a little weird how Cable would flip flop between the to QB's, almost from day to day....especially that week prior to the Dolphins game. Maybe he was trying to make it hard for our upcoming opponent? So they wouldn't know which QB we were going to start and they'd have to prepare for both? Who knows?
Maybe some day there will be one or more of those "tell all" books about Al Davis and what went on behind closed doors.
"The memoirs of John Herrera"....a potential best seller!
I'm sure you guys can come up with some good sub-titles for the book.
