Mooch is OUTTA HERE and perhaps the next Lions Head Coach!! (1 Viewer)

[Mark Lee]

ESPN.com is reporting that Steve Mariucci's been released from the last year of his contract:
http://espn.go.com/nfl/news/2003/0115/1493146.html
So who's next for the 'Niners?
(Didn't know if this was supposed to go in the NFL playoffs mega-thread, but hey, since the 'Niners are currently watching the playoffs from home -- hee hee!! -- I thought it deserved its own thread.)

 

[Scott Merryfield]

If the Detroit Lions were smart, they would immediately fire Mornhinweg and hire Mariucci as their head coach. Of course, using "smart" and "Detroit Lions" in the same sentence is an entirely foreign concept to me...
Expect Dennis Green to get the San Fran job. He's from the Bill Walsh coaching factory.

 

[Joel Mack]

Does Mooch land in J-Ville now?

 

[Dean DeMass]

Reports are that he has no interest in the Jacksonville job and Jacksonville has no interest in him.
As much as I like Mike Sherman, I would love to see the Pack fire him and bring in Mooch.
This feeling stems from the horrible play calling in the Jets and Falcons games.
-Dean-

 

[Chuck Mayer]

Dennis Green.
Because his team never folded in the playoffs :rolleyes
Mooch is a great coach...he'll land a team.
Take care,
Chuck

 

[David King]

The Bungles!

 

[Chet_F]

Yea, good luck with Dennis Green. It took us WAY too long to get rid of that big TURD!!!!!!!

 

[Joel Mack]

The Bungles!

They already have a coach.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

They already have a coach.

The funny thing about that is Marvin Lewis turned down the Michigan State job because he wanted an NFL head coaching job. So, why did he take the Bengals job if he wanted an NFL position?

 

[Mark Lee]

Wonder how an Ohio State-Bungles matchup would play out? I would presume that the Buckeyes would have most of the crowd on their side....

 

[David King]

They already have a coach.

The key word in that sentence is "a". They certainly arn't going to win with talent. Where are Wyche and Coslet when you need them, they got a loser team to perform.

 

[Joel Mack]

Wonder how an Ohio State-Bungles matchup would play out? I would presume that the Buckeyes would have most of the crowd on their side....

The Bungles would destroy them.

Anyone who believes even the best college team would stand a chance against the dregs of the NFL is dreaming...

 

[Ross Williams]

Big Niners fan here. I'm disappointed to see Mariucci go. I thought he was doing a good job. They made it to the 2nd round of the playoffs with no defense. I wanted to give him at least another year. I'm pretty nervous about Dennis Green coming in.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

The Detroit News is reporting that the Lions have fired Marty Mornhinweg and are hiring Mariucci as his replacement.
http://www.detnews.com/2003/lions/03...ions-70031.htm

If the Detroit Lions were smart, they would immediately fire Mornhinweg and hire Mariucci as their head coach. Of course, using "smart" and "Detroit Lions" in the same sentence is an entirely foreign concept to me...

The above was mine from post #2 in this thread. Hey, the Lions actually did something smart for once!

 

[Robert Crawford]

Here's another story about the firing and perhaps new hiring of Mooch. Looks like Millen might have figured out what was in his best interest by getting himself a real head coach and maybe, a local guy wanting to come home to Michigan.
Crawdaddy

 

[Scott Merryfield]

From the ESPN article:

Steve Mariucci, who was fired by the 49ers earlier this month, is available. However, sources close to Mariucci have told ESPN that he has not been contacted by the Lions regarding their vacancy. The sources also said that Mariucci is uncertain whether he wants to coach next season.

Wouldn't it be just like the Lions to fire Mornhinweg, and then have Mariucci turn them down? Then, they would probably promote newly hired running back coach Bobby Williams (formerly the inept Michigan State head coach) to the head coaching spot. Now, that sounds more like the Lions that I've been following for the past 33 years!

 

[Shane Martin]

Tis what I'm thinking Scott. Mooch isn't a certainty yet but then again I don't think they'd fire their other coach w/o something up their sleeves.
Then again I'm not a Lions fan so I don't know what to expect

 

[Scott Merryfield]

After listening to interviews with Millen this afternoon, he is really tap dancing around the Mariucci situation. It appears to be due to the NFL's guidelines for hiring head coaches, which includes interviewing minority candidates for vacant positions. That means the Lions cannot just come out and hire Mooch without following a process dictated by the league.

There are lots of rumors flying around town, but the top candidates appear to be Mariucci and Dennis Green, with most of the money on Mooch. After all, if they had wanted Green, they could have hired him already, but Mariucci just became available. Millen wanted Mooch two years ago when he first took the Detroit job, but he was not available and Matt settled for Mariucci's offensive coordinator, Mornhinweg.

 

[Bill Harada]

Well if Mariuchi does get the Lions job it'll be as good an opportunity as any to show what kind of a difference he makes as a coach. At least he'd be in the position of being a local-boy come home.

Inheriting the Niners like he did, I don't think he ever fully gained the respect of the organization...especially with his failure in getting them back to the Superbowl, and despite the job he did in getting the team through their salary-cap/personnel troubles (or do Donahue/McVay/Walsh take credit for that?).

I guess it was just his bad luck to follow two coaches who won 5 Superbowls between them.

 

[Jon_Are]

The NFL's requirements for hiring a head coach - with regard to the 'fairness in hiring' aspect - are laughable. If the Lions are set on hiring Mariucci, they still must interview at least one minority applicant.
If I were a minority person and I were flown in - because of league mandate - for this sham of an interview, I would view it as a waste of my time and a colossal insult.
Jon