Industrial Psychology, and Why Adam Gase Will Fail as a Head Coach

[Atila]

Yeah... the OP is a big reach.

 

[utahphinsfan]

...But Adam Gase never played college or pro football, he never had his bones broken or blood shed on a college or pro football field, and the players know it.

If a rookie clipboard nerd wants to get 53 bandaged warriors in the locker room, to be motivated as a band of brothers and WANT to play hard for their leader, he shouldn't be publicly shaming players about playing through pain.

Please. If that's the deciding factor then at least 99.8% of fans have less credibility than AG. Sitting around playing a certain perception altering video game while watching NFLN does not make you an 'expert'

We've had coaches who tried plan A, and that obviously did not work. And Gase is not publicly saying "Ja'Wuan James sucks" or so and so looks like garbage. He is not throwing people "under the bus".

Agree. Getting back to the head shrinking (I mean industrial psychology); You have got to understand your audience and tailor your message. You can't have a one size fits all message but I'd bet most players understand & appreciate a direct honest approach better.

And saying someone needs to play through pain is NOT throwing them under the bus. If a player lets something like that bother him then the player doesn't belong in the NFL. We need some guys who are mentally and physically tough. No more wussies.

Again. I agree. I hate to mention the snake. It still boggles the mind; how he made it through Stanford with Harbaugh and then fell to pieces in Miami?

 

[Sirspud]

Saying one approach is better isn't true. It just depends on the effectiveness of who is saying it as a whole. Successful NFL coaches don't all follow one formula.

 

[DuderinoN703]

If the team wasn't full of bums he wouldn't have to call anyone out. It isn't like he's unfairly calling guys like Maxwell out.

He's the anti-Philbin. We didn't want Philbin's passive bull****, now some don't like Gase's brazen attitude? And what does him not playing college football have to do with anything?

 

[Sirspud]

If the team wasn't full of bums he wouldn't have to call anyone out. It isn't like he's unfairly calling guys like Maxwell out.

He's the anti-Philbin. We didn't want Philbin's passive bull****, now some don't like Gase's brazen attitude? And what does him not playing college football have to do with anything?

I don't want Gase's I want to bench everyone attitude nor Philbin's passive attitude. I want somebody who takes a player who has talent but is sucking and makes them play better somehow. Not a coach who benches talent to start fringe NFL players. Not a coach who trades away underperformers for less than their value and potential malcontents.

 

[DefensiveEnd76]

Face it, 90% of our roster is crap. We may as well scrap it and start over.

 

[NBP81]

It's not as simple as that. Calling out players publicly, as a rookie head coach will get you nowhere in the NFL. Dude has won one game and it is tough to even call that a victory. I said it a couple weeks ago but this team is about to implode on Gase. These units are tight knit and if you think calling out one guy for bad play is going to create cohesion you are not paying attention. Team is riddled w/ bad "workers". Too many bad "workers" is on management. You can only run a team so far with a handful of happy players, eventually it's on coaching to make things work and stop pointing fingers. Not going to find to many "happy" free agents that are going to buy into a dismal team w/ a newbie coach that throws you under the bus for your play in 5 games (see that works both ways for those saying give Gase a chance it's only been 5 games).

Thats the thing, you cant win with bad workers, you cant scheme for players who dont give a ****... I beleive the coach saw the talent he inherited, concluded the playoffs werent happening this year, like most of us lets be honest here. He's in the process of finding out who are the good ones. And as for the FA part, well thats a good thing because we need to start building our team through the draft and stop giving big money to players who were labeled as bad workers or overpaid by other teams....

 

[Daytona Fin]

Thats the thing, you cant win with bad workers, you cant scheme for players who dont give a ****... I beleive the coach saw the talent he inherited, concluded the playoffs werent happening this year, like most of us lets be honest here. He's in the process of finding out who are the good ones. And as for the FA part, well thats a good thing because we need to start building our team through the draft and stop giving big money to players who were labeled as bad workers or overpaid by other teams....

Well that's the thing, we only have roughly 7 picks and we'll probably have about 25 spots that need filling after weeding out the garbage. I'm no mathematician but the numbers are telling me we will be building through free agency.

 

[Michigan Mike]

The one thing I would like to point out is that not a single person on this message board knows what is going on behind closed doors or what conversations led to the cuts yesterday. And, as a possible sign that Gase hasn't lost the team, there aren't any "leaks" coming from the players or anyone else on the team about how they are not supporting the coach or his system. If the players were pissed off, you can bet your next paycheck we would hear something from some anonymous source that there is a mutiny forming but we haven't heard a thing. Sure it is only five games into his rookie head coaching season but I think these players are all seasoned enough to be able to gauge if he is going to be successful or not, regardless if he has ever played a down of college or pro ball.

 

[fansinceGWilson]

CLARIFICATION: This thread is about what a coach says to the public. It has nothing to do with a coach's decision to bench & cut certain players. Approach A (Diplomatic): "Part of it is my fault, part of it is Tannehill's fault, part of it is the o-line. We need to work better as a team." Approach B (Publicly Call People Out): "It's the o-line's fault" (link) and "He needs to play through pain" (link) Adam Gase has been going with approach "B", but he's better off going with approach "A". In order for a head coach to pull off approach "B", and publicly call people out, he needs a great deal of street cred. Adam Gase doesn't have that street cred. He's a rookie head coach, with a losing record, who never played college or pro football. Virtually all NFL head coaches at least played some college football. Veteran NFL players are going to think "Who the hell is this nerd, publicly saying that I need to play through pain, that it's my fault, publicly throwing me under the bus. He's never had his bones broken or blood shed on a college or pro football field. He wouldn't last 5 seconds in my world". There's a good chance that the team is already quitting on him, mailing it in, and just collecting paychecks. From an industrial psychology perspective, I predict that Adam Gase will fail as a head coach. Given his background (rookie head coach who never even played college football), and given his public persona (publicly call people out, publicly throw them under the bus), I highly doubt veteran warriors will be willing to sacrifice their lives & bodies for him, and follow him to the gates of hell. As I said on another thread, Adam Gase might be better suited to be a strategist (offensive coordinator).

From memory, Gase has used Approach A also. He has publicly defended Tannehill, Mario, and Tunsil . . . maybe others. Good managers/coaches know who responds better to positive/negative strokes and knows when a player/employee has reached a point 'psychology' doesn't work (Thomas/Turner/Douglas). Give the guy time.

 

[lotion]

There is no binary course on management A or B.. Gase is doing what needs to be done no one is going to turn on him in year 1. Purging the roster of guys who are just showing up for a paycheck is a great thing (though he could have done it sooner).
Personnel decisions will be exposed a lot quicker this way there will be pressure and ?s for guys like Grier (whose fingerprints are all over this roster) and Tannenbaum who is very careless with trading draft picks.

 

[.....]

To say Gase has been using either A or B exclusively is a bit asinine. If you've paid attention you will notice that he has used both, depending on what the situation calls for.

 

[eric1317]

If you really look at what Gase is saying it's this, the system in more important than the player. Do your task within the system or I'll find someone who will. Today it's garbage OLineman but tomorrow it could be anyone who doesn't buy into the system. We may have to suffer through growing pains but I like the approach. Eventually we'll see what his system has to offer.

 

[J. David Wannyheimer]

Happy players today are the good ones, because the coach just cut 3 bad ones....

This is the truth, in my experience.. From my time managing a sales force that had team oriented bonuses, it was better to be blunt, honest, and remove chronic underperformers than it was to spend all of my time walking on eggshells trying not to upset anyone. The latter is how I started out and I discovered pretty early on that it was a terrible approach. The good people left and the bad people kept being bad.

Then again, I take a pretty different view from most in that I think that managing a football team is a little bit like managing other performance oriented businesses. Being able to make good decisions quickly is critical. The big issue I have here is that Gase waited too long to cut guys who sucked, but I'm willing to give him some leeway on that given that the 90 guys we brought into camp sucked to begin with.

 

[Sons Of Shula]

If you really look at what Gase is saying it's this, the system in more important than the player. Do your task within the system or I'll find someone who will. Today it's garbage OLineman but tomorrow it could be anyone who doesn't buy into the system. We may have to suffer through growing pains but I like the approach. Eventually we'll see what his system has to offer.

If a player doesn't fit your scheme, there's something wrong with the scheme.