Don Shula was great in the 70's and early 80's because he was in an era where you could build a team and keep it together. As stated previously, he was loyal to his staff and that got him in trouble. I am sorry, but the way he deferred to Marino and not at least making him understand that a running game is an asset and you can not do it all yourself, was another of his short comings. Then when Jimmy came in he did a complete 180 taking all control away from Dan and forcing him to run, that was also the wrong approach. But the worst thing that happened to Shula was the loss of Bill Arnsparger. I will take this to my grave, Bill Arnsparger was the greatest defensive DC of his era.
Many of the younger people do not remember or even know of a time when you had a player for as long as the team wanted him. There was no player movement. It was the reason that Csonka and the rest of the players bolted for the WFL. When a player was drafted, barring some kind of trade, that was your team and you better make this work or your not going to make it in the league. A coach did not have to worry about filling holes that were addressed previously by the team as long as you did not screw up your draft, but I assure there were alot of teams that did. You had 3 or 4 teams that were elite and then you had the rest of the league. Thank God we were one of those teams. In my estimation in the 70's, the Raiders, Dolphins, Cowboys and Steelers were the elite and then there were the good teams and you had the bad teams and it never really changed. But the winds of change picked up in the 80's and more teams started challenge for the upper echelon, i.e. 49ers. The whole complexion of the league changed when JJ went to Dallas and when FA came about in around 93. Shula was, sadly, like a fish out of water.
There was a time that a coach once said,"Shula will take his and beat yours, then he will take yours and beat his". Not in this new era of football. I point to the time when Marino's career was waning and Shula was trying to get him back to the SB. We had glaring needs on defense, but Shula again deferred to Marino. He brought a ton of veteran offensive stars, most of which were removed from the glory of their youth. Once again he did not bring any thing to establish a modicum of a running attack, just weapons to help Marino. I reiterate he did nothing about the faltering D. As you can expect, this blow up in his face. There was just no cohesion on the team. Ultimately that was what lead to Shula being let go and JJ being hired.
The second thing that will tarnish the memory of Shula was the presence of one of the most inept coaches in the league, Tom "it's not my fault it's the players" Olivadotti. This guy was clueless and always gave the excuse that he just did not have the players to run his defensive system. The guy was a
MORON. Enough said before my head explodes.
Lastly, the most significant events of Shula tenure as a the HC happened in the early 80's. First, Larry Gordon died of an heart attack while jogging outside his home. Do not ask me why, but Gordon seemed to be the glue that held the D together. When he died the D never seemed to be the same. But that brings me to the second significant event of 1983, Bill Arnsparger's departure to LSU. It is probably why Gordon's death seemed so significant. Bill was a defensive genius. I am pretty sure that Shula gave Arnsparger alot of latitude when it came to control over the defense. It really showed because when he moved on in 83 and, I think, Chuck Studstill that came in, the D was never really the same. Then, Olivaidiot was hired and the rest is history.
Shula was great coach. But as I say to the people with which I watch the Dolphin's games, I will never forgive him for not making more of an effort to shore up the running game and keeping the idiot on the staff for as long as he did.
