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Thank You Huizenga

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RenoFinFan

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Much love can be found at finheaven for Saban and deservedly so IMO. Just thought I would send a little love to Dolphin owner Wayne Huizenga.

My personal experience and observations is successful organizations have a visionary leader(s) at the top. They then build a team (coaching staff) around them that emody their vision and the team (coaching staff) are able to communicate this philosophy to the worker bees (players) and get them to engage in the behaviors necessary to have long-term success. In other words, it starts at the top and IMO we just might have the best damn owner in the league. He is dedicated to building a foundation in order for the Dolphins not to just win this year, but next year, and the year after that, and the year after that, and the...So thank you Mr. Huizenga. Good article to support this...

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/15369471.htm
 
RenoFinFan said:
Much love can be found at finheaven for Saban and deservedly so IMO. Just thought I would send a little love to Dolphin owner Wayne Huizenga.

My personal experience and observations is successful organizations have a visionary leader(s) at the top. They then build a team (coaching staff) around them that emody their vision and the team (coaching staff) are able to communicate this philosophy to the worker bees (players) and get them to engage in the behaviors necessary to have long-term success. In other words, it starts at the top and IMO we just might have the best damn owner in the league. He is dedicated to building a foundation in order for the Dolphins not to just win this year, but next year, and the year after that, and the year after that, and the...So thank you Mr. Huizenga. Good article to support this...

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/15369471.htm
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Thank you Wayne you've done a magnificent job in continuing to build a great organization for us.
 
He's finally doing right, but remember...this is the same owner that hired Wannstedt despite his failings and fingerpointing in Chicago and then held on to Wannabe for what seemed like forever. He also hired JJ and facilitated Shula's "retirement".
Huizenga seems like a nice guy and doesnt mind spending money for the team, so he probably is one of the better owners in the league, but any owner that hired Dave Wannstedt as head coach and then held on to him for 5 years can never be called the "best" or a "visionary"
 
yankeehillbilly said:
He's finally doing right, but remember...this is the same owner that hired Wannstedt despite his failings and fingerpointing in Chicago and then held on to Wannabe for what seemed like forever. He also hired JJ and facilitated Shula's "retirement".
Huizenga seems like a nice guy and doesnt mind spending money for the team, so he probably is one of the better owners in the league, but any owner that hired Dave Wannstedt as head coach and then held on to him for 5 years can never be called the "best" or a "visionary"
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You have some valid points. I am not a Wanny or JJ fan. However, the JJ hiring seemed like the right move at the time. He was highly successful with the Hurricanes and building the Cowboys into a Dynasty (according to some people). Even though I wanted Shula to stay, JJ was the #1 commodity for coaches. Keep in mind that Miami had not been to a SB in over a decade and had not won a SB in over two decades. I do believe Mr. Huizenga's decision was to try and win a SB while Marino was still QB and time was running out. Although I didn't emotionally support the decision I can see the logic behind it.

I don't remember all the details that went into Wanny being hired, but prior to the disasterous 4-12 2004 season the Dolphins were 11-5 in 00, 11-5 in 01, 9-7 in 02, 10-6 in 03. If I recall correctly every year some of the major publications were predicting for Miami to make it to the SB that year. To replace Wanny would not have made much sense at the time IMO. Doing so would have been declaring we are in a rebuilding phase. Once 04 happened Mr. Huizenga took the appropriate action.
 
I don't think that any of you guys have lived in south Florida. While I lived there, which was until almost two years ago, he always inflamed cross-town enmity between Miami and Broward. The team used to be the MIAMI Dolphins and he turned it into more of the Broward County Dolphins with all of the operations in Broward. The closest it is to the Miami Dolphins is the fact that the stadium sits almost on the county line. He even tried to move move the Heat to Broward.

Apart from that he's taken a hands-off approach to the team and that doesn't take much except trust.
 
RenoFinFan said:
You have some valid points. I am not a Wanny or JJ fan. However, the JJ hiring seemed like the right move at the time. He was highly successful with the Hurricanes and building the Cowboys into a Dynasty (according to some people). Even though I wanted Shula to stay, JJ was the #1 commodity for coaches. Keep in mind that Miami had not been to a SB in over a decade and had not won a SB in over two decades. I do believe Mr. Huizenga's decision was to try and win a SB while Marino was still QB and time was running out. Although I didn't emotionally support the decision I can see the logic behind it.

I don't remember all the details that went into Wanny being hired, but prior to the disasterous 4-12 2004 season the Dolphins were 11-5 in 00, 11-5 in 01, 9-7 in 02, 10-6 in 03. If I recall correctly every year some of the major publications were predicting for Miami to make it to the SB that year. To replace Wanny would not have made much sense at the time IMO. Doing so would have been declaring we are in a rebuilding phase. Once 04 happened Mr. Huizenga took the appropriate action.
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The details of Wanny being hired were this:
Jimmie Johnson, distraught over personal issues decided to quit. Huizenga made it his mission to pursuade JJ to stay at any cost(not sure why sinc JJ hadn't exacltly been dominating the league). JJ agreed on the condition that Dave Wannstedt be hired as assistant head coach. The next year JJ did retire and Dave moved into the head coaching spot.
In 2000 the Phins made it to the 2nd round of the playoffs
2001, got beat in the 1st round
In 2002 missed the playoffs despite having the league rushing leader AND sack leader. Eliminated in the final game of the season.
2003 missed the playoffs again. Eliminated in the 14th or 15th game of the season.

Every year the Phins got worse under Wannstedts reign.

Records and playoff appearances aside...even a blind man could see that Wannstedt was destroying the team. He got handed a strong defense and a good offensive line/running game. Through atrocious personnel decisions in the drafts and free agencies, and unwaivering faith in players that can be called "marginal" at best, the offense, especially the O-Line quickly became one of the worst in the league and the defense began to deteriorate as well. Acquiring Ricky Williams hid some of the deficiencies of the offense...especially the Line, but again...an average coach with a still powerful defense and Ricky Williams should be able to at least make the playoffs as a wildcard. Wannstedt couldnt.

Wannstedt never should have been given the Head Coach job due to his tenure in Chicago, but even if you overlook that, his steady decline every year should have gotten him canned after the '02 or at worst '03 season....winning record or not.

Just as I fault Wannstedt for refusing to replace Jay Fiedler, I fault Huizenga for refusing for so long to replace Dave Wannstedt.
 
IMHO, Huizenga put way too much faith in Jimmy Johnson's abilities and he thought Johnson could some how perform and duplicate the magic he performed in Dallas. Unfortuately Miami didn't have a Hershal Walker to trade for a bushel of picks. Even though he did pluck some Gems from the draft he just didn't have the same staff, scouts and luck he had in Dallas. Jimmy somehow used his remaining influence and personna to convince Wayne to hire Wannstedt irregardless of the debacle in Chicago. Maybe Jimmy convinced Wayne that Wannstedt was one of the reasons he had such a success in Dallas, we will never know. IMO it wasn't Wayne simply deciding Wannstedt was the best candidate out there, Jimmy Johnson manipulated that situation. Wayne has made mistakes but he has never professed to be a football or NFL expert like the owner of the cowboys and a couple of others, he listened to Johnson who he had confidence in was an authority and he thought Johnson knew what was best and the rest is history.
 
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