Challenger74
Starter
I was discussing with a friend about former Dolphin's OC's and Gary Stevens came up. I always thought of him as a decent OC, but my buddy thought he was horrible.
Thoughts?
Thoughts?
Was Gary Stevens considered a good OC?
- Thread starter Challenger74
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Gary Stevens is the guy that said you can't make chicken salad out of chicken ****! Great quote! I guess he was less than excited about his talent! He was no big deal as an OC if I recall correctly.
Didn’t do a thing but ride Marino; of course, that was Plan A, B and C from 1983-1995. Didn’t go well ultimately since the team had zero outside of him.
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No. He wasn’t.
Smokedogg1973
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But he was better than Kippy Brown at least. lol
He did a great job at the University of Miami back in the day. Probably was better than Kippy Brown for us, but he wasn't anything special IIRC.
Pachyderm_Wave
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What I always found funny was that Gary worked for Jimmy for 5 years when they were together on staff with the Hurricanes - Gary was Jimmy's OC when they won the national title in '87. Then Jimmy canned him for Kippy Brown after 2 years together with the Dolphins.
Jimmy believed Pete Carroll and the Patriots had figured out Marino and Gary's audibles after he threw two pick 6's to Jimmy Hitch**** and Larry Whigham in Foxboro during the Wild Card game. Miami only scored 3 points that day and lost because of those interceptions - on a day Trace Armstrong, Jason Taylor, Zach Thomas, Terrell Buckley and Sam Madison held Bledsoe to under 150 yards passing and the Patriots running game in check to barely 100 yards as a team.
It was the last straw for Jimmy as far as Gary was concerned. All Kippy did was come in and simplify the offense in an attempt to neuter Marino and put the onus on running backs like J.J. Johnson instead of allowing Marino to audible.
Jimmy believed Pete Carroll and the Patriots had figured out Marino and Gary's audibles after he threw two pick 6's to Jimmy Hitch**** and Larry Whigham in Foxboro during the Wild Card game. Miami only scored 3 points that day and lost because of those interceptions - on a day Trace Armstrong, Jason Taylor, Zach Thomas, Terrell Buckley and Sam Madison held Bledsoe to under 150 yards passing and the Patriots running game in check to barely 100 yards as a team.
It was the last straw for Jimmy as far as Gary was concerned. All Kippy did was come in and simplify the offense in an attempt to neuter Marino and put the onus on running backs like J.J. Johnson instead of allowing Marino to audible.
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dlockz
Hall Of Famer
While Stevens did benefit from MArino I think he was a pretty solid OC here.
We have not had an OC as consitently good since Stevens left or was dumped
5 out of 9 years we had a top 10 offense with Stevens we havent finished higher than 12th since he left and that was 2008.
i blame Johnson more the offense under his tenure
We have not had an OC as consitently good since Stevens left or was dumped
5 out of 9 years we had a top 10 offense with Stevens we havent finished higher than 12th since he left and that was 2008.
i blame Johnson more the offense under his tenure
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The best thing I can say about Gary Stevens as a Dolphin is that he was a better offensive coach than Tom Olivadotti was a defensive coach.
dlockz
Hall Of Famer
Since he left who has been a better offensive coach than Stevens?
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Position coach or OC?
Funny, but I keep reading the ‘plan a, b, c’ thing lately. It’s not true.
I’ve been re-watching a ton of games from that era, specifically 84-87, and they ran the ball a lot more than you’re led to believe. I should say ‘tried to run the ball’ because it wasn’t typically very successful.
That‘s precisely why they started slinging it more and more as years dragged on. Because when they tried to run, they consistently found themselves in 2nd and 3rd and long situations.
Those teams just couldn’t run the ball well. At all. They churned through RB’s left and right. Problem was they just didn’t have run blocking maulers. Not until Jimmy Johnson started trying to change that and even then they were never dominant in that aspect of the game until the Wannstedt era with Ricky Williams in 2002.
raving
Active Roster
He was over his head a bit - that said he had no ****ing running game.... lopsided attack...
dlockz
Hall Of Famer
Considering he had MArk Higgs, Bernie Parmalee and Karim Abdul Jabbar as his backs I am not sure he was the issue
Yes, Marino being Plan A, B, and C doesn’t mean that literally they never tried anything else. It means that nothing else worked when they tried it and so Marino had to win games or the defense and (lack of) running game would lose them.
The talent on the Dolphins between 1986-1988 absolutely fell to pieces. And the rebuild beginning in 1989 was a good step, but it wasn’t successful enough. The defense got better, but it wasn’t elite or dominant; on its best day it was pretty good. And the running game was never solved under Shula post-1985, ever (arguably it wasn’t solved until 2002 and trading multiple first rounders for Ricky Williams). The Dolphins teams post-1985 and through 1999 were only going to go as far as Marino carried them— period.