Meet Lou Spanos

One of the defensive changes I am most excited about is adding Lou Spanos as LB coach. Redskins.com did a write up on him:
Lou Spanos (http://www.redskins.com/gen/coaches/Lou_Spanos.jsp)

Look at this stat:
Spanos coached nine different linebackers who combined for 19 Pro Bowl appearances -- Kevin Greene (2), Greg Lloyd (2), Chad Brown (1), Levon Kirkland (2), Jason Gildon (3), Kendrell Bell (1), Joey Porter (3), James Farrior (2) and James Harrison (3).

I hope he can do some miracles with ours crew and the new rook as well!

Good shit!

I'm glad that Spanos is on our side.

Spanos is the key to 3-4 switch IMO, if he can convert our DE into outside LB's.

HTTR.

Spanos is definetly the important piece of making an effective switch to the 3-4. I think he will do nice things with the converted DE's.

One of the defensive changes I am most excited about is adding Lou Spanos as LB coach. Redskins.com did a write up on him:
Lou Spanos (http://www.redskins.com/gen/coaches/Lou_Spanos.jsp)

Look at this stat:


I hope he can do some miracles with our crew and the new rook as well!

He certainly has the resume' for it. I'm excited to have him here.

He's a great coach, very nice hire

Lets not get carried away here. Spanos has never been primarily responsible for coaching linebackers before. In Pittsburgh, he was a "quality control" coach. He coached 15 years in Pittsburg and was never promoted to linebackers coach. One would think if he was really so instrumental in the success of the Steelers linebackers, he would have been promoted to LB coach in 2003. Instead, the Steelers went after Keith Butler, who had a less-than-impressive resume with Cleaveland.

I'm not saying Spanos wasn't a good pickup, as we needed someone who could teach our LBs the 3-4, but i think its stretching things to call him a great coach or to give him credit for the steelers defenses. Calling him a great coach is like calling Cerrato a great executive because he "contributed" to a 49ers superbowl team. Spanos could end up being a great linebackers coach, but at this point, he could also be a jim zorn-esque hire: Great at doing one comparitively small job, but horrible when given broader responsibilities.

Lets not get carried away here. Spanos has never been primarily responsible for coaching linebackers before. In Pittsburgh, he was a "quality control" coach. He coached 15 years in Pittsburg and was never promoted to linebackers coach. One would think if he was really so instrumental in the success of the Steelers linebackers, he would have been promoted to LB coach in 2003. Instead, the Steelers went after Keith Butler, who had a less-than-impressive resume with Cleaveland.

I'm not saying Spanos wasn't a good pickup, as we needed someone who could teach our LBs the 3-4, but i think its stretching things to call him a great coach or to give him credit for the steelers defenses. Calling him a great coach is like calling Cerrato a great executive because he "contributed" to a 49ers superbowl team. Spanos could end up being a great linebackers coach, but at this point, he could also be a jim zorn-esque hire: Great at doing one comparitively small job, but horrible when given broader responsibilities.
I think it's a great hire, and your examples are in no way comparable.

Zorn went from qb coach to head coach. Spanos was an assistant linebackers coach under an outstanding coach in LeBeau working on one of the premier linebacking units in the league. He moves up the ladder in the normal progession to Linebacker coach here.

VC was a small part of the SF FO that one the SB, going from a FO job not a direct assitant to the GM. Spanos assisted the linebackers and the defensive coaching staff with game preparation, video analysis and scouting of Steelers’ opponents (http://news.steelers.com/team/coach/49269/).

BHA, you have good posts, but I honestly believe, if Cowher were here, and he brought Spanos in, your response would be completely different.

I think it's a great hire, and your examples are in no way comparable.

Zorn went from qb coach to head coach. Spanos was an assistant linebackers coach under an outstanding coach in LeBeau working on one of the premier linebacking units in the league. He moves up the ladder in the normal progession to Linebacker coach here.

VC was a small part of the SF FO that one the SB, going from a FO job not a direct assitant to the GM. Spanos assisted the linebackers and the defensive coaching staff with game preparation, video analysis and scouting of Steelers’ opponents (http://news.steelers.com/team/coach/49269/).

BHA, you have good posts, but I honestly believe, if Cowher were here, and he brought Spanos in, your response would be completely different.


i'm not opposed to hiring spanos at all - i just think some people are overreacting to his presence as if he's a top-notch, proven linebackers coach - he's not. Zorn was a horrible head coach and he showed us enough to indicate he'd be a horrible offensive coordinator too. there was a reason no other team - even the team he was on, considered hiring zorn as an offensive coordinator. there's likely a reason no one on the steelers staff thought spanos was deserving of being a linebackers coach. when someone does the same thing for 15 years, and doesnt get a promotion, there's generally two possibilities - 1) they are content where they are and dont want more responsibility or 2) they aren't good enough to make it at the next level.

youre right, though. if Cowher had been our head coach and he hired spanos, i would be much more confident in him, because Cowher is someone who worked with Spanos for over a decade and would be well aware of his abilities. Cowher also would very likely not have hired Haslett, another hire i am very, very, concerned about.

Looking at the linebacker position in our defense, we've got alot of reason to be concerned. We're switching to a brand new defense that is schematically and philosophically completely different than the one we've run for the past 6 years. Orkapo aside, there's not a single holdover LB from last year who is ideal for the 3-4 defense. No starting LB on the roster has ever started a 3-4 defense before. our LB coach has never been a position coach before. Our Defensive coordinator is average at best. Our head coach has a history of impatience with defensive coordinators and systems.

Now, as a fan, we can hope for 2010 to be all roses and sunshine, but being realisticy we have no reason to expect our linebacking unit to be anything special at all this year. More reasonable expectations would be a unit ranking in the bottom 10, perhaps even the bottom 5, of the league.