Head coach Tony Sparano will be doing a column this year for MiamiDolphins.com. The column will appear occasionally during the offseason and on a regular basis during the regular season.
In his second installment, we get to know Coach Sparano and he talks about a variety of topics as he counts down the hours until his first training camp as an NFL head coach.
May 19, 2008
Q. You have now been head coach of the Miami Dolphins for more than three months. From a personal standpoint, tell the fans what the experience has been like so far?
A. The experience has been fast and furious since I got here. I haven’t really had time to look back on it, but we’ve gotten an awful lot accomplished. Think about it. We put in a new system on both sides of the ball, and that includes a real emphasis on special teams. We had a draft, we’ve gone through free agency. There has been a lot of moving parts here, so it’s been really exciting.
Q. For those who don’t Tony Sparano, which happens to be most of the fans that follow this team, can you sum him up in a nice, succinct package?
A. I’m pretty much a bottom line guy. I don’t beat around the bush much with my players. I don’t think that’s the right way to do business. I try to be as straight forward as I can and develop a good relationship with my players. From a coaching standpoint, I’m a hard-nosed coach, yet I care a lot about the players and try to get them to communicate as much as they can.
Q. It is clear there is a plan in the works to build this team, a plan that really came to light in the draft with the selection of offensive and defensive linemen. Explain the thought process here?
A. I’ve been with Bill Parcells now for five years. Part of the process in Dallas and now here in Miami has always been to build this thing from the middle out. Big guys are hard to come by in our league. If you can get them and keep them, that’s going to be important for us down the road. Acquiring big guys who are athletic, getting them as strong as they can possibly be, and keeping them in house for a while, is going to be a big priority with this football team.
Q. Why did the offensive line coach in you look at Jake Long and say this is the guy we want with the first overall pick?
A. So many things stood out. His toughness was very obvious. So was his ability to learn. His athletic ability is something you clearly saw on film. But, more importantly, was the way he played, the way he went about his job. I thought by watching this guy he was someone who was unique at his position and someone I thought we had to have.
Q. Most of the roster for the upcoming season is now in place, when you look up and down that roster, what things stick out in your mind?
A. I see competition at a lot of positions. That’s something we really want here. We felt like in order for our team to be better this year and go on to be a competitive team right now we had to have competition on the practice field. Every position is up for grabs. We made no bones telling our entire team that. The veteran players who were on this team last year all know that at some point during training camp or during our off season practices they will have to show us what they can do, whether they are a young guy or a 10-year veteran. Competition will bring that out.
Q. I’m sure you are aware that this has been a quarterback-starved team since Dan Marino was in his prime more than a decade ago. How confident are you that the answer is now here and will age and experience be a factor in your decision on who will start on opening day?
A. Age and experience will not be a factor in who will be starting on opening day. The guy who moves the team the best and gets this team in the end zone will be the deciding factor. I’ve been on both sides of this issue before, but the way I believe to do things is based on performance and success. Let me see who moves this offense the best and he’ll be our starter.
We need to see these guys out on the field and under the gun before we can make any final determination. But what I think we’ve done is provide three solid options out there, all of them knowing that they are competing against one another right now and that includes the rookie Chad Henne. Every one of those quarterbacks knows they have a chance to start here. I think that’s very important.
Q. A long-time Dolphins fan gets you one-on-one, looks you in the eye and says, “Coach, tell us why you succeed here when others before you haven’t? What is your response?
A. The reason I believe we’ll succeed is that we are bringing in players who we believe have the right make up, players that have the qualities to succeed in this league. I have also surrounded myself here with some of the best coaches that I could find. I think what we’ve done here in the offseason from a strength and conditioning program has been different from what they’ve done here in the past. All of those things we believe will provide results.
Q. After a 1-15 season, people probably want some realistic expectations. What are those expectations?
A. I don’t make predictions, but my realistic expectation is that we are going to be a competitive team when we get out there on the field and hopefully have a chance every week to win a ballgame. If you can give yourself a chance each week because of the margin of victory in our league, you have a chance to be successful. That’s all I can ask at this point.
Q. Is there an advantage having signed several former Dallas players and was that the plan going in?
A. It really wasn’t the plan going in. I think the plan was to see what our needs were. There happened to be some people out there in Dallas that filled our needs, people like Keith Davis and Akin Ayodele and Anthony Fasano. Of course, Jason Ferguson fit our needs from a defensive line position, another big body guy we knew a lot about. So it wasn’t really part of the plan going in, but as we grew with our plan we saw there were guys there that fit our needs.
Q. From a personal standpoint, is it ever a little imposing sitting in the office that Don Shula worked in, coaching in a franchise that still has the only undefeated team in NFL history?
A. It’s not imposing, but there are times when I’m sitting here at 10 o’clock at night and I think about that. It’s interesting because when I first came through the building I never thought in a million years that this was the office that Don Shula was in or any of that. Now that I sit here, it’s something that excites me. I like being a part of that tradition and that history here in Miami.
Q. Finally, training camp starts in late July. Can that come soon enough for Tony Sparano?
A. No it can’t come soon enough. I can’t wait to get to training camp. Right now when you have the players in helmets and T-shirts, you can see their athletic ability and you can challenge them from a mental standpoint. But you really can’t see where they are physically. All the work we are putting in during the off season program can only come to a head in training camp. That’s what I want to see. I want to see if we are a tough football team. So it can’t come soon enough for me.
