The Dolphins over the weekend hired Adam Gase as their new coach, and team Owner Stephen Ross has "tied his reputation" to Gase because he has "botched a couple of football hires already and another mistake might be more than even the most loyal season-ticket holder could endure," according to Armando Salguero of the MIAMI HERALD. Gase has "never been in front of a team," but the Dolphins "gave him say" over the roster and a five-year contract. Salguero: "A very high-ranking member of the organization looked at me with a straight face and compared Gase with a young Bill Belichick." The Dolphins "put together a solid if incomplete" candidate list, and they "made 237 phone calls throughout the process." Interim coach Dan Campbell "finished No. 2 behind Gase in this derby." Campbell was a "combination of angry and bitterly disappointed when he heard the news from Ross himself" (MIAMI HERALD, 1/10). In Miami, Adam Beasley in a front-page piece noted Gase "wowed" Ross and his closest advisers "with a marathon interview, which informally began Wednesday night on Ross’ private jet." Dolphins Exec VP/Football Operations Mike Tannenbaum had Gase "fly to South Florida with the Dolphins’ brain trust." They "spoke for three hours and then went to dinner," and then they "met all day Thursday." The organization "wanted to wear Gase down so it could strip away all formality and get down to his true essence." Dolphins Vice Chair Matt Higgins said of Gase, "When you spend time with him and this market gets to know him, you realize just how incredibly bright he is" (MIAMI HERALD, 1/10).
OUT IN FRONT: In Ft. Lauderdale, Omar Kelly noted Gase was "always the front-runner for the job, and the Dolphins put a full-court press" to get him. At 37, Gase becomes the NFL’s youngest head coach. Tannenbaum and newly hired GM Chris Grier will "handle free agency and the draft, but Gase decides who stays and who goes during the season." This time around, Ross "kept all the consultants out of the mix, and handled the hiring process like he conducts one for his other businesses." Tannenbaum said, "We talked to a lot of people and Adam's name always surfaced to the top among the [brightest] minds in the league" (South Florida SUN-SENTINEL, 1/10). The MIAMI HERALD's Beasley writes Tannenbaum in just a year has "transformed the organization to meet his vision." The "only thing" is results, and "moving forward, that matters for Tannenbaum’s legacy in Miami." The Dolphins trusted Tannenbaum’s process "to determine the best fit." Gase is something former coach Joe Philbin "never could be: Tannenbaum’s guy" (MIAMI HERALD, 1/11). In Miami, Greg Cote wrote, "We must be skeptical, wary." That is the Dolphins’ "fault," with the "parade of bad decisions forming the calloused buildup of mistrust and doubt." So little benefit of doubt "remains for this franchise that the prevailing reaction instead is, 'Here they go again. Taking another shot in the dark.'" With Gase, they "had better be right this time." Cote: "This beleaguered franchise has to hit big with this coach. Do something right. End all of those droughts quantified above. And earn back the legions of disenchanted fans who have strayed in anger or indifference" (MIAMI HERALD, 1/10).
THE TIME IS NOW: USA TODAY's Jarrett Bell asked of Gase, "How long does he have? Two years? Three years?" The tight timeline has "been reinforced with these wild times on the NFL coaching landscape," where the Buccaneers dumped coach Lovie Smith eight months after drafting franchise QB Jameis Winston and the 49ers fired coach Jim Tomsula after a year on the job. Bell: "Ross ... went into a fourth season with Philbin before pulling the plug, but I doubt that he’ll have as much patience this time in expecting the Dolphins to become a contender." In a league "with parity and some quick turnaround sensation every year, that only further fuels impatience" (USATODAY.com, 1/9). In West Palm Beach, Hal Habib writes Ross was "contrite," and he showed a side he "hadn’t revealed before, a side that shed all pretense of naïveté, finally, and spoke not just with the authority that comes with a billion-dollar bank account but also the treasure known as experience." Ross said, "I felt much more comfortable. I wasn’t relying on third parties. I had a better idea of what I wanted. I really think when it’s thrust upon you the first time, and you hadn’t been an owner that long, you really are looking to third parties for advice" (PALM BEACH POST, 1/11).
