He Beats Out Miami's Sparano By a Single Vote
By Mark Maske
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, January 5, 2009
Mike Smith of the Atlanta Falcons was named the NFL's coach of the year yesterday by the Associated Press, beating out the Miami Dolphins' Tony Sparano by a single vote.
Smith took over a Falcons franchise that went 4-12 last season while enduring the Michael Vick controversy and the abrupt departure of rookie coach Bobby Petrino. Smith installed rookie Matt Ryan as his starting quarterback, and the Falcons went 11-5 and reached the playoffs.
"I'm honored individually, but more so for our coaching staff and our players," Smith told the Associated Press. "I think we have tried to establish that we'd be very systematic in how we did things, that we were going to have a plan.
"We laid that plan out from the very beginning how we were going to practice, how we were going to travel, how we were going to meet, how we were going to communicate, and I think the guys really appreciated definitely how we presented the plan in the framework for us to start the season."
Atlanta lost its first-round NFC playoff game Saturday at Arizona.
Smith and Sparano were among the three rookie head coaches to take their teams to the playoffs this season, along with the Baltimore Ravens' John Harbaugh, who did not receive a vote for coach of the year.
Sparano won the AFC East with a Dolphins team that went 1-15 last season under predecessor Cam Cameron. The Dolphins lost to the visiting Ravens, 27-9, in a first-round AFC playoff game yesterday.
Smith received 23 1/2 votes in balloting by 50 media members, to 22 1/2 for Sparano. Tennessee's Jeff Fisher received three votes, and New England's Bill Belichick got one.
Smith was a relatively obscure defensive coordinator for the Jacksonville Jaguars, perhaps best known for being the brother-in-law of former Baltimore Ravens Super Bowl-winning coach Brian Billick, before being hired last offseason by owner Arthur Blank.
Blank had tried but failed to hire Bill Parcells to run the Falcons' football operations. Instead, he hired Thomas Dimitroff as the Falcons' general manager, and they hired Smith as their coach. Blank had received a positive recommendation about Smith from Jaguars special teams coach Joe DeCamillis, who had held the same job in Atlanta, and Dimitroff and Smith hit it off during an interview, so much so that they asked Blank for more time together before the owner joined the meeting.
The Falcons chose Ryan with the third overall selection in the NFL draft in April and installed him as the starter after Smith and his assistants saw in offseason practices the rookie could handle the job right away, and that the team around Ryan was good enough for him to have a chance to succeed.
Blank said recently he believes the Falcons have put in place the foundation to have a winning team for years to come, thanks in part to having Smith as the coach.
"I think one of the things that Smitty does, in my opinion, better than a lot of coaches that I've seen over the years is that while he does focus on game day, and he does focus week to week, at the same time he maintains a longer-term vision of what he wants the team to look like," Blank said during an interview late in the regular season.
View all comments that have been posted about this article.