Arthur Smith Athletic Article

[tgo]

Originally Posted all of this in several posts in the chaotic chasm that is the Titans OTA's thread, but moving here so the info doesn't get lost amongst the rabble. 

 

A few interesting quotes from this new Arthur Smith story in the Athletic: 

 

“Some of these guys, it’s comical,” Smith said. “They’re so worried about their brand or whatever. They’re so worried about trying to be a head coach that they’re shitty at the job they’re hired to do. I could give a crap about that.”

 

Added Titans GM Jon Robinson: “That’s Arthur. He could probably very easily be sipping a mai tai in Maui right now. But he loves ball. He coaches his ass off. I’m proud he’s on this staff, really proud he’s on this staff.”

 

"Is it fair to say you’ve been driven by the idea of carving your own path, independent of your dad or your family’s success?

 

That’s why I like this profession. Hopefully, you ultimately get judged on what you do. You’re keeping score. That’s probably why I’ve always been attracted to athletics. It doesn’t matter where you’re from because you’re going to keep score.

 

Some people have it harder than others; don’t get me wrong. Maybe you’re from a small town or you played eight-man or seven-man football, and it was hard to get recruited. At the end of the day, when that game starts, it doesn’t matter where you’re from. They’re going to keep score and you’re going to be judged. I want that.

 

It definitely has motivated me quite a bit. I don’t want to say it’s proving people wrong, but you’re proving yourself through the competition of it. “Here I am. Let’s go. You give me your best shot, and I’ll give you mine.”"

 

 

Here's an interesting bit about switching to outside zone in college while he was a GA at North Carolina: 

 

"I think UNC had won a bidding war with Ole Miss for Frank Cignetti, who was at Fresno. So, Frank comes across the country and he implements a new offense. This was his West Coast version. He was good buddies with Mike McCarthy. We ended up going through spring ball. They’d run a bunch of two-back stuff at Fresno, lead and power or bob or whatever they were calling it at the time.

 

He decided we were going to go full Alex Gibbs, because that’s what they were doing in Green Bay. We changed after spring ball, to all this outside zone stuff. It was an ugly transition. We weren’t very good. We lost the opener and it just didn’t go well. We got blown out on Thursday night against Virginia and fired with like four games to go. It was just miserable, behind the scenes."

 

Kind of a weird way for him to talk about outside zone concepts, since that's what we ran primarily under LaFleur. He seems to have a really unique perspective about different offenses and how transitions from one to the other work since he's been through so many different system transitions in his career in both college and the NFL.  

 

https://theathletic.com/1017102/

 

Just a side note: I think it's cool that we have an Offensive Lineman as OC. Usually it's a quarterback guy (Palmer, Loggains, Michael, LaFleur) or with Mularkey/Whisenhunt it was a tight end or whatever, and Dinger played wide receiver. But Smith played OL and then cut his teeth as a defensive coach and tight ends coach. That's a unique skill set imo when it comes to NFL OC's. 

[tgo]

Smith also talks about how he basically hated coaching under Cignetti at North Carolina and then went to Washington as a scouting intern, then got pulled back into coaching which he didn't want to do at the time. Kind of sounds like he thought his future was in personnel at that time and he liked scouting better than coaching, but says he loved coaching for Gregg Williams and Jerry Gray and Joe Gibbs so that turned it around for him in terms of working as a coach. 

 

Had he not gone into coaching, he had a job lined up in investment banking in Hong Kong haha. 

 

And a couple great quotes from Smith: 

 

The word we’ve heard often with this staff, and particularly with the decision to promote you, is continuity. What do you think the value of that is, especially this time of the year in the spring and summer months? An outside hire would be installing a new offense right now.

 

"It wasn’t just blowing smoke up y’all’s asses. When we come in here and go through the installs, they’re very familiar with how we call formations. What mattered to me was what the players knew. Most of these guys knew this, so (this spring) when we came in here we could focus on how to get better running these individual things.

 

We didn’t go through all this stuff where you decide what you’re calling a route, like a hook or a curl. For us, it was, “Here’s what we’re calling it; it’s what we called it last year.” It’s sped up their improvement cycle. The whole four weeks isn’t guys breaking the huddle and wondering the language."

 

This guy is easily the most entertaining OC we've had since Dinger. 

 

I remember Vrabel saying that you all had a conversation when he got here and you expressed your career goals to him. What do you remember about that meeting?

 

............He said, “What are your goals?” I told him I hoped to one day be a head coach. But I told him, “To get there, I’ve got to be a really good tight end coach and a really good offensive coach and play-caller.” But long-term, being a head coach, that would be the goal.

 

"Having said that, and I still feel the same way, I’ve got to do a damn good job at this job. I could give a shit about all the other stuff that comes along with it."

 

 

There's way more great stuff in that article btw, only skimming the surface. Must-read. 

[JMoney420]

Man I don’t know if Smith turns out to be a good Oc or anything but dude says everything u like to hear.Sounds like he’s well grounded and understands what needs to be done.Gotta give the staff credit they have done everything possible to set mariota and the team up for success.

[CaliTitan3518]

The cool thing about Smith is you know he does this because he enjoys it. We all know he comes from a billionaire family. He is probably the richest coach in the NFL. 

[begooode]

31 minutes ago, CaliTitan3518 said:

The cool thing about Smith is you know he does this because he enjoys it. We all know he comes from a billionaire family. He is probably the richest coach in the NFL. 

Makes me question his judgement, honestly.  Not necessarily in football, but I think you get my admittedly shallow point.

[Righteous]

“Some of these guys, it’s comical,” Smith said. “They’re so worried about their brand or whatever. They’re so worried about trying to be a head coach that they’re shitty at the job they’re hired to do. I could give a crap about that.”

 

Definitely talking about Lafleur here.  

[TitanLegend]

1 hour ago, begooode said:

Makes me question his judgement, honestly.  Not necessarily in football, but I think you get my admittedly shallow point.

Because he wants to make something of himself and not just live off his dad's success?

[tgo]

13 minutes ago, Righteous said:

“Some of these guys, it’s comical,” Smith said. “They’re so worried about their brand or whatever. They’re so worried about trying to be a head coach that they’re shitty at the job they’re hired to do. I could give a crap about that.”

 

Definitely talking about Lafleur here.  

Not necessarily. I actually doubt it given the positive overtones that LaFleur was mentioned in several times throughout this article. 

 

I’m sure the point applies to LaFleur though. 

Edited June 10, 2019 by tgo

[TerryBoats]

20 minutes ago, Righteous said:

“Some of these guys, it’s comical,” Smith said. “They’re so worried about their brand or whatever. They’re so worried about trying to be a head coach that they’re shitty at the job they’re hired to do. I could give a crap about that.”

 

Definitely talking about Lafleur here.  

Are you sure that he isn't referring to "Exotic Smashmouth"?  Mularkey defended his methods and decision making until his eventual firing.

 

LaFluer never really came in and promoted an identity for this offense, and when asked about his roots in a West Coast offense , he simply said "I don't know what that even means anymore".  Plus, it's a bit harsh to slam a coach who dealt with the circumstances that LaFluer did last year.

Edited June 10, 2019 by abc2330

[TitanDuckFan]

25 minutes ago, Righteous said:

“Some of these guys, it’s comical,” Smith said. “They’re so worried about their brand or whatever. They’re so worried about trying to be a head coach that they’re shitty at the job they’re hired to do. I could give a crap about that.”

 

Definitely talking about Lafleur here.  

I'd say he's more likely talking about Whisenhunt.

[BudsOilers]

I think that's really speculative.  Smith has been around a handful of staffs (UNC, Washington, here).  It very well could have been about Cignetti, who was a rising OC in the college ranks before hooking up with Fisher and the Rams.   Or Whisenhunt cramming the system down a team without the talent to execute it.

 

 

 

[Titans279]

We always gotta dump on the old coach and hype up the new guy though. LaFleur sucks! Long live Smith. From 4 quotes I can infer he’ll be the best OC ever while LaFleur was obviously a hack.

[Righteous]

11 minutes ago, Titans279 said:

We always gotta dump on the old coach and hype up the new guy though. LaFleur sucks! Long live Smith. From 4 quotes I can infer he’ll be the best OC ever while LaFleur was obviously a hack.

LaFleur was horrible.  Just look at the numbers.

[Righteous]

19 minutes ago, TitanDuckFan said:

I'd say he's more likely talking about Whisenhunt.

Whisenhunt has had success as an OC.  Also, Whisenhunt was already the HC. LeFleur has had absolutely none.  If it wasn't for Henry catching fire over the last few weeks, he would have gone down as the worst OC in team history.

Edited June 10, 2019 by Righteous

[Righteous]

18 minutes ago, abc2330 said:

Are you sure that he isn't referring to "Exotic Smashmouth"?  Mularkey defended his methods and decision making until his eventual firing.

 

LaFluer never really came in and promoted an identity for this offense, and when asked about his roots in a West Coast offense , he simply said "I don't know what that even means anymore".  Plus, it's a bit harsh to slam a coach who dealt with the circumstances that LaFluer did last year.

Mularkey was a head coach and Robiskie had no desire to be an HC.  Don't think it fits.