Rivera's status (retained)

Except that we already know Rivera sucks.

 

HArd to fire a 7-9 2nd year coach who won a bunch in december when you have no gm, none have interviewed, and 7 other teams are looking for new head coaches.

Still - 7-9.

I can hope ATL loses to Seattle, though.

 

Rivera's tendency towards strong finishes could bode well for the play-offs...if he can learn how to win enough early games to get in.

 

Rivera vs a mad Pitbull

I got to go w Rivera

 

Except that the strong finish was tied to playing a bunch of shitty teams or teams that had very little incentive to play hard. Don't get me wrong, watching the Panthers play hard was much better than if they were loafing, so I'll give Rivera credit for that. But in terms of his ability as a head coach, 2012 made me think less of him.

 

That, of course, was built off your expectations of him from his 2011 campaign.

But, really, what did we have to go on last summer? A sketchy, lockout-shortened 2010-2011 season with a rookie quarterback and key injuries on both lines? A season of exciting offensive football but terrible defense, especially against the run? A coaching staff that had to make do on the fly and make something actually work? That's not much to go on to make an evaluation of Rivera's head coaching abilities.

Now 2011-2012, in my mind, was Rivera's true first year as a Head Coach. He had a proper offseason, a draft, a training camp and a full season against excellent competition early on to learn how to not only put together a football team but a coaching staff that he could grow. For a first year head coach, he did an okay job. Enough that I applaud the choice to keep him on another season.

Next season, I expect Rivera to have the organization in contention for a playoff spot. That's ALL we can expect. We can hope for more, sure, but having a shot at the playoffs at the end of the season would be a successful year in my book.

The last quarter of the season, Rivera kept from getting out-coached. We'll see if he can carry that over to 2012-13.

 

Que? I didn't think well of him in 2011 either.

 

Neither did I. But Rivera gets a mulligan from me for 2011. 2012 is a much better measure, for both him and his staff.

 

Kelly is the only name I'd have been okay with, that I heard. Even so, I think he's a huge gamble and we'd take two steps back before going forward. Which may happen anyway due to Hurney's legacy.

 

Did we ever weigh in on the media report that Richardson's split with Hurney was over being opposed to hiring Rivera?