Oh, to work for William Clay Ford
Imagine if your employer asked you the questions Nicholas Cotsonika asked Chance Millen in this interview and imagine you gave the answers that Millen offers up to explain his complete and utter failure managing the employer’s business. Putting aside the legitimate questions about the financial results for the business [#24!], the important questions are about why the team has been so bad for so long and what the manager plans to do in order to improve your business’ fortunes.
Here are some of the major questions Cotsonika asked Millen:
Q: What do you think of your 31-81 record?
A: “It’s awful. It’s beyond awful. I understand that.”
No one’s going to argue with that. So with that being the case, what was the source of your poor performance last year?
Q: What went wrong [during the second half of last season]?
A: “I don’t think one thing. I think it’s always a combination of stuff. We’ve talked about that forever, because if it’s just one thing, you could fix one thing.”
In any business where you fail as badly as Millen has you have to be able to come up with a plan and then preach that plan to everyone involved in the organization. For the Ford Motor Company the rallying cry when imports badly damaged their business was “Quality is Job 1″. It didn’t stop the onslaught but at least they had a plan and the quality of domestic cars has improved greatly.
What’s the rallying cry in Allen Park - time to fix a combination of stuff!? So yeah, that stuff…can you be a little more specific?
Q: If you don’t know what went wrong, how do you fix it?
A: “There’s more than one thing. A lot of it has to do with mindset and things you can’t approach – how we’re practicing. We’re not good enough in some areas. You can cover some things up, but you can’t cover all of them up.”
Imagine having your boss ask you how you are going to improve his business and you say that the underlying problem is “things you can’t approach”? Then you start to talk in circles, saying that the business is not good enough in some areas, there are problems with the mindset…I’m surprised Millen didn’t bring up the Bobby Layne curse that the ghost-busting rapscallion Tom Kowalski brought up last week…oh that’s right: that can’t be used as an excuse anymore.
Okay then, moving right along…let’s take a look at the managers you’ve brought on board to run the business.
Q: In seven of your eight years, you have fired at least one coach or coordinator. How can you build continuity like that?
A: “You can’t. And that’s an issue….I think when you’re putting a staff together, there are a lot of factors that go into it, the least of which is, you have to be on the same page philosophically.”
Q: Did you make a mistake bringing in guys who weren’t on the same page?
A: “Well, I would say, in retrospect, I did a poor job in that, matching not only to what I expected, maybe I didn’t communicate it well enough.”
This would at least be plausible if he brought in an offensive coordinator who has had success “pounding the rock”. There’s nothing in Jim Colletto’s resume that suggests he’s a capable manager for the offense. So while the “philosophy” might fit Chance Millen’s flavor of the moment, the execution is likely to be Ted Tollner-like.
The elephant in the room is that Chance Millen and Rod Marinelli have a rebuilding project on their hands. They want to have a run-focused offense and their primary ballcarrier has suffered two serious injuries the past two seasons and is doubtful for training camp.
They want to play a Tampa 2 defense that requires a dominant defensive line, but Shaun Rogers has serious motivation issues and Kalimba Edwards has done his best Houdini impersonation. They also are very thin in the defensive backfield and any team that wants to do what the Packers did to them on Thanksgiving Day and use 4 receiver sets should have a field day against them.
With all of that being the case, Chance Millen still appears to be bullet-proof. Seven years and an overall record of 31-81. No playoff appearances. Wasted picks high in the draft over six years that could have given the franchise solid depth across the entire team. And even with all of that the team is more or less back at square one. And Millen, the guy who hasn’t shown any ability to diagnose what was wrong with his team or to hire capable managers is the guy who is going to lead this rebuilding project.
Yeah, that’s going to work.
Jim Colletto Lions Matt Millen William Clay FordNo Comments
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