*** DOLPHINS NEWS ***
Feb 09, 1998: -- Kippy Brown Named OC --
The Sun-Sentinel and the Miami Herald have both announced this
weekend that running backs coach Kippy Brown has been given the
offensive coordinator job for the Dolphins. According to both
newspapers, sources on the team are telling them that Brown has been
offered and has accepted the job of being Gary Stevens' replacement on
the team for 1998.
Brown was apparently offered the job on Friday, during the
annual draft scouting combine in Indianapolis. Some analysts had
thought that JJ was waiting until the scouting combine to talk to some
candidates for replacement, but that appears to not have been the
case.
Kippy Brown was hired last year by JJ as a replacement for
Tony Nathan as the Dolphins' running backs coach. He came to the
Dolphins from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, where he was the running backs
coach under Sam Wyche.
Brown has a total of 19 years experience as a coach, with
about 6 of those being in the NFL. He played quarterback at Memphis
State from 1975-77 before taking a job there as running backs coach in
1978. He moved on in 1982 to the University of Louisville, where he
coached wide receiver Mark Clayton before Clayton came to the
Dolphins.
He has spent most of his coaching career with the University
of Tennessee as a receivers coach, where he coached such players as
Alvin Harper, Tim McGee, and Anthony Miller. Further details on his
coaching career can be seen at the Dolphins Endzone website at the
link listed in "Related Links".
An official announcement of Browns promotion may not come
until Wednesday, February 11th, when JJ talks to the press about the
Dolphins' plans for the free agency period, which is scheduled to
begin on Friday, February 13th.
In addition to promoting Brown, the Dolphins have reportedly
hired Dallas assistant Robert Ford to replace Larry Seiple as
receivers coach. Ford was the Dallas tight ends coach and has been
with the Cowboys since 1991. He will take over for Seiple, who is
being promoted to be the quarterbacks coach, a position vacated by
Gary Stevens.
That leaves the Dolphins currently without a running backs'
coach, but according to the Sun-Sentinel, the Dolphins are expected to
hire one soon.
My Comments:
This development is no surprise, having been rumored for
weeks. Brown has gotten some good endorsements from some of his
former coaches, included Sam Wyche and Bruce Coslet, both of whom are
pretty well regarded for their offensive coaching skills.
The most disturbing part about Brown's promotion is that he
has no previous coordinator experience. While not necessarily a
drawback, depending on how you look at it, it certainly does not fill
me with confidence.
Still, given the available candidates, it sounds like Brown is
a pretty good one.
In a case like this, we'll just have to take a wait-and-see
attitude. It does no good to try and figure out how he will perform
based on past experience, because he has no past experience.
It's also hard to rate Brown on the basis of the performance
of the running backs this year. While the running numbers were way
down from last year, it's hard to blame that on the performance of the
running backs. Anyone who watched the Dolphins this year knows that
the main reason the running game was so poor was the lack of
blocking. Until that gets fixed, there's no way to tell how the
running backs can perform.
Related Info:
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Curt Fennell,
[email protected], DOLFAN in New Rochelle (almost)
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