Dolphins’ McDaniel on what excites him about Tua. And Jimmy Johnson on McDaniel, Cristobal
Highlights from two interesting interviews on Wednesday, new Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel’s chat with Travis Wingfield on the team’s website, and former UM and Dolphins coach Jimmy Johnson’s conversation with Joe Rose and Zach Krantz on WQAM:
▪ McDaniel, on his chat with Tua Tagovailoa on Tuesday: “It was fun. It was choppy [with WIFI]. It was really cool to feel his energy. Sometimes we were breaking in and out. He was excited to talk to me, and that excited me. I was excited to talk to him. I couldn’t be happier to work with this franchise for an incredible owner and GM. [Tagovailoa] could feel that energy. It was obvious from his energy and tone of voice.
“I’m excited about a player that wants to get better. I can tell he’s really going to attack it. He’s a player with a chip on his shoulder. It will be a fun day when we get on the field. We’ve got to get some coaches to coach him and a playbook to study so he can get to that point.”
▪ McDaniel, on play-calling, “I don’t think what can be cool.”
Instead, he looks at the defense “how they’re vulnerable and how to attack it. All of it is finding solutions that the defense presents. What way can we take advantage of it?”
▪ McDaniel said: “Sometimes people can overcomplicate coaching. I’m going to prove to you how I’m going to get you better. If they buy what you’re selling, they’re going to apply it. When you’re talking to your team, if you’re an offensive coach, if you know what you’re doing, you have to know defense.”
▪ McDaniel recalled during his first regular season coaching with Denver in Miami in 2005 “and we were gutted, had no chance. I have felt it heavily and know what kind of competitive advantage it can be.”
▪ What does McDaniel want opponents to think about the Dolphins?
“They have to match our energy. That’s a big thing that is often overlooked… It has to be ingrained in our DNA and something you have to earn together. They’re going to feel us come off the ball and have to defend the entire field from the first snap to the last.”
▪ Regarding a strong defense he’s inheriting, McDaniel said: “He said you don’t stop where you left off. You continue to grow. That’s all I see from the players I talked to. They don’t say, ‘Hey it was cool to be a pretty good defense… If we have to be the best defense in the league to do it, let’s do that.”
▪ He said: “I had being a head coach in my mind for a long time. What I’ve tried to do is put myself in position of the head coach for the last 15 years because you hate to all of a sudden get in a situation and say, ‘I feel unprepared.’
▪ McDaniel — who noted that he doesn’t eat vegetables, preferring meat and chicken and potatoes instead — said he plans to implement an exercise which he calls “around the league where weekly we take different situations that come up so we can review.”
▪ Regarding the running game, McDaniel said: “There are a lot of people pretty excited about throwing the ball. That gives an advantage to people who try to run the ball. When you run the ball, you’re taking time off the clock. Because you have to have the ball to score unless you turn it over, there will always be a competitive advantage if you run the ball” well.
▪ Johnson, on McDaniel: “I do believe continuity helps your program. I don’t know him personally. Everything I hear about him is really impressive. Obviously went to Yale so he’s a smart guy. McDaniel will without question help that offense.
“[49ers coach Kyle] Shanahan is as good as there is with the run game, and I’m sure McDaniel will bring the same philosophy with him. I think it’s a positive move. I feel bad for [Brian] Flores. because I think he did a [good] job and I like him. Obviously, they weren’t on the same page.”
▪ Johnson, on UM hiring Mario Cristobal: “Oh boy. I get excited every year but I don’t think I’ve ever been this excited. You know I love the Canes. I’ve backed and promoted the guys before. But Mario. I recruited Mario, was in his home, coached Mario.
“He texted me yesterday and said, ‘first day of workouts.’ I said I’m going fishing... The thing that happened that is going to help Mario is the university and the alumni have jumped in there and said ‘we’ve got to get this thing back to where it was.’ Being able to hire some of these high-profile coaches that are great recruiters.
“Mario being maybe the best recruiter in the country. I’m excited. Things are looking up. He’s got really a good core to work with, with the quarterbacks and staff. When he was at Alabama, he was renowned around the country as the top recruiter for Alabama. Oregon? Justin Herbert... Some of the players they had at Oregon. Mario is going to do a great job and I’m going to be backing him 100 percent.”
▪ Johnson and the South Florida Sun Sentinel’s Dave Hyde are writing a book about Johnson’s career that’s due to be released during the 2022 football season.
▪ The Dolphins will formally introduce McDaniel in a news conference at 10 a.m. Thursday. It is expected to be televised on several Miami TV stations and streamed on the team’s website.
This story was originally published February 9, 2022 at 1:34 PM.
