Published: Tuesday, January 01, 2013

Cleveland Browns coaching search updates, reports and rumors: Doug Marrone, Ray Horton to interview

Marla Ridenour: Browns’ Haslam seems poised to make run at Alabama’s Saban

By Marla Ridenour 
Beacon Journal sports columnist
Published: January 1, 2013 - 12:44 AM

BEREA: Nick Saban wasn’t in the room, but his aura certainly was.

Although Browns owner Jimmy Haslam wouldn’t discuss specific candidates to replace coach Pat Shurmur, fired Monday along with General Manager Tom Heckert, it seemed obvious that University of Alabama coach Saban is the man Haslam is targeting.

In the next few days, we will find out just how powerful and persuasive Haslam and his millions can be. A University of Tennessee graduate, Haslam will need all his wiles, resources, Southeastern Conference connections and perhaps even wife Dee’s television background to pry Saban away from Tuscaloosa.

Because if there’s anything that can make Saban bigger than he already is — besides another $30,000 crystal BCS football — it’s his own cable TV show.

Saban already has a statue outside Bryant-Denny Stadium, a football palace that makes Cleveland Browns Stadium look like the Arena League. When Saban’s alma mater Kent State opened the 2011 season against the Crimson Tide, a Golden Flashes contingent that toured the athletic facilities left with mouths agape.

Jimmy Haslam, Joe Banner launch search for a 'strong, tough, dynamic' head coach

Jimmy Haslam and Joe Banner launched their coaching search on Monday with a public appeal for a strong man with specific skill sets.

“We want an individual as a head coach who’s a strong leader, who’s tough, because this is a tough business, but also is smart, very organized, has great attention to detail and is aggressive,” said Haslam. “That’s the kind of football team we will have and that’s the kind of individuals we are.”

The new Browns owner and his NFL-savvy CEO outlined their plans less than two hours after releasing coach Pat Shurmur and General Manager Tom Heckert.

Without identifying what went wrong with Shurmur and Heckert, Banner said, rather pointedly, “We’re looking for somebody with really strong, dynamic leadership. I think there was also the need to need to create a fresh energy, or a fresh start.”

In Haslam’s organization, the coach will have the loudest voice in future decisions.  That’s why the head coach will be selected first and the personnel executive – who likely won’t hold the title of general manager – will come second.

Banner said this decision – choosing the head coach first – was the first made when he and Haslam began discussing what Haslam termed “succession planning” two to three months ago.  The actual decisions to fire Shurmur and Heckert were made a week ago, Haslam said.

Jimmy Haslam, Joe Banner focused on finding strong leader to halt Browns’ coaching carousel

By Nate Ulrich 
Beacon Journal sports writer
Published: December 31, 2012 - 11:47 PM | Updated: January 1, 2013 - 12:26 AM

BEREA: A few hours after firing coach Pat Shurmur and General Manager Tom Heckert on Monday morning, Browns owner Jimmy Haslam made his New Year’s resolution clear.

“Our focus right now — I just want to say this over and over — is getting that right head coach,” Haslam said during a news conference.  “If we do that, the other pieces will fall into place.”

Haslam and CEO Joe Banner are on a mission to hire a coach who can reverse the fortunes of the franchise and then find a personnel executive who complements him.  They are searching for the organization’s sixth full-time coach since the expansion era began in 1999.

“We’re well aware that this has been a carousel,” said Haslam, who struck a deal to buy the Browns from Randy Lerner for about $1 billion on Aug. 2. “It’s [our] job to find the right coach and the right GM and bring stability long term for the organization.  That’s our role and we take it very responsibly, very seriously.”

For better or worse, the future of the Cleveland Browns now rests in the hands of CEO Joe Banner.

Browns owner Jimmy Haslam III made that abundantly clear Monday, when he announced the firings of coach Pat Shurmur and general manager Tom Heckert during a late-morning press conference.

Those moves allowed Banner to complete an impressive power grab — sweeping out Cleveland’s president, GM and coach — just four months after his name was first whispered in Northeast Ohio sports circles.

“I am relying tremendously on Joe’s NFL experience,” Haslam said. “The two of us are going to do this coaching search together. We’re both going to agree on who that head coach is. I think we’ll work extremely well together.

“I can’t speak for Joe, but I would not want to do this search without him at my side.”

While the Tennessee billionaire will have the final say on all decisions, he has placed a remarkable amount of trust in a Philadelphian whose football expertise remains a hot-button topic around the NFL.

Though Banner spent 19 years in an upper-, upper-management position with the Eagles, there is a perception that he contributed little toward their on-field success, but was eager to claim credit during the good times.

POTENTIAL CANDIDATES

COACHES

Chip Kelly, University of Oregon

• Comment: The Browns and Eagles are reportedly interested, and Kelly is ready to make the jump to the NFL. Sirius/XM Radio’s Adam Caplan reported Kelly is the Browns’ clear first choice.

Nick Saban, University of Alabama

• Comment: Browns owner Jimmy Haslam is intrigued by the three-time national champion, but Saban might stay put in Tuscaloosa.

Dirk Koetter, Atlanta Falcons

• Comment: The offensive coordinator will reportedly interview with the Browns this weekend. Quarterback Matt Ryan is having a career year in Koetter’s first season in Atlanta after five as Jaguars coordinator.

Bill O’Brien, Penn State University

• Comment: The former Bill Belichick assistant resurrected the Penn State program in his first year. If he leaves Happy Valley, he’ll be a hot commodity.

Chip Kelly reportedly tops Browns' coaching wishlist

Rob Oller commentary: Choosing Browns coach will test Haslam’s leadership

Sometimes the obstacle is the solution.

In describing appreciation for coach Pat Shurmur, who was fired by the Cleveland Browns yesterday, linebacker D’Qwell Jackson slipped into cliché mode:

“We’d run through a brick wall for him,” Jackson said.

What Jackson failed to see is that a coach should be the brick wall, not the reason to run through it.  Certainly a coach should motivate players to perform beyond what they think is capable, but players want to be led even more than they want to be inspired.  Lead first, and inspiration will follow.  And the best leaders usually are immovable in their core beliefs, even as they are flexible in determining how to bury those beliefs deep into the foundation of the franchise.

Browns owner Jimmy Haslam understands that the best coaches are respected leaders, which is why he ranks leadership near the top of what he is looking for in Cleveland’s next coach.