After days of speculation, the Miami Dolphins have fired defensive coordinator Kevin Coyle and named the team’s defensive backs coach Lou Anarumo as his replacement.
This move comes just days after the Dolphins fired head coach Joe Philbin and promoted their tight ends coach Dan Campbell as his interim replacement.
Anarumo has spent the last four years on Coyle’s staff as the Dolphins’ defensive backs coach.
The defensive assistant and former NFL player, Jeff Burris, has been promoted to take over as defensive backs coach.
The firing of defensive coordinator Kevin Coyle comes as little surprise to the Dolphins players. Not only was Coyle in charge of one of the worst statistical defenses in the NFL, but there have been a number of recent reports that he was also unpopular among most the players.
And the interim coach, Dan Campbell, along with members of the Dolphins organization decided a change was necessary.
Coyle had over seen a defense that through the first four weeks of the regular season that ranks dead last against the run (160.5 yards per game), last in sacks (1), 30th in total defense (399.5) and 25th in yards per play allowed (5.9).
Lou Anarumo had worked under Kevin Coyle in Miami since 2012. Before Coyle was a member of the Dolphins coaching staff, he spent eight years as the defensive backs coach for Perdue, and he also worked at Marshall, Harvard and Syracuse. The last time Lou Anarumo was a defensive coordinator was back in 1994, when he was the defensive coordinator at the United States Merchant Marine Academy.
The Miami Dolphins (1-3) have started the first quarter of the season as a team going in the opposite direction than many people thought they would, including themselves. Maybe the changes to their coaching staff will have an immediate impact on their overall play.
