Today, Doug Marrone was introduced as the head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars and Tom Coughlin was introduced as the executive vice president of football operations. Here are the important things fans should take away from their press conference today:
Takeaways from the Tom Coughlin and Doug Marrone Introduction
1. Winning is not an option
In the first couple sentences of Coughlin’s speech he stated: “When I visited with Mr. Khan, it was clear from the very beginning how driven he is to win. And I am inspired by that.” In Doug Marrone’s opening speech he reiterated this idea declaring, “the people of Jacksonville deserve a winner. We will put the right people in place to get that done. That’s why I’m here.” Finally, the slam dunk of the day was when Coughlin and Marrone were asked if winning is the main focus for this team. Coughlin immediately responded with his belief that winning is all that matters, even going as far to say, “we’re trying to win today, who’s going to get the better lunch?” Although the lunch comment was obviously light-hearted and joking, it shows the Coughlin mentality that Jaguars fans should look forward to. Coughlin will do anything to get this team to be a winning team, and there is no other option.
2. Marrone was the Jaguars number one choice
Prior to today, there were some critics who assumed that the Jaguars’ hire of Doug Marrone was probably a symbol for the fact that higher-tier coaches who the Jaguars were interviewing might have rejected the Jaguars offer for head coach. Shad Khan put these assumptions to rest as he stated that “in the end [of the coaching search], with respect to all the other candidates, it wasn’t close. Our choice was Doug Marrone.” This was both a bold and powerful statement from Khan. By saying that it wasn’t even close, Khan threw out any possible belief that the Jaguars may have had another candidate in mind. Khan then followed this up by saying that Marrone was the ideal candidate due to his ability to turn around programs both at the collegiate and pro levels.
3. This team will be well-disciplined
Upon being asked what his “stamp” on this football team would be, Coughlin expressed that he has desire for this team to be “a smart team, a disciplined team, a team that doesn’t beat themselves up or turn the ball over.” Assuming Coughlin can instill this mindset into this team it would do wonders for them. The Jaguars ranked second in penalties per game and fourth in turnovers. Being a well-disciplined team, is one thing the Jaguars can look forward to seeing improvement in going forward.
4. Blake Bortles is the Jaguars quarterback
There were some rumors surfacing before that Coughlin “wasn’t a fan of Blake Bortles.” Coughlin put these rumors to rest as he plainly stated that “Blake Bortles is our quarterback.” He didn’t go into any detail on this, he just said it and moved on to the next question.
5. There is no guarantee on who the coordinators are or what scheme they will run
In what I think was one of the underrated aspects of this press conference, Marrone twice said that there is no certainty on who will be the coordinators going forward. Already, Marrone has dismissed eight people on his coaching staff, but he is not necessarily done. In response to a question about how the Jaguars will look defensively next year scheme-wise Marrone responded that, “we have not defined any roles for our coaches right now. We’re looking to go out and get the best, most-talented, bright minds people to bring in, to help this football team win.”
Overall, it was a spectacular press conference. If the Jaguars can execute the image that Coughlin and Marrone painted today, Jaguars fans will have a lot to look forward to in the near future.
