Page 41 - Florida Sentinel 1-14-22

Sports
Brian Flores, Mike Zimmer, Matt Nagy, Out As Head Coaches
Georgia Tops Alabama To Win College Football National Championship
Georgia quarterback Stetson Bennett fired two touchdown passes in the fourth quarter to help lift the Bulldogs to their first na- tional championship since 1980, beating Alabama 33-18.
After a questionable fum- ble call that led to an Ala- bama score earlier in the period, Bennett would re- group and toss a 40-yard touchdown pass to wide re- ceiver Adonai Mitchell to put the Bulldogs back up. Bennett would strike again
Georgia Bulldogs celebrate after defeating rival Alabama.
later in the fourth with a 15- yard touchdown pass to Brock Bowers.
With 3:33 left, Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Bryce Young would get the ball back to try to force over- time. Young would throw a Pick Six to Kelee Ringo, which would seal the deal.
Bennett finished 17-for- 26 with 224 passing yards and two touchdown passes. Mitchell had two catches for 50 yards and Bowers had four catches for 36 yards.
The game was a field goal battle in the first half with Al- abama leading 9-6.
BRIAN FLORES
MIKE ZIMMER
MATT NAGY
Miami Dolphins Firing Coach Brian Flores Is An Unjustified Travesty Of A Clown-Show Owner
The NFL coaching carousel is upon us with the conclusion of the regular sea- son, as plenty of teams will begin to make decisions on the future of their franchise.
DOLPHINS
Fired: Brian Flores Hired: TBD
Flores never made the
playoffs in three seasons in Miami, but he'll be one of the most sought after candidates in this hiring cycle. He's the only head coach to start a sea- son 1-7 and finish with a win- ning record (2021), as the Dolphins went 24-25 in his three seasons -- with two win- ning campaigns. Flores went 24-18 in his final 42 games as a head coach.
The firing of Flores is the most surprising of this head coaching cycle, even if the Dolphins never had an of- fense ranked above 22nd in his three seasons at the helm. Miami has uncertainty at quarterback with Tua Tago- vailoa and a poor offensive line, a task the next head coach will have to inherit. Flores overachieved in Miami, despite the Dolphins trying to stock up draft capital and missing on free agent signings over the last three years.
VIKINGS Fired: Mike Zimmer
Hired: TBD
The Vikings fired Zim- mer on Monday after eight seasons leading the franchise. While Zimmer finished 72-
56-1 in his tenure, the Vikings were just 15-18 over the last two seasons and failed to make the playoffs both sea- sons. Quarterback Kirk Cousin never lived up to the Vikings paying him $28 mil- lion a year guaranteed.
BEARS Fired: Matt Nagy
Hired: TBD
The Bears moved on from Nagy after four seasons lead- ing the franchise, as Nagy finished with a 34-31 record with only one losing season (2021). Nagy lead the Bears to the NFC North title in his first season and won coach of the year, but went just 20-27 since.
BRONCOS Fired: Vic Fangio
Hired: TBD
The Broncos fired Fangio after he failed to get them in the playoffs after three sea- sons in Denver, compiling a 19-30 record in his tenure. Denver hasn't made the play- offs in six seasons, and is still searching for that franchise quarterback the team hasn't had since Peyton Manning.
RAIDERS Fired: Jon Gruden
Hired: TBD
Gruden was the first head coach to be fired after a series of emails were released in an investigation into the Washington Football Team that included racist, homo- phobic and sexist emails sent from Gruden.
BY GREG COTE
Unjustified. Unfair. Shocking. Egregiously prema- ture. Embarrassing. Irrespon- sible. Dumbfounding. Not enough words have yet been invented to adequately and fully describe the national clown show the Miami Dol- phins became Monday with the sudden and utterly stupid firing of head coach Brian Flores.
Team owner Stephen Ross, good at spending money on facility improve- ments but very bad at fielding winning football teams, has sunk to a new low.
Firing Flores after three seasons — the last two with a combined 19-14 record, the franchise’s first consecutive winning records since 2002- 03 — was so out-of-the-blue unexpected. Flores had just beaten Bill Belichick on Sunday, 33-24. Beaten him for the fourth time in six meetings.
Speculation immediately arose that Ross would hire Jim Harbaugh away from Michigan. Ross of course is a Michigan alum and major donor who has been enam- ored of Harbaugh for years. Just as quickly came media reports Harbaugh was not being targeted by Miami — which had the stench of Dol- phins management planting that. Why? The NFL’s Rooney Rule that encourages inter- viewing minority candidates.
Ross firing one of the
league’s few Black head coaches with extremely dubi- ous cause and already having in mind his white replace- ment — is not a good look. “I’m not going to be the one who takes Jim Harbaugh away from the University of Michigan,” Ross stated Mon- day.
Ross also said Monday he has “a lot of confidence” in second-year quarterback Tua Tagovailoa and has “no plans” to pursue a trade for
the Houston Texans’ embat- tled but available Deshaun Watson.
Tagovailoa deserves the time and the improved sur- rounding cast to succeed. So did Flores deserve the time to succeed. Instead they both were saddled with a flagrantly impulsive team owner run- ning a scattershot operation, reaching around in the dark, needing a scapegoat to dis- guise his own failed owner- ship.
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