Marla Ridenour: Browns players feed off Shurmur’s aura

[BernietheKid]

Marla Ridenour: Browns players feed off Shurmur’s aura

By Marla Ridenour
Beacon Journal sports columnistPublished: August 15, 2011 - 12:14 AM

CLEVELAND: If Pat Shurmur had any worries that he wasn’t ready for this moment, wasn’t ready to be an NFL coach, his demeanor never showed it.

There was not a glimpse of anxiety or doubt on his face, at least during occasional glances his way during the Browns’ 27-17 preseason-opening victory over the defending Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers on Saturday night.
Shurmur looked calm and professional, unruffled by a few inevitable mistakes after the

NFL lockout robbed his young team of valuable offseason work.
He seemed in control, almost like a born leader.

“That’s exactly what it is,” Browns cornerback Joe Haden said. “He has that ‘it.’ ”
Shurmur joked about having 12 men on the field for the first defensive snap, forcing the Browns to take a timeout just six seconds into the game.

“We tried to set a record,” he said.

He couldn’t have liked how starting quarterback Colt McCoy handled the first play, an incompletion to rookie fullback Owen Marecic that ended up being ruled a fumble. Marecic was the fifth option and wasn’t ready for the ball, but Shurmur didn’t seethe about it later.

“My first response was, ‘Oh, geez, that’s backward,’ ” Shurmur said. “I didn’t want to make it too obvious. [McCoy] came right back and said, ‘Coach, I should have just run with it.’ ”

Those two miscues could have opened the floodgates for disaster, or at least disorganization. But the Browns regained their composure, perhaps because their leader never lost his.

At least that was the feeling from middle linebacker D’Qwell Jackson, playing for his third Browns coach in six years.

“It all starts up top,” Jackson said. “[Shurmur] has created a winning environment. The coaches are relaxed and it trickles down to us players.”
Second-year strong safety T.J. Ward also appreciates Shurmur’s approach.

“Coach Shurmur is real calm,” Ward said. “He expects you to do your job and be a professional. He lets us go out there and be men. We really appreciate that because he’s not riding us all the time.

“As men we have to knuckle up and know that this is our job. We’re not just here to play football. We’re here to win and play football. He let us know that right off the bat.”
Shurmur’s predecessor, Eric Mangini, had his strengths, foremost his attention to detail and expertise on defense. But never did one of his Browns players describe him as “calm.” On the field, his face usually conveyed consternation.

Before Mangini was Romeo Crennel, whose visage eventually signalled resignation, his authority robbed by General Manager Phil Savage, his roster not nearly as talented as Savage thought. Supremely qualified to be a defensive coordinator but overmatched as a coach, Crennel gave his players too much rope.

Hired on Jan. 13, Shurmur has never been a head coach at any level. He served as a coordinator for only two seasons, directing the St. Louis Rams’ offense in 2009-10. Ten of his previous 12 years in the NFL were spent in Philadelphia, coaching quarterbacks, tight ends and offensive linemen.

His hiring didn’t make a splash with the national media, even when president Mike Holmgren proclaimed Shurmur the first and last coach he plans to hire. While Holmgren surely meant to convey his faith in Shurmur, that statement could have been taken as a warning that Holmgren won’t be spending the rest of his life in Cleveland.

Five coaches since 1999 can do that to the perspective of a fan base that always believes the sky is falling.

It’s too soon to tell if Shurmur is the one to keep the dark clouds at bay or even chase them away. But when his first game was over, he was open about injuries and honest in his assessment of individual players. He was self-deprecating and authoritative at the same time.

He joked that he might not know how to handle himself at the podium and confessed that it was “getting past my bedtime.” McCoy said he and Shurmur laughed during the game about their first time on the headsets.

“I gave him a hard time when he threw that red flag out there, that was the first time for that, too,” McCoy said of Shurmur’s fourth-quarter challenge of a Green Bay pass completion that went the Browns’ way. “There were a lot of firsts tonight. I felt the operation went well.”

Shurmur said he slept well the night before his debut and didn’t get butterflies.

“I don’t know what I get, but they aren’t butterflies,” he said.

“Even though this one doesn’t really go in the record books as a regular-season victory, that feeling you get when you win is something we all long for,” Shurmur said.

“Somebody that’s teaching young men, to see them respond to some of the things
we’ve been talking about, I thought it was good.”

So did Haden, who sounded like Shurmur’s biggest fan outside of the front office. Haden said Shurmur “has a swag to him, just like a really good coach.”

“I like his aura,” Haden said. “It’s really good and it rubs off on the players.”

That aura must exude confidence, even if Shurmur thinks the Browns are a year or two away from playoff contention. But with four previous coaches producing just two winning seasons in the past 12, the trickle-down effect from Shurmur’s calm professionalism may help return the Browns to relevance sooner than that.


Marla Ridenour can be reached at mridenour@thebeaconjournal.com. Read her blog at http://marla.ohio.com/. Follow her on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/MarlaRidenour.

Marla Ridenour: Cleveland Browns players feed off coach Pat Shurmur

[OconRecon]

Boy, they sure like him. But heck, it this really any different than the gushing about the "process" of yesteryear? I think not.

[Brown Warrior]

Player's coach from the Bill Walsh Tree... polar opposite of Mangini from the Tuna Tree.

[nickers]

Originally Posted by Brown Warrior

Player's coach from the Bill Walsh Tree... polar opposite of Mangini from the Tuna Tree.

Amen!