'Miami Dolphin Football Is All About Passion': New Head Coach Mike McDaniel Promises Unique Design Tailored To Players
MIAMI (CBSMiami) - The Miami Dolphins have formally introduced their new head coach Mike McDaniel.
At Hard Rock Stadium, team owner Stephen Ross welcomed McDaniel and his family.
He said when they started their search for a coach, they were looking for someone with several qualities - leadership, intelligence, innovation, and an understanding what it takes to win in the long run. Ross said McDaniel checked those boxes.
"First of all, he is probably one of the brightest coaches that I have spoken to, he is really known for his innovation on the field, and many people even call him a genius," said Ross.
"At the same time the respect he has commanded through his over 18 years as a coach is really remarkable," said Ross. "I had coaches in his former division calling me and telling me how great he was."
Ross said one thing that really stands out about McDaniel is his passion for football, his passion for how he approaches the game, and how he works with people.
Team General Manager Chris Grier said they are tremendously excited to welcome McDaniel to the team.
"It was a clear choice. You guys have heard everything about Mike's intelligence, his passion, his work ethic. The people that have met him in this building over the past 48 hours have all talked about the energy level and how he is," he said.
"It's an honor and a privilege to stand in front of you guys here as the head coach of the Miami Dolphins. Any man standing at a podium like this would be honored, it's a tremendous accomplishment, you'd feel great about that. But that's not why you get into coaching. You get into coaching because you love to coach football. You love to teach and you love to make people better," said McDaniel.
"That's exactly who I am and who I have been and who I will be as the head coach of the Miami Dolphins," he added.
McDaniel, the 11th head coach in Dolphins' history, said this is his dream job.
"They looked at me for me and that really galvanized my interest in this organization. It told me a lot about who was targeting me, told me a lot about what they were looking for and that's why I knew it would be a good fit," he said.
McDaniel said he will be looking at all aspects of the team.
"The Miami Dolphins and what you can expect from us. Schematically, offense, defense, special teams, you are going to see a unique design of everything that's tailored to our players. That's why it will be unique to us because we'll tailor everything to our players. That's first and foremost. Really, the picture I would like to present, and what I'm here to do, with the assistance of all these wonderful people, is to create a brand of football here that is known as Miami football. Miami Dolphin football is all about passion, energy, you should be able to turn on the TV and know who the team is by the energy they play with, by how they bond together, things that you only get with work and true bond together," he said.
McDaniel the whole reason he has devoted his career to football is that you have people with different interests focused on one common goal.
"That one common goal of winning, winning often, winning playoff games, and winning Super Bowls. That goal is what drives us," he said.
McDaniel, who is biracial, replaces Brian Flores, who was fired despite posting winning records in the final two of his three seasons in Miami.
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