SPORTS RADIO
INTERVIEWS. Houston,
TX, Wednesday, January
12, 2011. For the first half of the NFL
season, Wade Phillips was the punching bag
of the league. Whether it was his sideline
expressions or his Dallas Cowboys’ poor play
and sometimes even poorer decisions, it was
pretty easy to hop on the bandwagon of
making fun of Dallas’ front man.
That hasn’t got
Phillips down.
The veteran
coach and respected defensive mind landed on
his feet as the defensive coordinator with
the Houston Texans, where he plans to
implement his 3-4 scheme that he’s known
for. Someday, and given the immediate future
of the NFL’s labor agreement who knows when
it will be, maybe we can all forget about
the man who became known as the irritated
mall Santa.
Wade Phillips
joined KILT in Houston with Shaun and Barry
to discuss his final weeks in Dallas, his
current job, what he sees in the Houston
Texans’ defensive players, putting this past
year behind him, getting Brian Cushing back
on the right track and switching to the 3-4
scheme.
What he was
thinking during his last few weeks in
Dallas:
“When you win
the most games in the NFC in the previous
three years and you’re halfway into the
season…it still surprises you. Those things
happen. It’s all part of what happens.”
On whether he’s
faced the fact that he may never be a head
coach in the NFL again:
“I love
coaching and I’m really happy to be here and
this might be the best job I’ve ever had,
even though I’m not a head coach. I almost
had this job the first time around because
they offered it to me when my dad got fired
here. I’m really glad. … I don’t really like
to look back on things, I look forward to
the next opportunity.”
What he sees
from the current Houston personnel:
“I’m so
impressed about how hard they played.
Obviously they didn’t play well at times or
things they didn’t do well, but they showed
a lot of heart. … We’ve got to shore up a
few things and get some things better, but I
just like the heart of the team.”
How he’ll put
together a new scheme right away given the
uncertainty of the league:
“I think
everybody knows that, defensively, we put in
things and caught them quickly and had young
players play quickly. Whenever it is,
they’ll give us time to put in what we need
to put in.”
On putting the
Cowboys and the past year behind him:
“I really don’t
want to get into all that. … I’m still proud
of what I’ve done as a coach. We had a tough
year this year, or half a year. Who knows
what would have happened the last half of
the year? I’m ready to move on and look
forward to this team. I really don’t want to
talk about that.”
Can he get
Brian Cushing to bounce back and be a
playmaker?:
“I think he
will be. I think he’s certainly got the
ability but also you can see on film … his
demeanor on the field and his
competitiveness, it shows that he wants to
do well. … I think he’ll get better and
better.”
Why he wants to
switch from the 4-3 to the 3-4:
“I go back to
what we’ve done and I don’t have the exact
stats, but in the last six years, and that’s
two different teams, I’m sure we’ve averaged
in the top three in the NFL in sacks in
those six years. … It’s all the front seven.
I don’t know why you wouldn’t want to play
in a system like that. Guys in the past that
I’ve had, the Bruce Smiths and on and on,
they’ve had success.”
