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BoM Nov '05; Mar '06
Wel....
By-the-book McCarthy takes Packers' reins
BY BOB MCGINN
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
GREEN BAY, Wis. - The slick, pretentious trappings that surround some head coaches in the National Football League don't apply to the new coach of the Green Bay Packers.
The son of a fireman/barkeep in Pittsburgh, Mike McCarthy exudes the Rust Belt characteristics of the old-fashioned football coach that apparently led general manager Ted Thompson to hire him Wednesday.
"No, no, no, no, there is no finesse to him at all," said Jack Henry, who as offensive line coach for the New Orleans Saints worked alongside McCarthy when he served as the club's offensive coordinator from 2000-`04. "He's a product of his environment. He's a blue-collar guy. He's got a toughness to him."
Fans here will hardly remember McCarthy as the team's quarterbacks coach in 1999 under coach Ray Rhodes. Even general manager Ron Wolf admitted that he didn't know him well.
"But I know he was a no (expletive) kind of guy," Wolf said. "Very, very thorough in his (pre-draft) evaluations. He was impressive in his preparation and how he got everything together."
The 42-year-old McCarthy replaces Mike Sherman, the Massachusetts native who was fired last week.
"He's probably a little more outwardly personable than Mike Sherman, but he probably has some of the same attributes in terms of toughness and work ethic," Henry said. "He's a very intense guy but he will be a little more outgoing.
"He will smile more and laugh, that sort of thing. I know Mike Sherman and the other side of him. He can be very friendly. Just publicly he's not very friendly. Mike McCarthy has the ability to be personable."
Offensive coordinator Sherman Lewis, now retired and living in the Detroit area, remembered when he and Rhodes interviewed McCarthy in February 1999. They had several other candidates but hired McCarthy on the strength of his presentation.
"I'm happy for him and I think he'll do a fine job," Lewis said. "I have to say I'm surprised that he's a head coach at this stage. You haven't heard that much about him. But you know how that is. You never know who's going to get those jobs."
Another of Rhodes' hires was Larry Beightol, who ended up staying seven seasons as offensive line coach.
"He's just a good, solid, down-to-earth guy," Beightol said. "It was a long shot, but he must have impressed. This is an opportunity of a lifetime for him."
After five seasons as offensive coordinator in New Orleans under coach Jim Haslett, McCarthy and the club basically agreed to part company. On Jan. 27, he was hired by San Francisco coach Mike Nolan as offensive coordinator.
"My belief was he felt he needed to expand his horizons a little bit more and to maybe get an opportunity like he got tonight," Henry said. "He was right."
After graduating from Bishop Boyle High School in Homestead, Pa., McCarthy played tight end at three small colleges: Salem (W.Va.) University, Scottsdale (Ariz.) Community College and Baker University in Baldwin City, Kan.
He got into coaching in 1987, working with linebackers for two years at Fort Hays State in Kansas. It was at Fort Hays that he earned a master's degree in sports administration.
McCarthy got a break in 1989 when Paul Hackett hired him to coach quarterbacks at the University of Pittsburgh. He stayed four seasons before Marty Schottenheimer brought Hackett and him to Kansas City in 1993. In two seasons as the Chiefs' quality control coach, McCarthy was around Joe Montana. Later, he served as quarterbacks coach, working with Steve Bono, Elvis Grbac and Rich Gannon.
"He's earned his way up," Henry said. "He's done all the dirty jobs. He started off as Paul Hackett's `Hey, boy' basically. He's lived in the house behind the head coach's house."
McCarthy's father is a retired fireman who later owned a tavern. His parents attended games in New Orleans.
"Mike used to work in a bar," Henry said. "He's from a tough section of Pittsburgh. Bloomfield. Blue-collar all the way. He comes from good stock."
McCarthy learned the West Coast offense from Hackett, helped coach it in Green Bay and then installed it in New Orleans. In chronological order from 2000-`04, the Saints ranked 10th, 10th, 19th, 11th and 15th in yards and 10th, 13th, third, 14th and 14th in points.
"Very intense, very intelligent and enthusiastic," Henry said. "He has the ability to analyze situations and to figure out how to attack them. He kind of talks like a Pittsburgh (expletive) but he's a very, very bright guy. His written and sometimes spoken word belies his native intelligence."
At times, McCarthy will get in the face of players and admonish entire position groups.
"He's got a pretty good temper on him," Henry said. "He will fly off the handle on occasion. He's not afraid to get after the offense or, in this case, the team.
"He will get emotional because of the temper part of it. He's got a healthy emotion about him. I don't really know how he'll respond on the sideline as a head coach. As the offensive coordinator on the sideline, he was very calm and very matter of fact about choosing the next series of plays."
Under Haslett, McCarthy called all the plays.
"I think he's an outstanding play-caller," Henry said. "He's a guy that knows when to pull the trigger. When Mike calls the trick play or the deep ball, he's got a great feel for that. He was an on-the-field play-caller. That is also indicative of a guy who has a feel for calling a game by the flow of the game."
His version of the West Coast, according to Henry, contains a ground game similar to what the Packers employed under Sherman and a pure West Coast passing game.
"He does a lot of different things in terms of changing up the look of what he does," Henry said. "His running game is more power-oriented. It's more in line with what Kansas City was when he was there. It's not Martyball, but it's more along those lines."
McCarthy's terminology for naming plays requires extensive memorization, which has been standard for the Packers since 1992.
"If Brett (Favre) is the guy, and I certainly think he would attempt to get him to be the guy again, Brett won't have a problem with it," Henry said.
On Dec. 27, McCarthy said this about Favre: "It looks like he's kept himself in great shape. He still looks like he could play another four, five years. He's still got a lot of bounce in his legs."
McCarthy directed the NFL's poorest offense this season in San Francisco, where four starting quarterbacks compiled a passer rating of 53.6. One of them, Alex Smith, was the first pick in the draft after McCarthy rated him above Aaron Rodgers.
"(Rodgers) definitely has a chance," McCarthy said in November. "He has ability. But I always have a problem with guys who have not played a lot. You worry whether they're one-year wonders.
"I thought he was a real good football player. I think he went where he was supposed to go. I think it was a good pick for them. We just didn't look at him as the first pick. We're happy with the guy we drafted."
According to Lewis, the main reason that the Packers drafted Aaron Brooks in the fourth round in 1999 was McCarthy's recommendation. Brooks had a solid career under him before regressing badly in `05 under new coordinator Mike Sheppard.
"To be honest with you, I don't want to say there was a falling-out, but it was more on Aaron's side than on Mike's," Henry said. "If you look at Jake Delhomme, for example, he still speaks to how much football he learned from Mike McCarthy. I think Aaron got overloaded with things. I don't know that for a fact."
Concluded Henry: "Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. One never knows. You just keep pounding away in this business. You never know."
