Mularkey hired as Jacksonville head coach
Falcons offensive coordinator Mike Mularkey chats with the local media. (D. ORLANDO LEDBETTER/AJC)
UPDATE: The Jacksonville Jaguars have confirmed the hiring of former Falcons offensive coordinator Mike Mularkey as their third head coach.
The Florida Times-Union is reporting, through a source, that the Jaquars have hired Mike Mularkey as their new head coach.
FLOWERY BRANCH — Falcons offensive coordinator Mike Mularkey is interviewing for the vacant head coach position with the Jacksonville Jaguars and Les Snead, the team’s director of player personnel is interviewing for the general manager’s post in St. Louis, today.
He’s set to interview with Miami later in the week.
Should Mularkey land the Jacksonville or Miami job, he could take a couple of assistant coaches with him. There has been very little turnover from Smith’s original staff. With former defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder’s swift departure to the college ranks, five of the original 16 members have moved on to other jobs.
Mularkey was a candidate last season for head coaching jobs in Cleveland and Denver. He interviewed with Cleveland, but withdrew from the Denver search. Cleveland hired Pat Shurmur and Denver hired John Fox.
Mularkey’s son Patrick is a scouting assistant with the Jaguars. He wants to be a head coach again. He was Buffalo’s head coach in 2004-05 and posted a 14-18 record.
Mularkey and former offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave have been lauded league-wide for their fast development of quarterback Matt Ryan and for turning the Falcons’ offense into one of the league’s better units which has powered the team to a 43-21 record and three trips to the playoffs.
Mularkey is attractive because of his background in coaching power football. Jacksonville also needs someone to develop quarterback Blaine Gabbert, who struggled in his first year in the league. Miami will likely be in the market for a quarterback in the draft.
Mularkey was Miami’s offensive coordinator in 2006 and their tight ends coach in 2007.
Mularkey’s unit was stymied in the 24-2 loss to the New York Giants in the NFC wild-card playoff game on Sunday. The Falcons were 4 of 14 on third downs and 0 for 3 on fourth downs as they were kept out of the end zone.
Jacksonville dismissed Jack Del Rio this season. He was replaced on an interim basis by Mel Tucker. Miami parted ways with Tony Sparano.
After the 2010 season, Mularkey was selected as the coordinator of the year by The Sporting News.
–D. Orlando Ledbetter, The Atlanta Falcons beat blog
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415 comments Add your comment
lombardi
January 10th, 2012
1:50 pm
He’s not going to the Fins. Latest from Miami Herald Poll: Of 8 candidates for HC post, only Dave Toub, Bears special-teams coach has lower rating than MM who has 19 votes or 1.99% of sampling (probably concerned relatives). http://bit.ly/wcFHZg
FalconFreak
January 10th, 2012
1:51 pm
Ok how much is it going to cost us? How much do we have to pay the Jaguars to hire Mularky?
chocolate cities drowning fast!
January 10th, 2012
1:52 pm
LSwho got Bammed. Now it’s time for a SF Treat!
POTUS - Executive Order
January 10th, 2012
1:52 pm
Be it so ordered:
1. MM pack your bags and get the f out of Atlanta, b4 I order you to gitmo!
2. BVG a big “atta boy” for being man enough to spare me from ordering your departure. No one will make fun of your downgrade from a falcon to a war eagle.
3. Arthur, please take care of your team so I don’t have to take it over and and make tax payers responsible for its upkeep, like we did for N O.
4. Mike Smith, please, please be man enough to step up and change some plays if you know your coaches are not calling the correct plays…or else, next year, I will be back after you…yep, I’ll still be here!!
5. Fans of Atlanta, keep the hope alive, and I’ll see what I can move from GB, NO, NE and Carolina (Cam, perhaps) to take from the haves and give to you the have nots! I am here for you and feel your pain. Wait a minute, I may keep some of those parts from those team for Chicago as we …They need some help to.
To all, keep your spirits up, your thoughts happy, and I’ll see you at the pro bowl…
Barry
meaningless news
January 10th, 2012
1:54 pm
Lombardi, coaches aren’t hired based on newspaper polls
lombardi
January 10th, 2012
1:55 pm
And he’s not going to the Jags because the new owner Shahid Khan who just shelled out $100mm, is sitting in on interviews w/ parties of considerable interest which at this time seems to be Brian Schottenheimer. Can you imagine the questions Khan’s gonna have for MM after failing to get a single point against a mid-to-lower tier rated D.
zzzzzzzzzzzz
January 10th, 2012
1:59 pm
SF and Baltimore SuperBowl—A Harbaugh bash!
lombardi
January 10th, 2012
1:59 pm
@Meaningless: Given it’s not scientific poll but are you saying fan ops don’t impact on one end ticket sales on the other end impact exec decisions?
Fan
January 10th, 2012
2:00 pm
We need Mel Tucker as DC and BB as OC and then the winnings and rings will come.
never know......
January 10th, 2012
2:01 pm
Mr. Mario Bros (Jax owner), doesn’t know diddly about football. Don’t be shocked whoever he hires. Mularkey might tickle his mustache!
Phil McCrackin
January 10th, 2012
2:03 pm
I have no issues with shaking things up… especially the offensive play calling.. although I suspect the problem lies more with Coach Smith’s philosophy than the play calling. Also, while chatting about the Falcons… I have to say I am concerned by several apsects of their play… no pressure on QBs almost EVER… and Matty is not bad but not what I thought he would be. Specifically, his throws on out patterns scare the dickens out of me as I see defenders able to make plays on balls that almost appear to float out there. Also, how is it possible that he cannot improvise a pass when flushed out of the pocket? He merely takes a beat conservative approach (I hate all forms of conservatism!) and tries not to risk interceptions and throws the ball out of bounds. Once in a while, I get it, but ALL THE TIME? I just don’t get it.
Zoomie
January 10th, 2012
2:05 pm
No hope here. Who’s gonna hire this guy after that offensive showing in New York?
He’s going to have to be fired outright.
lombardi
January 10th, 2012
2:07 pm
@never know Come to think of it, had things worked out differently, he and BVG could’ve had competitions on the mustache thing.
Mountain Man
January 10th, 2012
2:07 pm
Sunday’s performance, and really this season as a whole should be a stain on his resume. The Falcons added “explosiveness” to their offense with J. Jones and still scored less points overall this season than last.
This year’s offense was a dud.
JohnD
January 10th, 2012
2:07 pm
Mularkey out.. Brian Billick in..
Write it down..
UGABugKiller nailed JSS
January 10th, 2012
2:07 pm
Never read much of what you’ve said before, but you NAILED JSS. Kudos, sir!
Mountain Man
January 10th, 2012
2:09 pm
And can we please stop with the “Matty Ice” talk? More like patty melt this season.
Luv 2 Hate Me
January 10th, 2012
2:11 pm
I say Blank go after Bama’s Defensive coordinator. Hell he was going to take the Georgia job year before last but Nick talked him out of it. Falcons need to get real creative with picking a new Offense coach.
enough
January 10th, 2012
2:13 pm
Mountain Man….if we stop with the “Matty Ice” will you and others in turn stop with the derogatory terms for Matt?
4100 yards in ‘11.
daroosta
January 10th, 2012
2:16 pm
Brian Billick will be the OC and Jack Del Rio will be the DC. The brother-in-law and the guy who helped Smith get where he is today. If you put the pieces together, that is what I see. We must get more aggressive on both sides of the ball.
Phil McCrackin
January 10th, 2012
2:16 pm
There’s no need for derogatory comments on Matt… although honest criticism is just and warranted. He has to learn to extend plays… and for the love of CHRIS*… he needs to build up his arm strength somehow…
warfalcons
January 10th, 2012
2:19 pm
However, not all of the blame falls on the quarterback. Rather than challenge defenses with aggressive play-calling, Atlanta has played scared.
“We talked about trying to establish the running game because we didn’t think we could pass protect,” said Falcons wide receiver Roddy White, who was limited to five catches for 52 yards with a long of only 21 yards. “We played right into their hands. I mean, if they sack us every down and we can’t move the ball, OK. But let’s try.”
[ Photo gallery: Giants dominate Falcons in NFC wild-card game ]
White’s remarks echo private comments of several other players who have pointed at a disconnection who offensive coordinator Mike Mularkey’s approach. Numerous players believe Mularkey is too conservative, particularly in tense situations like the playoffs.
Or as one player put it: “Something has to be said to [coach] Mike [Smith] this offseason.”
For now, the important issue is whether the Giants will have something to say in Green Bay.
JSS
January 10th, 2012
2:21 pm
@UGA BlogKiller…
Right about some stupid college football (and its corrupt culture)…
Right about sorry some baseball moment that already had a 20 year record of failure?
Right about your being a “self-professed” blowhard…
Right about being a poor imitation of Kevin Smith (yeah, that’s you!)
You mean any fool can follow you rambling and “brown-nosing” of the 9-9-9, 6-6-6, John Klancide groupies rants can see your short little bursts of palabra…
And you’re so stupid, that you are still running that weak “internet anonymity” line for someone who is suppose to be so “technology savvy.” That is your crutch, funny how others on the AJC blogs know how to contact me, but the poor little UGA obsessed blogger can’t figure it out!
Again, stick to Twitter, short little bursts of nothing…
Mountain Man
January 10th, 2012
2:23 pm
Enough,
Despite what you may think, I actually consider Matt Ryan to be a decent quarterback. Not great, but decent. My problem is with nicknames on a whole.
My belief is that nicknames are reserved for special players. There is nothing special about Matt Ryan. He is a good QB and I believe he could lead us to a championship with the right upgrades to our team, but he is not a transcendent player.
Lets take the nickname LT for instance. In my mind there is only one and can only ever be one LT. He wore number 56, not 21. LaDainian Tomlinson was an awesome tailback, but he didn’t define the position. Ask Joe Gibbs about the impact of Lawrence Taylor on a football game. He absolutely defined the OLB position and therefore he is the only true “LT”
When Matt Ryan defines the QB position, then we can talk about “Matty Ice”.
Phil McCrackin
January 10th, 2012
2:26 pm
warfalcons, you are correct about the play calling… but it’s part and partial of Smith’s philosophy. Those comments make it look like players have to clue Smith in on the fact that it’s too conservative. Please… Smith had to be OK with the playbook and play calling during the game because he has final say!
BLEED RED & BLACK
January 10th, 2012
2:28 pm
UGABUGKiller…you should be in the PULPIT for ALLTHE TRUTH YOUR PREACHING…..
enough already
January 10th, 2012
2:28 pm
Quit thinking so highly of yourselves as fans. Owners aren’t going to base a business decision like who they are going to hire on a fans opinion. Keep talking to brick walls. They actually know or get to know the people up for jobs….none of you do. You don’t know any of their discussions.
This is professional sports. Tough luck fans. There will be somebody in line to take your place when you’re gone. You know it and you still think you matter.
BLEED RED & BLACK
January 10th, 2012
2:30 pm
You can really tell the women bloggers on here….leave Matt “Orville Reddenbacher Popcorn Arm” Ryan alone….
Mountain Man
January 10th, 2012
2:32 pm
enough already,
Fans always have and always will engage in discussions about what changes they believe are necessary for their team. I doubt anybody here actually believes they will affect the decisions of Falcons/Braves/Hawks management. It’s just a part of sports.
enough already
January 10th, 2012
2:34 pm
The world still rotates without any of your input. And they’ll keep playing the games.
bunch of jibber jabber.
Ya’ll are gonna give yourselves a heart attack. Talk positive.
G’bye
stuart smiley
January 10th, 2012
2:39 pm
yeah, too much negative crap in here. Talk about something good.
j
January 10th, 2012
2:41 pm
Please get this guy out of Atlanta
stuart smiley
January 10th, 2012
2:42 pm
Is this NY with all the negative stuff? Come on how many of you transplants invaded us today?
JSS
January 10th, 2012
2:43 pm
Same old BugKiller… The Barney Stinson of the AJC just pee’d himself…
Stewie Griffin
January 10th, 2012
2:48 pm
I’m going to send you all back in my time machine to be fed to the lions.
HPUCK
January 10th, 2012
2:48 pm
Can he take Georgia’s BOBO with him ?
christophorm
January 10th, 2012
2:49 pm
jacksonville is a dumb dumb..and atlanta for the last 28 of 30 years.
D. Orlando Ledbetter
January 10th, 2012
2:51 pm
THE BUGKILLER IS ON THE LOOSE!!!!
RedandBlack Peachy
January 10th, 2012
2:55 pm
I keep seeing Mike Martz’s name come up as OC; but in just about every offense he has been the OC the offensive line gave up too many sacks. So…you want Matt Ryan who is, maybe, maybe not, nothing more than a game manager to start taking more hits? Matt Ryan cannot overcome a weak o-line. Jay Cutler,under Mike Martz, is still the #1 sacked QB in the league. Are you crazy? Matt Ryan can’t take that (and unless something crazy happens, that is our QB so we have to consider our personnel). He isn’t mobile enough. So, any OC with MM as their initials has no place in Atlanta.
JYD
January 10th, 2012
3:00 pm
Next year sorry this year Smitty’s seat starts getting warming up depending on who’e hired 4 yrs inept offense, defence and all.
Falcon Fan
January 10th, 2012
3:00 pm
Hope Mularkey get the job. If not he should be replaced.
Ernest Byner should be hired as running back coach…he coached Maurice Jones-Drew this year who led the NFL in rushing. He also coached Chris Johnson who became only one of six players in NFL history to rush for over 2000 yards. Coach Byner is a great coach..make the deal.
Offensive Coordinator..hire Steve Spagnerole (sp) are maybe Dirk Koetter.
Just get a good one.
Jimmy Crack
January 10th, 2012
3:01 pm
You folks are all wrong! (wink, nudge)
Mularkey would make a great HC for Jacksonville and their rookie QB!!! Also Maurice Jones Drew won’t mind Mularkey’s philosophy because MJD never runs where the play is called anyway!
The Jaguars sports reporters will also like Mike’s refreshing and honest Q & A! He is always affable and never, EVER defensive in his answers! Press him for an answer and watch his smile GROW as he tells you everything you could possibly want to know!
The Jaguars and Mularkey…They fit like Lederhosen!
Phil McCrackin
January 10th, 2012
3:01 pm
I don’t like these two guys going at each other, but there’s nothing wrong with being negative about a team if they underperformed, STUART. As a matter of fact, voicing displeasure with a product or service is a way to affect change. The reason so many Atlanta teams have suc*ed over the decades is because soft, lily-white fans refused to be “uncivil-like” and speak their minds for fear of being considered (gasp) indecent-like. Take the faux southern tude somewhere else. This is about a product, and consumers are entitled to complain when it under-delivers.
Jason
January 10th, 2012
3:02 pm
We have 5 draft picks. Use 3 on offensive linemen. Draft a guard, a tackle, and a center. Doesn’t matter the order. Get some athletic ones that are big. Not fat. With the other two picks I’d take a corner, and with the last pick I’d get a LB. We can get a RB out of FA because honestly I don’t think Turner has much left to give. I look around the league and I see RBs cut left and right and get up the field in a hurry and I ask myself, “Why can’t Turner do that?” It’s because he’s too big. Honestly he’s gotten too big to play RB. He can’t move.
lamac66
January 10th, 2012
3:02 pm
I’m going to ROFL if MM get that Jags job and they go to the playoffs and win a game with Blane Gabbart.
JSS
January 10th, 2012
3:04 pm
@ Ledbetter…
Don’t delete his attacks, let all of his palabra stay out there… It is always bust his chops when the “whole truth” comes out…
Jason
January 10th, 2012
3:05 pm
If we retool our O-line, get another RB, get another OC in here, and revamp this defense with some key guys, then I think we’d be set for a playoff push. It’s not the players. It’s the coach’s ability to maximize each player’s full potential. Mularkey can’t do that. He must go. I don’t think Van gorder did either. He’s already gone. We need to finish this thing.
lamac66
January 10th, 2012
3:06 pm
hire Steve Spagnerole
Too late, EAGLES got him!!
JYD
January 10th, 2012
3:08 pm
Smitty’s seat is starting getting warm up from this long offseason.
UGABugKiller
January 10th, 2012
3:08 pm
Hmmm…
… I have to wonder about undue censorship from the AJC.
Was it the acronym ROTLMFAO? Because, as an acronym that I did not indulge the meaning, you can only infer, but not be sure of, what certain letters may or may not mean.
Or, and this would be an even worse case of undue censorship on my part, but was I censored for using a common phrase that has to do with calling someone out for who they are, or pointing out who they are?
Because while the word “spade” has many meanings, amongst them “shovel,” “a suite in a deck of cards,” and an unfortunate racial slur, the CONTEXT of that common phrase has NOTHING to do with the ethnic slur.
The phrase, “Calling a spade a spade,” actually goes back to ancient Greece, entering in to common usage in English in the 16th century, and as such, has NOTHING to do with the ethnic slur I’m guessing you are wrongly attributing to it.
So censoring my post based on the idea that it does is, well, faulty and illogical.
So I’d ask that my post be returned.
Because all should be able to read my (or anyone else’s) dressing down and pegging of a self-righteous, smug, arrogant, faux-intellectual, wannabe (failed) journo douche like JSS.
Because it’s just so true. Don’t suppress the truth anymore, AJC.