Sports: Wannstedt is wanted

Wannstedt is wanted

A happy union of castoff coaches and players proves so successful that the Dolphins leader settles in.

By ERNEST HOOPER

Dave Wannstedt and his wife moved into a new home two weeks ago.

It's a telling sign of how uncertain the Miami Dolphins coach was of his future in January 1999. Wannstedt was the deposed coach of the Chicago Bears and, like a lot of people in this state, a retiree.

But then Dolphins coach Jimmy Johnson, one of Wannstedt's closest friends, summoned him from his Naples condo to be assistant coach after Johnson shelved his ideas of retirement. Even then, Wannstedt didn't see himself becoming a fixture in Southeast Florida.

"(My wife and I) have been living in an apartment and had our stuff in storage for a year and a half," Wannstedt said. "So there was no prearranged agreement as far as what was going to happen. I really came down here just to help out for a year -- referring to last year -- and see if we could get the Dolphins to the Super Bowl, and then I figured I would just go from there and see what happened."

Wannstedt wasn't able to help Johnson reach the pinnacle, but now that he has taken over for his mentor, the Dolphins are on the verge of surpassing Johnson's best season as Miami coach. The team's 10 regular-season victories are its most since 1998, Johnson's best year with the Dolphins.

At 10-3, the Dolphins have a shot at gaining home-field advantage throughout the playoffs if they can pass Tennessee and Oakland.

Two years after being fired by the Bears, Wannstedt may be the perfect coach for a team of seemingly imperfect parts. Offensively, the Dolphins have put together an efficient unit with pieces that didn't fit in other puzzles.

The offensive coordinator is a fired former coach. The quarterbacks coach is a fired offensive coordinator. The quarterback is a career backup who spent two years out of football. The running back is a castoff from one of the most historically inept franchises in the league. And the leading receiver is a former Arena League player.

Given such a collection, it didn't surprise those outside of Miami and Fort Lauderdale when prognosticators picked the Dolphins to finish last in the AFC East. Wannstedt used those forecasts to fuel his team's drive.

"We had no expectations," Wannstedt said. "From an outside standpoint, the attitude around here was, "That's fine. We've got to just take them one at a time and see what happens.' It's kind of been a fun year because there were no expectations on this football team. We just kind of rolled up our sleeves and came to work every day and went out and played as hard as we could on Sunday, and that's about where we're at."

Undoubtedly, Miami's fierce defense has been the driving force behind its success, but the Dolphins would not be atop the division without the consistency of first-year starting quarterback Jay Fiedler or the rejuvenated running of former Saint Lamar Smith.

Both players credit offensive coordinator Chan Gailey, a former Cowboys coach, and Fiedler has high praise for quarterbacks coach Mike Shula, a former Bucs offensive coordinator.

"(Shula has) done a great job complementing coach Gailey," Fiedler said. "It's a new system for Mike to pick up this year. He's done a great job of picking that up and using some of his own knowledge of offense and complementing what coach Gailey does.

"For me personally, Mike really does a great job of keeping the attention to detail and quarterbacking techniques and knowing our reads and knowing the checks week in and week out."

Wannstedt brought Gailey and Shula to the Dolphins, and those are not the only heralded moves he has made. In his second coaching stint, Wannstedt has retained his principles of running the ball, special teams and defense, but he seems wiser about implementing moves.

"I think in Chicago, your first time in, it's "This is the way we won Super Bowls at Dallas and national championships at the University of Miami, so this is the only way to do it,' " Wannstedt said. "I think I'm a lot more confident with what I'm doing now, and therefore you do some of those things that are a little bit different than what everybody else is doing and don't worry about it."

Most notable have been Wannstedt's motivational ploys. In the preseason, he had the team end a minicamp practice with a softball game. He also took the players to see the Michael Jordan IMAX film. During the season, the Dolphins have seen Remember The Titans together.

Before the San Diego game, Wannstedt put mouse traps in front of the players' lockers as a reminder not to take the then-winless Chargers lightly. He also allowed 20 players, mostly starters, to fly in the first-class section to San Diego while he and team president Eddie Jones moved to coach.

"I didn't want to judge him when he first got the job," tight end Hunter Goodwin said. "You didn't know how he was going to be. All you could do is go on what you heard. He's doing an excellent job. I think he's learned from the past from the good and the bad."

Said Wannstedt: "We've got a real good group here, and they're willing to do whatever we've asked them to give us a chance to win. And there's been no resistance on anything."