San Diego Chargers Hire Norv Turner As Head Coach
By Michael Williams (3/2/2007)
hired Norv Turner as the head coach. The Chargers interviewed the last six candidates recently and 24 hours later they had decided to give Turner a chance. He was also the only candidate with NFL head coaching experience and the only one from the offensive side of the game.
Turner has signed a 4 year contract with Chargers and they would be hoping that Turner helps a team that was 14-2 and ended up losing in the playoffs without showing too much resistance. They lost 24-21 to the New England Patriots.
Charger fans are not very enthusiastic about Turner. This is because Turner has a 58-82-1 record while he was the head coach at Washington and Oakland. However, Chargers are reminding fans to look at his experience and the fact that while he was the offensive coordinator at San Diego in 2001, he installed the system which helped LaDainian Tomlinson win the league MVP award in 2006.
The Chargers have also signed Ted Cottrell as the defensive coordinator and Ron Rivera as the linebackers coach. Hours after the Bears announced that Rivera would not be returning as the defensive coordinator, the Chargers hired. Rivera was also interviewed for the head coach position by the Chargers.
Schottenheimer was fired by Chargers’ president Dean Spanos on February 12, 2007. This was because Scottenheimer and general manager A J Smith had a power struggle and Spanos found that the situation was not leading anywhere. Incidentally, Turner knows Smith, who was an assistant in 2001 to late John Butler. |