Browns President Mike Holmgren spent almost 15 minutes with host Vic Carucci on the team’s radio show “Cleveland Browns Daily” on ESPN 850 WKNR on Wednesday night, touching on a few timely subjects, including the hiring of Brad Childress as the team’s new offensive coordinator.
Here are some of Holmgren’s quotes from the interview:
* On the hiring of new offensive coordinator Childress:
“Brad’s an outstanding coach and I’ve known him a long time. When I first met him when I just arrived in Green Bay and Brad was on the staff at the University of Wisconsin under Barry Alvarez and he had been friends with Andy Reid, who worked for me. So we knew some people and we became pretty close – that was about 20 years ago.”
* On Childress as the Minnesota Vikings’ head coach:
“I thought he did a really great job in Minnesota in an unusual set of circumstances near the end there with some of the things that happened. But he came very close to going to the Super Bowl. He’s an excellent football coach; a very, very bright guy who knows how to coach quarterbacks. He’s a tough guy. He demands a lot. I think it was a great hire for [coach] Pat [Shurmur].”
*On the importance of Childress having previous head coaching experience:
“Pat and Brad worked together in Philadelphia for a long time, so they know each other and trust each other. I think the biggest challenge for a guy whose been a head coach and now he comes back in another role – in this case as an offensive coordinator – the one thing that I ask all those guys is that ‘You’ve been a head coach, are you OK with kind of coming back and doing something else for another head coach?’ In this case, someone that actually – when Brad was the offensive coordinator Pat was a position coach – so they’ve kind of flopped positions. But the guy, he’s a football coach, so he goes, ‘Of course!’ He’s coaching football, he’s part of something we’re trying to build here and he’s excited about that. So, it’s going to be a good thing for Pat.”
* On how helpful it is to have a coordinator who has the same offensive vision as the head coach:
“Yes, on one hand. But on the other hand, I will say that every coach brings certain uniqueness to the table – and that’s a good thing. I think Pat, when he goes into his offensive meetings, should have the creative juices going and then have different ideas from all the coaches, not just the coordinator. It’s a healthy thing as long as everyone understands that [in the end,] ‘we’re going to do it this way, thank you for your contributions.’ ”
Stephanie Storm can be reached at sstorm@thebeaconjournal.com.
