Yesterday, the Indianapolis Colts hired their first defensive coordinator since Week 12 of this past season, making Greg Manusky the guy under head coach Chuck Pagano. Now, Manusky spent last season with the San Diego Chargers and Vic Fangio just coached our San Francisco 49ers to the fourth-best defense in the NFL (stat-wise), so this news isn't especially pertinent to us, but Manusky was with the team for four years.
Surely that has to count for something? At any rate, I think it's a decent, if uninspired hire by the Colts. I was actually hesitant to see Manusky go this past offseason, mostly because he's always been, at the very least, competent. His bend-but-don't-break style got on the nerves of many folks here, but I always liked a lot of the things he was able do. After all, he was considered a strong up-and-coming head coaching candidate. But then Mike Singletary happened, and things went to hell.
In short, I'm pretty darn happy with Vic Fangio. But there's something else to note, something that struck me as odd when I went over to Stampede Blue, our Colts blog. There was someone there who said they'd rather have Steve Spagnuolo or Mike Singletary as their defensive coordinator. The user said that Mike would have been a better hire, and the link is right here. I just thought this was pretty interesting, especially coupled with the fact that I've heard fans of other teams talk about him like he's some great coach. Misunderstood is a term I've heard.
Every single time I tell these people that Singletary is a terrible coach, they just sort of say he wasn't ready, neglecting the fact that the guy was so far beyond "not ready" that it was laughable. He didn't even try to do things a coach is supposed to do, and he's a man who is so set in his ways that I doubt he ever will. I just think it's an interesting topic for discussion. Would you ever trust Mike Singletary as your head coach?