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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 5, 2000)
y, December 5, 2000 SPORTS THE BATTALION Page 3B orv Turner fired by owner Snyder after loss IS. about bt port. J he wai 'ecome "j •arsome, ients av; - done. It' in thePac- H known: age.” turned Iy and tii d school l ie Arizoi ord in 13s i is 854 : Chiefs, .'e coordk nd \va>.. m Landn 81 and 15! ed the Lo in 1996 b; rns wen: ■ecordic.i he had no ■bool whe n oversl only ini :ch phent eserveo ' he said, he Saguo: it, that is anybody that helps eserves a 3 earn to id same's ou ig yards;: d toucl' i79.At ASHBURN, Va. (AP) — Wash ington Redskins coach Norv Turner vas fired Monday after failing to ive up to Super Bowl expectations vith the most expensive team in dpi. I listory. ■urner was dismissed by owner )an Snyder one day after a 9-7 loss o the New York Giants. It was the mh loss in five games for the Red- kins (7-6) and third straight at home, ind it moved a team with champi- inship aspirations precariously close olimination from the playoff race. “This is not something that was on he agenda,” Snyder said. “This is nore change that we need. It’s all lout winning football. It’s not per- iOKtl.” Bussing game coordinator Terry iobiskie was named interim coach, first meeting with the team, he an impassioned speech and re- :ei\ed a standing ovation. ■Terry is blunt and to the point,” defensive end Kenard Lang said. ‘He’s like a stick of dynamite. He’s gjjig to make something happen.” ■Snyder said defensive coordinator Ray Rhodes, the former head coach atrhiladelphia and Green Bay, was not interested in the job. Robiskie began by apologizing to the fans for the team’s record, then vowed to make it better. “I’d rather be sitting here 7-6 with hope than to be sitting here 3-10,” Robiskie said. Special teams coach LeCharls McDaniel, in charge of the struggling coverage and kicking units, also was fired. Tight ends coach Pat Flaherty will coach special teams. The search for a coach for the 2001 season will be headed by former college coach Pepper Rodgers, who was hired Monday to the newly cre ated position of vice president of foot ball operations. Turner fought back tears as he said goodbye. “I’ve obviously been put in a good position to have an opportunity to win,” Turner said. “This team has a chance to be 10-6. That’s a disap pointment to me. There’s part of me that would like to be a part of it. There’s part of me that understands why it’s necessary to make a change right now.” Turner, hired as a first-time head coach by late owner Jack Kent Cooke in 1994, was third in seniority with one team behind Pittsburgh’s Bill Cowher and Minnesota’s Dennis Green. But Turner’s record was only 49-59-1, including 8-21-1 in games decided by three points or fewer, with “This is not something that was on the agen da. This is more change that we need. It's all about winning football. It's not personal” — Dan Snyder Washington Redskins owner a franchise that has won three Super Bowls. Turner took six years to get the Redskins to the playoffs. That came last season, when Washington won the NFC East with a 10-6 record and defeated Detroit in the first round of the postseason before losing 14-13 at Tampa Bay. The 48-year-old coach earned a reputation as a master strategist with the Dallas Cowboys, where he was the offensive coordinator for two Su per Bowl teams in the early 1990s. Some of his game plans in Washing ton were truly masterful, but his lack of communication skills and inabili ty to keep players focused and moti vated led to his downfall. The stakes became higher this sea son when Snyder spent millions on players, including Deion Sanders, Bruce Smith, Jeff George, Mark Car rier, and draft picks LaVar Arrington and Chris Samuels. Snyder, who bought the team in 1999, also brought in defensive coordinator Ray Rhodes. But those additions were not enough to overcome failure in the kicking game. In three games this season, missed field goals contributed to losses, and Turner has used four placekickers. On Sunday, 44-year-old Eddie Murray was short on a 49-yard field goal at tempt in the final minute. Turner said the weakness in the kicking game became even more ap parent to him when he went home le on ing utive yen ly the se' 3AA hisM 100 yards ; carried 158 yard lest in and 221 I 5,263 c.” icth >ry. ibutions thermal^ k provides' ; Aggies outers aad 1 starters. s» I on tlies' try it of 1 jdedioce 1 F01 m erciH)' ctS | ROGJOAI res RAI$ ^gers :1ALS! ail us at n.conv 7 Convenient Buvback Locations ■ Texas MM Bookstore in the MSC ■ A1 Lounge * Outside West Campus Library ■ Commons Lobby ■ Outside Blocker ■ Pie R Square Food Court ■ Outside Heldenfels lCeS 10 CF ■ . m | 'OUf p for yea™, ■ VI iilat’ |t ^ J gfapl'l 1 |. sJPl Texas MM Bookstore In The Memorial Student Center Sunday night and watched Tennessee beat Philadelphia on a last-minute field goal. “The difference between win ning and losing in this league is not very big,” Turner said. Snyder signed running back Stephen Davis to the most lucrative contract in league history and test ed the limits of fan devotion by charging admission to watch prac tices at training camp. The total, player payroll of salaries and bonuses for the season is about $100 million. But immediately it was apparent that the Redskins mirrored the re cent Baltimore Orioles and New York Rangers, two other teams that essentially failed to buy a champi onship. Ego bruising among the big names was not a problem; overcon fidence was. A narrow season-opening victo ry over Carolina was followed by a losses to Detroit and injury-riddled Dallas. A five-game winning streak followed, but the only dominant victories came against the Giants and Jacksonville Jaguars. A loss to lowly Arizona followed by a victory on the road at Super Bowl champion St. Louis exempli fied the team’s fickle nature. Con secutive home losses to division challengers Philadelphia and the Gi ants did in Turner. Injuries also slowed the offense. Three starter^ were lost for the sea son and several others played hurt. The reconstituted offensive line had its worst day Sunday. However, there were also many unforced er rors such as dropped balls, missed blocks and bad snaps. Turner began coaching as a grad uate assistant at Oregon in 1975. John Robinson hired him as an as sistant at USC a year later, and Robinson also brought Turner into the NFL with the Los Angeles Rams in 1985. ’ Robiskie, 46, becomes the NFL’s third current black head coach. He is a former offensive coordinator with the Oakland Raiders and was one of Turner’s first hires in Washington in 1994. He is known for a tough-love coaching style from his dealings with temperamental Redskins re ceivers Michael Westbrook and Al bert Connell. “He might add a little more fire to it,” Connell said. 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