hagan714

LB coach Vitt keeps last year in perspective
Sunday, June 03, 2007Peter Finney
Until I had a minicamp chat with Joe Vitt, who coaches linebackers for Sean Payton, I was under the impression the Saints won 11 games last season and lost seven, the final defeat coming at the hands of the Chicago Bears in a contest to determine who would represent the NFC in Super Bowl XLI.

All along, I felt the Saints, with a new coaching staff and a bunch of new players, had made one of the classic turnarounds in NFL history, climbing from a cellar-dwelling 3-13 to within a shot at a world championship.

But there was Vitt setting me straight.

Behind the darting eyes of a blue-collar warrior who has been in the league for 29 years and made eight coaching stops, his message was far more sobering than euphoric.

The 2006 Saints were not 11-7.

They were 0-1.

"I still have the taste of a snowball in the face," Vitt's saying of that 39-14 beating on Jan. 21 at Soldier Field. "As far as I'm concerned, everything that came before is history. I draw the curtain on that. All I want to know now is what we're going to do about the memory of that snowball."

For Vitt, the 2006 season came down to "Mission Not Accomplished."

So what about 2007?

"Here's the challenge," he said. "A team never stays the same. It gets better or it gets worse. It's up to us, the players and the coaches."

Compared with how the linebackers performed in former Saints coach Jim Haslett's final season, the 2006 infusion of Scott Fujita, Scott Shanle and Mark Simoneau blossomed into a remarkable turnaround that produced three interceptions, three forced fumbles, 11 pass breakups and 8 1/2 sacks.

This was on a defense that ranked second to last in the league in forcing turnovers (19), with 11 interceptions and eight fumble recoveries.

It's no surprise forcing turnovers is No. 1 on Payton's hit list. And there were Vitt's linebackers back at square one at minicamp working on technique.

While the crowd was on hand to watch Drew Brees throw to anyone, linebackers were busy working on basics that go unnoticed -- knee bends, ankle flex, eye position, hand position, feet position and quick twitch.

For the most part, defensive linemen are occupied in pressuring the quarterback and stopping the run, the secondary in defending the pass.

The linebackers are part of both worlds.

"Sometimes," says Vitt, "it gets down to a basketball game of five on five, especially with the way they're throwing the ball around today. Linebackers are defending the pass, defending the run, blitzing, taking on blockers."

As for Vitt, he feels fortunate in having two blue-collar faces to coach in his first season for Payton and defensive coordinator Gary Gibbs.

Fujita and Shanle were part of a "Cowboy Connection." Fujita was a walk-on in college who entered Cal-Berkeley as a 6-foot-4, 210-pound safety and came out a 6-5 250-pound linebacker. A fifth-round pick by Kansas City, he was a Cowboy during Payton's final season on Bill Parcells' staff, playing for then-linebackers coach Gibbs. Shanle, a seventh-round pick by the Rams in 2003, found his way to Dallas and arrived here in a trade shortly after the 2006 season.

"I remember my first meeting with Coach Vitt at the (scouting) combine the year I was drafted," Shanle said. "You meet someone like him, and you don't forget it. It's his intensity. You play for him, and it doesn't take you long to realize he's making you a better player."

Fujita remembers the day in Kansas City he got a call from the linebackers coach telling him he was going to start.

"It was the fourth game of my rookie season," Fujita said. "Coach Vitt gave me my first opportunity, and I'll always be grateful. I remember last year, when we were going into the playoffs, and I'm thinking, as much as I wanted to win a championship for myself, I wanted to win it more for Coach Vitt. Here's someone who's been in the league for almost 30 years, and he's never been part of a championship team. No one deserves it more."

Could 2007 be the year?

Come to think of it, it's the only way Vitt would be able to get rid of a bad taste left from a snowball thrown by a bunch of Bears.

"We may have lost the game, but you'll be hurting tomorrow." Doug Atkins