GumboBC

The Rick Venturi File:

Rick Venturi’s record isn't impressive. . Rick Venturi's goal, however, is rather grand. He wants the New Orleans Saints run defense to improve upon the whopping 4.7-yard average they allowed last season. As a matter of fact, the Saints defense has ranked near the bottom of the league in rushing yards allowed since 2001.Which just happens to be the same year Rick Venturi took over defensive coordinator duties from Ron Zook.

The Saints have seemingly made over the defense every year in hopes of improvement. They’ve brought in big run-stuffing tackles, different linebackers, different strategies, but the one thing that has remained constant is Rick Venturi. Well, that and the fact that the Saints defense has allowed over 4-yards per carry under Venturi.

At some point you have to wonder if the problem might not be the players but with Venturi’s scheme itself. And you have to wonder how qualified Venturi is to serve as a defensive coordinator in the NFL.

Well … Let’s look at Venturi’s qualifications.

Adding up all of Rick Venturi’s games as a head coach, both on the college and pro level, Venturi is 2-47-1 in his 50 games. While the case can be made that Venturi just happened to coach some terrible teams, it’s still not much evidence to suggest Venturi is qualified to coach in the NFL.

But, let’s dig a little deeper….

Prior to joining the Saints, Venturi spent two years working under head coach Bill Belichick with the Cleveland Browns, first as secondary coach in 1994 and as defensive coordinator/linebackers coach in 1995. Result – Belichick is fired!! Granted, the Browns weren’t a very good team, but still there’s nothing to suggest Venturi can be a successful coach in the NFL.

But, there’s got to be some success that Venturi has had to get him where he is today. Obviously, I’m overlooking something. Some part of Venturi’s career had to elevate him to the position he holds today.

I’ll just come out and say it. There is no evidence in Venturi’s past that suggests he is qualified for anything other than a position coach. And even that’s debatable. Somehow this guy has managed to survive in a business where coaches are fired for little to no reason. This guy is like a cat. But even a cat only has 9-lives. I’d say Venturi is on at least his 8th life.

I’ve often thought that Venturi’s defenses were badly coached. I’ve always thought the schemes were flawed. Granted Venturi hasn’t had the best talent at every position, but I think there’s been enough talent to play much better than we have the past 3-years.

Maybe I’m being a little hard on Venturi. But Venturi’s defenses have been hard for me to watch. I hope the addition of John Pease will get some of the problems straightened out.

Does anyone else think the problem with our defense might be Rick Venturi??