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KUDOS TO KUBES AND SMITH

Posted by richardson on January 6th, 2012

Texans Head coach and GM made all the right moves in 2012

HOUSTON – Life in the NFL often mirrors that of a daytime
soap opera. The drama is relentless. Passions run high. And new characters are
always coming and going. Luckily for Texans’ GM Rick Smith and Head Coach Gary
Kubiak, the producers of the struggling big show on Kirby (Texans’ owner Bob
McNair & Co.), were willing to keep things status quo for one more season,
despite the angst of the viewing audience who felt that they had seen enough.

Let’s face it, in almost every other circumstance, at least
Kubiak –and deservedly so–would have lost his job after the 6-10 debacle last
season. There was basically no justification of keeping a head coach around who
had amassed one of the worst five-year records in recent NFL history. But the
embattled coach had three things working in his favor:

One; Bob McNair is an
affectionate owner who stands by his people. Anyone remember David Carr? 
Second; the lockout enabled McNair to substantiate his rationale for sticking
with Kubiak for at least one more season because of the risky proposition of
having to replace an entire new coaching staff without much time to prepare for
the new season. Three; The ramifications of the lockout played heavily in the
decision to keep Kubiak. No one knew how long the lock out would go on, or even
if there would even be a season at all. The decision to make Wade Phillips the
highest paid Defensive Coordinator in the league also served as the perfect
buffer; particularly since almost everyone was of the belief that it was an
inept defense that exacerbated the ills of the Texans in 2010.

Rick Smith on the other hand, was never in as much hot water
as Kubiak. After all, he’s been on the job one less season (four), and there
are many who actually consider Smiths as more of the administrative component
of the Texans’ GM job description, while Kubiak is really the guy who makes the
final call on most key personnel decisions. Although the relationship between
both men has played out seemingly well in their four seasons together, it’s
still somewhat of a rather unorthodox football marriage. I still can’t think of
another situation in professional sports when the head coach essentially given
the autonomy to hire his boss.

Fans deserve to reap
the rewards

After a decade of futility, the Texans have finally broken
through to the big stage. But things have certainly not been a fairytale this
season. First, star wide out, Andre Johnson, went down in week three with a
serious hamstring injury and missed several games. A week later, linebacker
Mario Williams was lost for the season. Then, newly acquired safety, Danielle
Manning was hobbled for weeks. But no one could have ever imagined the bad fate
that was yet to come, as the team was then suddenly forced to overcome the
losses of both its starting and back up quarterbacks in a span of two weeks.

These types of catastrophic losses would normally befall
almost every other team in the league, but thanks to good depth, terrific coaching
and a lot of luck, the Texans were able to overcome their maladies; three key
ingredients that were missing from this organization during the previous nine
seasons.

But none of this could have happened without the unwavering
support of dire Texans fans. Bob McNair would have never been able to afford to
keep Kubiak as coach if the fans would have turned their backs on him and the
team after nine seasons of pint up frustration. But Texans fans kept the
turnstiles churning even through all of the bad times. This support allowed for
McNair to basically do whatever he felt compelled to do because the business
and financial stability of running his franchise has remained intact since day
one.

And though I do believe that the Texans will get past the
Bengals by a score of 21-17 and collect their first ever post season win on
Saturday, this has been a season of the ages for the Texans as an organization.
And Gary Kubiak and Rick Smith both have a lot to do with it.

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