One thing you know about playoff competition is this: If you have a hot quarterback and your defense can take the ball away, you don’t need to have a dominant defense anymore.
It’s indisputable that you’ll make way more money with a larger playoff.
I played in Joe Louis in a playoff game. I played there when the roof caved in for half a season. The facility is great for basketball because it goes straight up, so you feel like the fans are on top of you.
I think playoff experience matters for sure.
We don’t tell the officials to change the standard for the playoffs, but as we all know, time and space tends to evaporate very quickly in a playoff game; there tends to be a lot more physicality and a lot more adjustments in the course of a series.
Hopefully my time in Nashville has helped me. We’ve had a lot of different things happen to our hockey club, seen a lot of different situations and different types of clubs from an expansion team to a Stanley Cup playoff threat. I think any coach that’s gone through those things, you become a better coach.
When I was signing my card, I was like, ‘Oh, wow, I actually went birdie-birdie to get in the playoff.’ I was just in my own world out there.
I think the uglier the playoff beard, the better though, right?
I think they need to expand the playoff system. I think the minimum should be 16 teams, but they could easily go with more than that… in other words, I want to see more football. Everybody from rec league softball on down can figure out how to put together a tournament and yet Division I can’t.
Every game, we’re going to go for it, so when we get into playoff time, it’s not like, ‘You’ve really got to ratchet it up. You’ve really got to do something different.’ Then what have I been doing the whole time?
I said as soon as we had a playoff, we were going to minimize the importance of all the other bowl games. I’m not saying it’s good or bad; it kind of is what it is.
I show up in a playoff game, I have my sideline sheet. I can’t even spit plays out, I get so excited. I mean, you get nervous. These are critical, do-or-die situations. Third down and 1, Red Zone, what do I call? Two minute drill? Are we going to go no huddle? These are decisions that you wrestle with.
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