Jim Schwartz Has the Right Stuff for the Detroit Lions

Detroit Lions fans are very fortunate to have Jim Schwartz as head coach of the franchise. Under his leadership, the established pecking order among teams in the NFC North is about to change.

Green Bay, Chicago, and Minnesota fans will no longer be able to look at their schedules at the beginning of the season and automatically pencil in two wins when they play us.

Jim Schwartz has the right stuff to make the Lions a perennial powerhouse team in the NFC during the next decade. Here are 10 reasons why:

First, Schwartz Is a Very Smart Man

He earned his degree in economics from Georgetown, a private university near Washington, D.C run by Jesuits. The Fiske Guide to Colleges notes that “only Stanford and a handful of Ivy League schools are tougher to get into than Georgetown.”

Schwartz also earned Distinguished Economics Graduate honors at Georgetown and was an Academic All-American.

Perhaps even more impressive to Lions football fans is the fact that Patriots three-time Super Bowl winning head coach Bill Belichick called Schwartz one of the smartest coaches he has been around.

Today, serious football smarts and a rigorous formal training in statistics and economics are good qualifications for an NFL coach to have in a sport that has grown increasingly more complex and hyper-competitive.

Second, Jim Schwartz Really, Really Loves Football

He played football for Mount Saint Joseph High School outside of Baltimore and was a lettered linebacker for four years for the Georgetown Hoyas and a team captain. He broke into coaching as a graduate assistant and assistant coach for four different universities until he took a position as an unpaid intern scouting college and pro athletes with the Cleveland Browns under Bill Bilichick.

While at Cleveland, Schwartz worked with some other young up-and-comers whose names are now very familiar to football fans. They include Nick Saban (current head coach for the Alabama Crimson Tide), Scott Pioli (current GM for the Kansas City Chiefs). Tom Dimitroff (current GM of the Atlanta Falcons), and Eric Mangini (current head coach for the Cleveland Browns).

Mangini, by the way, echoed Bilichick’s comments about Jim Schwartz:

“Really, really smart. Very smart, always forward-thinking, always trying to figure out better ways to do things. And his work ethic was outstanding—he was going to set the tempo.”

Schwartz left Cleveland for a paid position as a defensive assistant for the Baltimore Ravens and after three seasons moved on to the Tennessee Titans, first as a defensive assistant, then as defensive coordinator for eight years before becoming head coach of the Detroit Lions.

Third, Jim Schwartz Is a Blue-Collar Guy

He was raised in modest home in Baltimore by his father, a Baltimore County cop, and his mother, who also raised Jim’s seven sisters and one brother. She died at age 52 in 1994 while Schwartz was still an intern for the Browns.

The death of his mother changed Schwartz’s outlook on life. He told Tom Kowalski at Mlive.com, “The thing I’d always done in my life was always look at what’s next. I didn’t care how much money I was making…I never spent a dime because I had been trained my whole life to save and skimp.”

Schwartz to Kowalski, that upon his father’s pending retirement: “They [Schwartz’s parents] bought an RV and were going to travel around had all these plans for doing things and she never got to see those things or do those things. That probably made me live my life a little more immediately.”

It was his close association with our blue-collar culture that prompted Schwartz, on a June day in 2009 after the close of minicamp, to take rookies Matt Stafford, Louis Delmas and Brandon Pettigrew on an unannounced visit to a Ford Dearborn Assembly Plant.

According to Kevin Ferguson on sidelionreport.com, they sat there for two hours, signed autographs, took photos and passed out Lions hats and coffee mugs to 500 surprised workers. “It was not a made-for-TV moment, Schwartz said. “I just wanted to make sure those guys knew where they were playing—and how important they are to this community.”

Ferguson writes, “Jim Schwartz gets it. He understands this town”

Indeed he does.

Mike Silver wrote on Yahoo! Sports that when Schwartz was in Detroit interviewing for the head coaching job, the Lions brass had Jim meet with the local media folks. When he was asked what he’d do with the first overall pick of the draft if he got the job, Schwartz brought the house down when replied, “It’s probably time to find a replacement for Bobby Layne.”

Schwartz later commented, “It was a really smart thing for Martin and Tom to do—put a guy in front of the media with no preparation. That was part of the interview process, and that makes sense because it’s a big part of the job. So I was selling myself, but hey, that’s what I do every day during the season. I sell myself to 53 millionaires.”

Fourth, Schwartz Is a Fan of Music, Especially Heavy Metal Music, and Has a Sense of Humor

Again, from Yahoo! Sports’ Mike Silver, writing about Schwartz arriving in Detroit and checking into the Ritz-Carlton in mid-January for the official announcement of his selection as the Lions new head coach:

“Someone suggested to Schwartz that he check in under an alias and the former Tennessee Titans defensive coordinator and major music junkie nodded his head in approval.

How about Ted Nugent? Schwartz said.

Uh, that might kind of attract attention, someone replied.

Kid Rock? Schwartz inquired.

Uh…

Finally, Schwartz settled on a slightly less obvious Detroit rocker—White Stripes guitarist extraordinaire Jack White, who happened to live in Schwartz’s neighborhood in suburban Nashville.”

“It was pretty amusing,” Schwartz recalled later. “Any time I picked up the phone or saw an employee, it was, “how can we help you, Mr. White?’”

Later that year in May, Schwartz appeared on Detroit’s WRIF Mike in the Morning show and revealed that he is a long-time fan of bands like Metallica, Iron Maiden and Judas Priest. His musical tastes also include Lynyrd Skynyrd, Quiet Riot, Hank Williams, Kid Rock and Megadeath. His iTunes library contains a diverse selection of more than 5,000 songs.

According to Jeff Arnold on ESPN’s Page 2, Schwartz keeps three guitars in his office, but Schwartz admits, “I’m an awful singer. I’m awful at whatever instrument you want to play, but I love music.”

As for humor, it would be hard to top Schwartz’s now-famous comment about Jahvid Best: “Some people watch adult videos on their computer. I go to YouTube and watch Jahvid Best highlight clips. That’s what gets me aroused.”

Fifth, Jim Schwartz Is Dead-Serious about Building a Winning Franchise in Detroit.

“I want to put a team on the field that Detroit can be proud of,” Schwartz has said. “There’s no more passionate fan base in the NFL than Detroit.”

“I’m very disappointed to be 2-14 and there are no apologies, there’s no excuse, we’re a 2-14 football team…[but] we need to make good decisions and sometimes those decisions aren’t made for what happens in the next month or in the next six months…”

“[We have] to improve every single day and [do] every single thing that we can do to improve this team. Once the season [begins] it’s about winning that Sunday. I think you need to balance both of those.”

Sixth, Schwartz has stones for coaching the Lions after their infamous OwenXVI season.

“There’s no better feeling in football than turning a situation around. Our success will be so much sweeter because of the 0-16 record and the past.”

Seventh, Jim Schwartz has a great turn-around plan.

The plan in a nutshell:

- Continue to improve and back-fill the talent level of the team, primarily by making good decisions in the draft and selecting the best player available instead of drafting to fill a particular need. Supplement draft picks through quality trade and free agency value players who will be around for a while.

- Create schemes that utilize a player’s talents and skills rather than trying to force players into schemes they don’t fit.

Schwartz: ”Immediate gratification [bringing in high price players with little left in the tank or guys who don’t fit the scheme or are bad apples] is not a recipe for success. Our goal is long term success…and building this team in the right way.”

- Run an offense that will create consistent mismatch opportunities against opposing defenses through the intelligent use of talented wide receivers, two tight end sets, and a mix of speedy in-space and vertical between-the-tackle running backs and flex-fullbacks.

- Run a defense with a consistently aggressive, powerful front four rotation supplemented by unpredictable blitz packages to pressure the opposing quarterback and prevent them from establishing a rhythm. Stop the run and cause sacks and turnovers, lots of them.

No more “pound the rock” mantra for Detroit under Schwartz. Instead the defense will be pounding quarterbacks, running backs and receivers.

Schwartz during an interview with Mike Reiss on Boston.com: “We don’t plan on being “The Greatest Show on Turf”; we're going to build [the Lions] like an outdoor team. We’re going to be a big, physical team that can run the ball and stop the run.”

“We need to be built to have to go up to Lambeau Field in late December and win a game. We have to be built to go into Soldier Field and win a game in December or January that could mean the division—when the weather gets bad and the wind gets blowing, you have to be able to run the ball and stop the run.”

“The one lesson I learned from Bill Bilichick and Jeff Fisher is that if you can run the ball and stop the run—if you’re strong up front on the offensive line and the defensive line—you’ll be consistent from week to week.”

Eighth, Schwartz Has the Skill Set To Carry His Plan Out.

Schwartz is a first-rate statistical data-miner. Some call him a statistical analysis fanatic, but that’s not an accurate portrayal of who Jim Schwartz really is. When Willie Sutton was asked why he robbed banks, he replied, “Because that’s where the money is.” Jim Schwartz studies statistics because that’s where the football gold is.

Schwartz is adaptable and flexible. After their mid 2000s transition period, his Titans defense was defined by multitalented players who were effective in different schemes. One week he would use eight man fronts to stop a running team, and the next he would deploy Cover 2 to stop a passing team.

Once he identifies a goal, Schwartz aggressively pursues it. Like camping out in Kyle Vanden Bosch’s driveway just before free agency opened and sending Gunther Cunningham to do the same with Nate Burleson.

Jim Schwartz is a good judge of character. He selected former NFL head coaches Scott Linehan and Gunther Cunningham to be his offensive and defensive coordinators respectively.

Despite taking a lot of heat for it by some Detroit fans, he chose Matt Stafford with his very first draft pick in 2009. He then selected Louis Delmas with his first second round pick, and DeAndre Levy with his first pick of the third round.

He fired special teams coach Stan Kwan and replaced him with former Carolina special teams coach Danny Crossman.

Schwartz has a solid background in scouting. Schwartz: “I think any coach should probably start in scouting…you learn the long-term picture and you learn how the team is built. Scouting has given me a longer-term approach.”

Ninth, Schwartz Is More Like Bill Walsh Than Bill Belichick or Jeff Fisher.

Jim Schwartz believes strongly in planning and preparation. So did Bill Walsh.

From Chris Brown on smartfootball.com:

Walsh: “I have been afforded the experience that allowed us to conceive an offense, a defense and a system of football that is basically a matter of rehearsing what we do prior to the game.”

Why would Walsh do this?

“To be honest, [in the heat of the game] you are in a state of stress, sometimes you are in a state of desperation…”

Yet head coaches have to make the right decisions at times like this.

Walsh: Good panic decisions are rarely made in warfare and certainly not football, so your decisions made during the week are the ones that make sense.

Anyone remember Marty Mornhinweg’s November second road game decision in 2002 as the Lions then head coach "took the wind” and kicked off to the Bears in overtime, only to watch Chicago march down the field on their first possession and kick a field goal to win the game?

“Your ability to think concisely, your ability to made good judgments is much easier on Thursday night than during the heat of the battle. So we prefer to make our decisions related to the game almost clinically before the game is ever played. We’ve scouted our opponent, we have looked at films, we know our opponent well.”

“In the final analysis, after a lot of time and thought and a lot of planning, and some practice, I will isolate myself prior to the game and put together the first 25 plays for the game.”

Walsh, you’ll remember, went 102-63-1 with the 49ers, won ten of his postseason games, six division titles, three NFC Championship titles and three Super Bowls. He was named the NFL’s Coach of the Year in 1981 and 1984 and elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1993.

Now Jim Schwartz: “If you ask me, would you rather have a great fly-by-the-seat-of-your pants guy on Sunday, a guy who can dial up plays and he’d be the best in the league [at that], or a guy who is best in the league from Monday to Saturday preparing, I respect a guy who prepares. You’re not always going to be rolling sevens and be hot every week. But if you prepare well during the week, you’ll be consistent from week-to-week.”

The obvious caveat, as Chris Brown points out, is that a good game plan must be contingency-based and much of it depends on what your opponent does. A well-crafted game plan can still handle these scenarios.

And 10th?

Jim Schwartz is young and energetic and still has a passion for learning and improving, but he’s old enough to have gained almost two decades of invaluable experience under some of the best head coaches in the league.

He was among the best active defensive coordinators in the game and is likely to become one of the best head coaches in Detroit Lions history.