New coach Mike Mularkey backed by Jacksonville Jaguars to build a consistent winner on field–NFL News
Jacksonville Jaguars' new head coach, Mike Mularkey, was unveiled by the team owner, Shad Khan, at a news conference on Wednesday, January 11, 2012, who called him a ‘smart’ choice, hoping he will successfully live up to the challenge of rebuilding the franchise
to be a winner on the field in the long run.
Mularkey, former Atlanta Falcons' offensive assistant coach, has replaced Jaguars' former coach, Del Rio, who was sacked by their former owner, Wayne Weaver, earlier in November of 2011, the day he had confirmed the selling of his club to the Illinois-based
and Pakistan-born businessman, Shahid Khan.
Mr Khan told the media at the conference that the new coach has a vision to rebuild the team as a winner on the field for many upcoming seasons to come.
"Mike recognizes the challenge and opportunity before all of us, and that's to make the Jacksonville Jaguars one of the premier franchises in the National Football League, bar none", Khan said in a statement.
Mike Mularkey has work experience in the field that he hopes to use with the team.
He was the head coach of Buffalo Bills with a 14-18 (14 wins and 18 losses while being in charge as a coach) record before being fired in 2005.
The coach however, has apparently accepted the new coaching challenge at the Jaguars and backed Khan’s ambitions of turning his side to be a consistent winner on the field.
He said that he has seen the Jaguars playing against Atlanta Falcons and believed that they were the side very close to becoming a regular winner in the future.
"I think this team is very close, on the edge of being a consistent winner", Mularkey said.
"I got a chance to see that on the Thursday night we played. I know the outcome of the game, but it was really just to see these guys, to be able to play like they did when they just had a coaching change. It would have been easy to fold".
One of the challenges that the new coach faces is to get most and best out of their rookie quarterback (QB), Blaine Gabbert, since the first thing he did after his formal introduction was to have a hour-long meeting with him.
Mularkey added that he told the QB to decide the next step in his career himself.
"Gabbert has already spent a year on the field and should be able to decide how he moves ahead", Mularkey stated.
The new coach is expected to focus most of his efforts on the QB while rebuilding their offense, with next season on mind.
It is yet to be seen if he is able to live up to the challenge of turning around the Jaguars to fulfil aspirations of the new owner or not.
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