The Arizona Cardinals’ greatest five-year run came fairly recently when Bruce Arians was their head coach. Arians was known for being both very hard on his players and also very loving to them.
He believed in what legendary Alabama head coach Bear Bryant would do — “coach them hard, hug them later.”
New Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon sounds a bit like Arians in his philosophy of coaching players.
When he was introduced to the media after he was hired, he was asked about accountability. He spoke of defining winning behavior and then holding players and coaches to that standard.
But this was the money quote that is quite similar to Arians.
“You’re going to see that our guys, we’re going to love them up,” he said. “As hard we’re going to be on our guys, we’re going to love them up even more. That’s, that’s how you win games. I think that ultimately, we’re going to show them the way that we want things done.”
He is going to coach his players hard and then love them even more after that.
It worked for Arians. It should work for Gannon, too.
Listen to the latest from Cards Wire’s Jess Root on his podcast, Rise Up, See Red. Subscribe on Apple podcasts or Spotify.
