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ORCHARD PARK, NY – The Bills today announced the hiring of Dick Jauron as the 14th head coach in the history of the Bills franchise. At a 2:30pm press conference, owner Ralph Wilson, GM Marv Levy, and Jauron all addressed the media, excited about the possibilities ahead. Jauron was a member of the Bills coaching staff as a defensive backs coach in 1985, his first year coaching in the NFL. He returns 21 years later with his most recent head coaching experience as the interim head coach in Detroit. Jauron took over in December for former Lions coach Steve Mariucci.
In 2001, Jauron was the AP Coach of the Year with the Chicago Bears, with a 13-3 record that year. The Bears had not been to the playoffs for 7 years before that, nor even had a winning season for 6 years before that.
Ralph Wilson joked about Jauron’s college background. He is a Yale grad and Hall of Famer Marv Levy, now Jauron’s new boss, is a Harvard grad. Traditionally, those alum do not fraternize. There may be an exception in this case.
The press asked several questions about what Jauron intended to do with JP Losman and the unstable QB position with the Bills. Jauron’s response was, “Every position we have will be open to competition.” He also said the first thing they will do is to assemble the coaching staff. After that, they will build a scheme around the players who are currently here, and those whom they will bring in.
When Levy was asked how they selected Jauron over Mike Sherman, who has an outstanding 53-27 record as a head coach in the NFL. Levy replied, “Record alone does not tell it. There are many more factors involved.” Levy repeated that of all six candidates that were interviewed, Jauron was the best for the head coaching position. Levy mentioned that when he came to Buffalo, he had a losing record as a head coach. The Buffalo News quoted Bill Polian as saying that Jauron was a coach very much in the mold of a Marv Levy. The Bills are hoping that is the case. You can never have enough Hall of Fame coaches.
Levy mentioned that both he and Wilson arrived at a consensus on this selection. They, “discussed all of the options, and everything seemed to point to Jauron,” said Levy.
Time will tell whether this is the man who will help turn around a franchise who has been absent from the playoffs for so long. But as of today, for better or worse, the Bills head coach is Dick Jauron.