The draw for the inaugural UEFA Nations League was conducted in Lausanne, Switzerland on Wednesday, and set up some tantalising ties that will begin on Sept. 6.
TEMPE, Ariz. — There’s risk with any head-coaching hire, especially when it’s the first time a coach sits in the lead chair. There’s greater pressure, more responsibility, higher expectations. No longer can he toil in relative anonymity. As the head coach, he’s the face of the franchise to a large extent.
Those factors haven’t deterred the Arizona Cardinals from taking chances on first-time head coaches. They’ve found success recently with the likes of Ken Whisenhunt, who led the Cardinals to their first Super Bowl, and then Bruce Arians, who set the franchise record with 50 wins — surpassing Whisenhunt’s previous team high. The Cardinals continued their trend this week, hiring first-time head coach Steve Wilks on Monday.
But Wilks’ hire comes with an extra degree or two of risk. And that can all be placed on team president Michael Bidwill.
Arians retired on Jan. 1, and the Cardinals entered the coaching search with two knowns: They didn’t have a quarterback, and they had a top-10 defense the past three seasons. After casting a wide net, as general manager Steve Keim pointed out during Wilks’ introductory news conference on Tuesday, and traveling “thousands and thousands of miles” and having “hundreds of hours” of conversations, as Bidwill said, the Cardinals picked Wilks. They liked his presence and his resume. They liked his accountability and his command.
But the risk in hiring Wilks, who was the defensive coordinator for the Carolina Panthers, lies in the short-term future of the franchise.
Wilks is well aware of the Cardinals’ most dire need at the moment; he even called it the “elephant in the room.” The Cardinals don’t have a quarterback under contract for the 2018 season. There’s a chance they’ll draft one. There’s a chance they’ll sign one in free agency. Either way, the Cardinals’ offense will be rebuilding behind center while the defense is poised to keep chugging along like it has the past few seasons.
So herein lies the exact risk: Bidwill decided to hire a defensive mind who — although he said Tuesday he doesn’t run a scheme, rather a system that allows him to adapt to his personnel — likely will tweak and tinker with the defense to his preference. There’s no harm in that. Every coach has his own ways of doing things. And Wilks even said Tuesday that he’s “not trying to change too much.”
“If it’s not broke, don’t try and fix it,” Wilks followed.
Steve Wilks calls the Cardinals’ situation at quarterback the “elephant in the room.” Mark J. Rebilas/USA TODAY Sports
But for a team in desperate need of stability at quarterback, hiring a coach who’ll implement his system will lead to a learning curve and could stunt the progress of a defense that’s been one of the best over the past few seasons.
Bidwill sees the risk as, well, something different.
“The risk is we have potential to get better,” he said. “It’s a positive risk, which is we have potential to get better. When we look at our defense, it’s about the players on the field that are making the plays. So when I think about bringing in great leadership, I’m really excited about what he can bring.”
The Cardinals are entering a pivotal era in their long and storied existence. The tide had turned from them being a perennial sub-.500 team to being a franchise that’s expected to make the playoffs. Both Whisenhunt and Arians experienced success early in their tenures, which was followed by losing or .500 seasons.
Should Wilks follow the same path, he’ll win for two or three — maybe four — years and then the team will fall off. But based on the Cardinals’ current condition, winning may be easier said than done in the next season or two because of the coming turnover at quarterback. Instead of hiring a head coach whose main responsibility would be to help find a quarterback and then develop him, the Cardinals opted to hire a coach who’ll delegate that responsibility to his offensive coordinator.
That’s risk.
The Cardinals’ defense will carry this franchise for the next two or three years behind the likes of Chandler Jones, Patrick Peterson, Tyrann Mathieu and Markus Golden while the offense finds itself. Arizona needs to rebuild its receiving corps and restock its offensive line, all while finding its quarterback.
On Tuesday, Keim was asked what will be harder: finding a coach or a quarterback. He laughed.
“Quarterback,” he said.
And the Cardinals just took a franchise-defining risk in hiring a defensive coach when their most pressing need is on offense.
UEFA’s plans to spruce up international football comes to fruition Wednesday, when the draw for the newly created Nations League takes place in Lausanne, Switzerland.
An idea conceived in 2011 following complaints over the number of perceived meaningless friendlies, the Nations League is expected to up the ante with more competitive fixtures between similarly ranked teams.
Each of UEFA’s 55 member nations will be divided into four leagues based on their coefficient rankings, with two-legged series set to begin in September. The winners of each group will be promoted and the last-place finishers relegated. For the group winners in League A, a final showdown – complete with one-off semi-finals, a third-place match, and a winner-take-all showpiece – awaits in June 2019.
The objective is to fill years without major competitions like the European Championships and the World Cup with more fare for the football-loving public.
Teams ranked 1-12 will be placed in League A, 13-24 in League B, 25-39 in League C, and 40-55 in League D.
In Leagues A and B, four groups of three will be formed by picking countries at random from separate pots. League C will feature one group of three and three groups of four. Finally, League D will be divided into four groups of three.
Here’s how that looks at the moment:
League A
Pot 1: Germany, Portugal, Belgium, Spain
Pot 2: France, England, Switzerland, Italy
Pot 3: Poland, Iceland, Croatia, Netherlands
League B
Pot 1: Austria, Wales, Russia, Slovakia
Pot 2: Sweden, Ukraine, Republic of Ireland, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Pot 3: Northern Ireland, Denmark, Czech Republic, Turkey
League C
Pot 1: Hungary, Romania, Scotland, Slovenia
Pot 2: Greece, Serbia, Albania, Norway
Pot 3: Montenegro, Israel, Bulgaria, Finland
Pot 4: Cyprus, Estonia, Lithuania
League D
Pot 1: Azerbaijan, FYR Macedonia, Belarus, Georgia
Pot 2: Armenia, Latvia, Faroe Islands, Luxembourg
Pot 3: Kazakhstan, Moldova, Liechtenstein, Malta
Pot 4: Andorra, Kosovo, San Marino, Gibraltar
For political reasons, neither Ukraine and Russia, nor Armenia and Azerbaijan, can be drawn together.
In essence, UEFA has adopted the promotion-relegation model followed by most domestic leagues to drum up interest in matches that FIFA will continue to regard as friendlies. But for certain minnows of European football, the new format will provide them with a back-door opportunity to reach the 2020 European Championship.
The usual qualifying cycle for the 2020 Euro will run from March 2019 to November 2019, with the top two sides from each of the 10 main qualifying groups booking automatic berths. However, unlike previous years, third-place finishers won’t enter a play-off to determine the final four teams. Instead, the Nations League’s 16 group winners – four from each tier – will fight amongst each other for that right.
Each tier will host its own semi-finals and final in March 2020 to award the last four tickets. Teams that have already qualified for the Euros will be replaced by those with the next-best coefficient ranking.
If a league cannot provide four teams, those slots will be allocated to non-group winners from another league. Teams will be parachuted in based on a complicated formula that factors in their points total, goal difference, goals scored, away goals scored, wins, away wins, red and yellow cards, and their coefficient ranking.
For example, because each nation from League A is strong enough to qualify for Euro 2020 on its own, teams could be promoted from League B to fill League A’s quota.
Europe’s lesser lights will also feel empowered. League D’s Pot 1 entrant Georgia has a chance to reach the quadrennial tournament for the first time in its history as one of the stronger sides in that tier. And bottom-feeders Andorra and San Marino would do well to avoid loftier opposition – and the thumpings that come with it.
MOBILE, Ala. — Former Wyoming QB Josh Allen knows that Senior Bowl week is a big one for his NFL draft stock, and he didn’t shy away from any topics in a wide-ranging media session Monday night.
Unlike UCLA QB Josh Rosen, who has previously stated that he would like to avoid being drafted by the Cleveland Browns, Allen made no such claims about his draft position.
“It’s not about going as high as possible,” he said. “It’s about the right fit.”
Allen made it clear that he wants to prove he belongs and put to rest any concerns about his 56.1 career completion percentage at Wyoming, noting that he has been working this offseason on his footwork and “I’m way more accurate than that [number] shows.”
Admitting that he wasn’t playing “the greatest competition week in and week out” at Wyoming, Allen recognizes that this week is important to show he belongs. As to what NFL teams should know about him: “I want them to understand I have a high football IQ and that I love the game.”
Denver Broncos general manager John Elway scouted Allen at the 2017 Potato Bowl, in which Allen threw for three TDs in a 37-14 win. Allen didn’t meet Elway at that game, but he confirmed Monday that he had spoken with the Broncos and said that Elway’s being there “spoke volumes” about what Denver is trying to accomplish this offseason.
Baker Mayfield, the 2017 Heisman Trophy winner, will also be competing at the Senior Bowl, which gives the event a rare opportunity to showcase potential first-round QBs. Mayfield is clearly the more accomplished college QB, but Allen is looking forward to the challenge, saying, “It’s going to be fun competing with Baker.”
Allen went No. 1 overall in Mel Kiper’s first 2018 NFL mock draft and is Todd McShay’s third-ranked QB behind Sam Darnold and Rosen. The Senior Bowl game will take place at 1:30 p.m. ET Jan. 27.
