Mike Martz

Mike Martz (born May 13, 1951 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota) is a former NFL head coach and offensive coordinator most recently the offensive coordinator for the National Football League's San Francisco 49ers.

Martz is known for creating complicated offensive schemes, particularly in the passing game. He is best known as the offensive coordinator behind the St. Louis Rams high-powered 1999 team that won the Super Bowl. As a head coach in the NFL Martz was 56-36 in 5 1/3 seasons as the St. Louis Rams head coach. He won two division titles, had four playoff berths including a NFC championship and a trip to Super Bowl XXXVI

Biography

Early career

Martz played tight end at San Diego Mesa College, the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Fresno State University and graduated summa cum laude from FSU in 1972. The following year his coaching career began at Bullard High School in Fresno, California. From 1974 to 1991, he was an assistant coach at seven colleges and universities, including two stints as offensive coordinator at Arizona State University.

NFL coaching career

St. Louis Rams

In 1999, Martz was hired as the offensive coordinator of the St. Louis Rams, who went on to win Super Bowl XXXIV that season.

Martz was then named head coach of the Rams on February 2, 2000 after Dick Vermeil retired (he later changed his mind and coached across the state at Kansas City). He led the Rams to a 10–6 regular season record, but they lost in the 1st round to the New Orleans Saints 31–28.

Head coach

2001 saw the Rams cruise to a 14–2 record (with Martz's signature Greatest Show on Turf offense, behind two-time league MVP Kurt Warner) and the NFC West title. Martz's Rams went on to win the NFC Championship game against the Eagles before losing in the Super Bowl to New England.

In 2002 the Rams had a see-saw season in which Kurt Warner played injured and committed more turnovers than usual; Marshall Faulk was also not the factor he had been in previous years, although many faulted Martz for his tendency to emphasize the pass too much and not run Faulk more.

In 2003, Marc Bulger's first full year as a starter, the Rams fielded a much-improved defense under defensive coordinator Lovie Smith and led the NFL in forced turnovers, and they posted a 12–4 regular season record and made the playoffs. However, the Rams lost at home in the NFC divisional playoffs to the Carolina Panthers in a game that would have put them in the NFC title game. In that game, the Rams had the ball on the Panthers' 15 yard line with 42 seconds remaining and trailing by 3 points. Rather than go for the win in regulation, Martz made the controversial decision to run out the clock and settle for a game-tying field goal and overtime. The decision proved costly for the Rams as they lost in double overtime.

In 2004, the Rams got off to a slow start and Martz's popularity with the fans began to wane; the "online community" was particularly hostile. Despite the early struggles, a late-season rally combined with a weak NFC West allowed the Rams to sneak into the playoffs with an 8–8 record. They had to overcome an unusual number of injuries, but still managed to beat the Seattle Seahawks in the first round before losing to the Falcons in the divisional round. The loss of defensive coordinator Lovie Smith, who left for Chicago and took two of his assistants, clearly hurt the team.

On October 10, 2005, Martz took a leave of absence from the Rams to treat a persistent bacterial infection in his heart. Assistant head coach Joe Vitt handled coaching duties as the interim head coach for the rest of the season and offensive coordinator Steve Fairchild served as the play-caller. Martz told the Rams that after being examined and evaluated by his treating physician, Dr. Victoria Fraser, that his illness would prevent him from performing his duties. Martz immediately announced he would miss the rest of the season.

Martz allegedly had several conflicts with the St. Louis front office over the years which reportedly came to a climax in 2005. While recovering from his illness at home and watching a live Rams game on television, Martz was blocked by team president John Shaw from relaying a play call to Fairchild by phone. Martz continued to show up periodically at team practices late in the season, and was given medical clearance to coach the Rams' last regular season game on New Year's Day. However, the Rams declined to have Martz coach that game, and fired him on January 2, 2006.

During the seven years in which Martz was involved with the Rams, the team went to two of the franchise's three Super Bowls. His record of 55–5 with a lead any time in the 4th Qtr [91.7 winning %] and 26.5 pts a game as a head coach were the best of all time at the end of 2005 season by any coach in the history of the NFL.

Recently, Martz has been honored by the Rho Alpha Mu Sigma Fraternity with his likeness on Mt. Rammore. Featured with Martz are other Rams and "Greatest Show on Turf" alums, Kurt Warner, Marshall Faulk and Isaac Bruce. Honorable mentions were given to Orlando Pace, Torry Holt, Ricky Proehl and Az-Zahir Hakim.

The Rams have had 4 head coaches and are 18–51 under Joe Vitt, Scott Linehan, Jim Haslett and Steve Spagenuolo since Martz left.

Detroit Lions

Martz interviewed for head coaching vacancies in Oakland and New Orleans. After the interview, he withdrew his candidacy for the position in Oakland. After initially rejecting an offer due to financial considerations, on February 8, 2006, Martz accepted an offer from the Detroit Lions to be their offensive coordinator and their QB coach.

In 2006, his first season, the passing game improved considerably, ranking 7th overall behind unheralded QB Jon Kitna, who had his first 4,000-yard season at age 34. Detroit lost its first five games with Martz and finished 3–13 in his first season as coordinator. Though the offense obviously had its woes, Martz wasn't blamed for very much of the team's issues, as the defense was also bad and there were various injury and personnel issues.

In 2007, with expectations still high following the previous year's disaster, it appeared Martz's system was actually beginning to work, and the Lions looked to be playoff contenders, almost in competition with Green Bay for the division title at mid-season when they sat comfortably at 6–2. Though Kitna was still sacked far too much during this span due to the worst Offensive line in the NFL, it was still a great improvement from the year before, and sacks aside, Detroit possessed one of the league's most potent passing games during this period. However, the team won only one more game that season and finished 7–9. When even players began to complain of Martz's pass-happy and unbalanced offense, the Lions fired him in the offseason.^[1] However, the following season the Lions plummeted in the offensive rankings, and some players (most notably quarterback Jon Kitna) were openly frustrated with the conservative play calling that replaced Martz' system as the Lions became the first ever 0 - 16 team after firing Martz. ^[2]

San Francisco 49ers

On January 8, 2008, Martz signed a two-year deal to become the offensive coordinator of the San Francisco 49ers, who hoped that a fourth offensive coordinator in four years could re-energize the offense (and, most notably, QB Alex Smith's career). ^[3]

Smith would injure his shoulder in the preseason, however, and miss the entire 2008 season. Martz lobbied for journeyman J.T. O'Sullivan to come in as his replacement, but O'Sullivan and the 49ers offense struggled in the first half of the season. After 49ers coach Mike Nolan was fired and Mike Singletary was brought in as interim head coach, the team gave Shaun Hill a chance to establish himself as the starting QB. This has proven to be a good decision; with Hill under center the 49ers are playing .500 football and Hill has a passer rating of 87.0.

While news emerged on December 26, 2008 that Singletary would be retained as the 49ers head coach in 2009, Martz would not be coming back to the team as its offensive coordinator for a second season, according to The Sacramento Bee. ^[4] San Francisco ranked 23rd out of 32 teams in points scored, 24th in total yards, 13th in passing yards per game and 22nd in net passing yards per attempt, which represents an improvement over 2007 (when SF ranked dead last in all 3 categories), but they ranked 26th in rushing yards & last in total turnovers. However, in 2007 the 49ers only turned the ball over one fewer time than in 2008 under Martz. Singletary reportedly wanted more of a ball-control, run-oriented offense than Martz is known for crafting.

References

External links