Friday, Aug. 12, 2005 | 9:52 a.m.
The Gladiators completed a major overhaul of their coaching staff this week, firing defensive coordinator Stan Davis and also protecting against the potential loss of quarterback Clint Dolezel in free agency.
Head coach Ron James returns to his roots by taking over defensive duties while newly hired offensive coordinator Mike Hold, a longtime Arena Football League quarterback and coach, is charged with making the most of a talented offensive group. The chances of Dolezel, who doubled as the team's offensive coordinator last year, returning to Las Vegas for a third season look no better than 50-50.
Entering their fourth season in Las Vegas, the Gladiators are still seeking their first winning record after three consecutive 8-8 finishes. Only the first of those efforts earned a playoff berth and the team has not won a postseason game since moving here from New Jersey before the 2002 season.
After firing head coach Frank Haege and promoting James to the position last year, general manager Dan Dolby again shook up the coaching staff and hinted at personnel changes after a season that began with serious ArenaBowl expectations and ended with Las Vegas flaming out by losing three of its final four games.
"More than anything, it's just a (change to a) style of play we want to go with," Dolby said.
Letting go of Davis comes as somewhat of a surprise after a campaign in which his defense kept the Gladiators afloat amidst major injuries in the first half of the season.
Las Vegas led the league in total defense last year by giving up 248.3 yards per game. The team also finished tied for third in the league with 31 forced turnovers and ranked sixth with 48.8 points allowed per game, holding opponents under 40 points seven times. The Gladiators also placed second in total defense in 2004.
"I thought Stan did a good job and the numbers back that up," James said.
The Gladiators were also a poor tackling team, though, often allowing big plays by failing to stop short receptions from becoming longer ones. Dolby and James both cited desires to take more risks and apply more pressure as reasons for dismissing Davis.
"I just see us being a little bit more aggressive in the secondary and looking at more pass rush guys up front," James said. "Last year, a lot of offenses dictated the flow to us. I also felt that in some of our critical games, we had difficulty making stops."
Davis spent two seasons in Las Vegas, his first two as a defensive coordinator. He served as wide receivers and defensive backs coach for the Chicago Rush from 2001-2003, moving up from the high school and community college ranks to take that position after a collegiate playing career as a defensive back at Long Beach State.
Davis, currently working an internship under former college coach Marvin Lewis during Cincinnati Bengals training camp, said he understands that the Gladiators' mediocrity left no one safe from scrutiny this offseason.
"The numbers usually tell it all, but that's how this business is," Davis said. "Everybody has different philosophies and certain ways of doing things, and who's to say which way is right or which way is wrong."
Dolby gave Davis permission to interview for the Columbus head coaching spot earlier in the offseason, and Davis also pursued a couple of defensive coordinator jobs in the AFL when the Gladiators stalled in renewing his contract for 2006.
Davis said he leaves with no hard feelings despite numbers that would back up such a sentiment.
"I was able to establish myself as a coordinator and I'm thankful to them for that," Davis said. "People in arena football know I can be a defensive coordinator and can have some success, although it wouldn't show in the wins and loss columns."
On offense, the addition of Hold could be just the first of many changes, starting with Dolezel. The Gladiators built their offense around Dolezel in the past two years and gave him almost full control of it last season. In 12 games last year, Dolezel completed 302 of 465 passes (64.9 percent) for 3,555 yards with 78 touchdowns and 16 interceptions.
As his career winds down, Dolezel, 35, would like to play closer to his Texas home. Following the Gladiators' season-ending loss to Arizona, Dolezel said that he plans to fully test free agency to see if he can accomplish that goal.
"If a door opened for me somewhere around home and it was adequate as far as what I feel like I'm worth, then I would definitely take that step," Dolezel said.
James acknowledged that the hiring of Hold is an insurance policy against the possible departure of Dolezel.
"It certainly is," James said. "We don't want to have a falloff offensively. This league is offense driven and we don't want to see our production slide at all."
Hold spent time with eight different teams during an 11-year AFL playing career. His last season was 2000, when he backed up Dolezel with the Houston ThunderBears and played under both James and current Gladiators special teams coach Gary Gussman. James and Hold have maintained a
Hold comes to Las Vegas from Macon, Ga., where he was fired as head coach of the af2's Macon Knights during his second season. The team went 3-13 in 2004 and 2-4 in 2005 before Hold was let go.
Prior to Macon, Hold spent a year as head coach of the AFL's now defunct Carolina Cobras, where he went winless in 2003.
This will be Hold's first offensive coordinator position, and he said there are no secrets to scheming in arena football, where "a lot of people do the same things."
"You've got to keep it simple," Hold said, adding that he "loves to be a copycat" in poaching effective plays and schemes from other coaches.
Hold said he would have no problem working as a co-coordinator with Dolezel, should the quarterback choose to come back to Las Vegas. Hold is already deep into evaluating players for the Gladiators to target in free agency, focusing on af2 players.
Dolby said the team's priority in free agency is to acquire help for offensive specialist Marcus Nash, who takes a beating from opposing defenses because the Gladiators have not had a significant second option in the past two seasons.
"It's not fair to Marcus and to the rest of the team to rely on one player for 75 to 80 percent on your offense," Dolby said.
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