NFL's 2007 Rookie Coaching Class

After last year's smashing success of previewing the rookie coaching class, I thought it would be fun to do it again for this upcoming season...

1) Arizona Cardinals - Ken Whisenhunt
Proposed nickname: Whizzenator
The Whizzenator was the offensiver coordinator for the Steelers. While we always think of the Steelers as a running, smash-mouth team, but the Whizz always had a good balance of creative passing plays and devised ways to allow his receivers to get big-play opportunities. He also has a Civil Engineering degree, meaning he's smarter than the average NFL coach so maybe he will be the man to finally lead the Cards to respectability.

2) Atlanta Falcons - Bobby Petrino
Proposed nickname: 'Trino
'Trino came over from Louisville after turning down a number of different NCAA and NFL opportunities the past few years. Unfortunately for him, it appears that he will not have Vick running the show but instead will get Joey Harrington. I was pleasantly surprised when reading his bio that he was quarterbacks coach of Jacksonville when the Jaguars were contenders and offensive coordinator during the tail end of the Brunell-Fred Taylor-Jimmy Smith era (in 2001, the team went 6-10). On the plus side, maybe Petrino can form a strong enough relationship with Joey to meet cousin Padraig (winner of the British Open) and distant cousin Dan Harrington (a professional poker player and winner of the 1995 World Series of Poker). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joey_Harrington The Harringtons are out to take over the world I tell you!

3) Miami Dolphins - Cam Cameron
Proposed nickname: Coach Cam
Coach Cam was the offensive coordinator on the San Diego Chargers. That's impressive until you realize that Tomlinson makes any offensive system viable. I'm intrigued most though by Coach Cam's name. It immediately reminded me of some children's literary character, named Cam, who had a photographic memory. After googling some different phrases, the best summary of this series of books is found in Wikipedia:
"Jennifer "Cam" Jansen - The female protagonist of David A. Adler's Cam Jansen children mystery novels. Cam uses her photographic memory to her advantage when solving crimes. Cam, short for Camera, was appropriately nicknamed due to her idiosyncracy of saying "click" every time she takes a "picture" of a scene in her head (using her photographic memory)." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photographic_memory
If I ever got a press pass courtesy of BSD for a Dolphins game, I would love to ask Cam Cameron if he has a photographic memory.

4) Oakland Raiders - Lane Kiffin
Proposed nickname - Kane Kiffin (sounds more menacing)
Kane was the offensive coordinator at USC and is very young and does not have much experience. Hell, he's never even been a head coach at any level! But the Raiders defense is "good" supposedly so it doesn't matter right? Wrong. I'm not expecting much from the Raiders or from Kane. Though, I do hope that Culpepper is given a chance to start because I'm rooting for him to prove everyone wrong and demonstrate that he still has something left in the tank.

5) Pittsburgh Steelers - Mike Tomlin
Proposed nickname - Tommy Boy
Tommy Boy was the defensive coordinator of the Vikings for only last season, and prior to that he was defensive backs coach at Tampa for 5 seasons. Like Kane, he has no head coaching experience at any level. The Steelers have always had success at picking young coaches though and letting them maintain continuity and stay in their positions for a long time.

NOTE: Dallas and San Diego brought back coaches who have already failed in the past (Wade Phillips and Norv Turner). They are technically not freshman coaches who are new to the NFL so I have omitted them from this article.