Mike Nolan was a hard-hitting safety coming out of the University of Oregon and was invited to the Denver Broncos’ training camp. While he didn’t make the team, he made a lasting impression.
A few years later, Nolan received a call from Dan Reeves, who had cut him, to see if he would join his coaching staff.
“I hired Mike to come in, and he coached special teams and also he coached the defensive secondary,” Reeves said Tuesday. “Then when I went to New York, I hired him as our defensive coordinator. He was with me a long time.”
Nolan, who in 1993 became the NFL’s youngest defensive coordinator at age 34 (when Reeves hired him), was hired by the Falcons for the same job Tuesday, replacing Brian VanGorder, who left to accept a position in the college ranks at Auburn.
“He’s a heck of a football coach and a great person,” Reeves said. “That’s a good hire for them.”
Nolan and Falcons coach Mike Smith were on the same coaching staff in Baltimore. With Falcons owner Arthur Blank basically demanding a Super Bowl win, Smith picked another close associate to help him elevate the Falcons to a title contender.
On Sunday, Smith hired Dirk Koetter, with whom he coached with in Jacksonville, to be the team’s new offensive coordinator. He will replace Mike Mularkey, who was hired as Jacksonville’s head coach Jan. 10.
Nolan’s father, Dick Nolan, was a former NFL player and was coach of the San Francisco 49ers and the New Orleans Saints.
“Coaching’s in his DNA, with his dad, he’s got a sound way of coaching defense,” said Dan Dierdorf, a Pro Football Hall of Famer and CBS color analyst. “Everybody in coaching knows the X’s and O’s, there’s nothing new there. What Mike does is that the players play hard for him. Making your players believe in the system is so much of the battle.”
Having coached two of the greatest players of the modern era in linebackers Lawrence Taylor and Ray Lewis, Nolan will not have any respect problems in the locker room.
Nolan spent the past two seasons as the Miami Dolphins’ defensive coordinator. Last season, the Dolphins had the third-ranked run defense in the NFL, allowing just 95.6 yards per game and 3.7 yards per carry. His defense also produced 41 sacks which ranked tied for 10th in the NFL. The Falcons had 33 sacks, which ranked 19th.
While Nolan is known as a 3-4 coach, the Falcons will remain primarily a 4-3 team. Smith noted that the Falcons have drafted for the 4-3. Nolan has plenty of 4-3 experience, too.
“We played 4-3 in New York and he did a great job,” Reeves said. “Those things are interchangeable. You coach to the personnel that you have. ... We ran some 3-4 in New York, too, because we had Lawrence Taylor. He’s coached both.”
Reeves understands why Smith, who wanted to have his coordinators in place before Senior Bowl practices start Monday, wanted someone he was familiar with in that key spot.
“The more you know about your staff, you know how they’ll fit in with other people,” Reeves said. “They were together in Baltimore and have a lot of respect for each other. I think it’s a good situation.”
Nolan, who will speak with the local media at 11 a.m. Wednesday, has a lot of work to do with the Falcons’ defense.
Despite revamping the secondary and trying to bolster the pass rush by signing defensive end Ray Edwards in free agency, the Falcons struggled to improve their pass defense. Since 2008, they’ve ranked 21st (2008, 220.4), 28th (2009, 241.9), 22nd (2010, 226.6) and 20th (2011, 236.6).
Nolan, unlike VanGorder, is a seasoned pro coordinator. He has been a coordinator in the NFL for 14 seasons. He also was San Francisco’s head coach from 2005-08.
The Falcons were interested in talking to former St. Louis coach Steve Spagnuolo, but his deliberate interviewing process didn’t fit the team’s timetable.
In addition to hiring Nolan, the Falcons released offensive line coach Paul Boudreau on Tuesday. While the Falcons have their coordinators in place, they must now find a new offensive line coach and a new quarterbacks coach because Bob Bratkowski left to join Mularkey in Jacksonville as their offensive coordinator.
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