Right on Geezy! I played pee-wee football for a taskmaster coach who went to training camp as a RB for the Washington Redskins several years in the late 70s. You could get tackled in the end zone while scoring a TD, and he'd have you running laps on Monday because you should've been "untouched" on that run if you had displayed the proper "hustle". Run for 60 minutes on gameday, or run ALL week....your choice. We got the message real quick about attention to details, and all of a sudden, a team that hadn't won a game in 4 seasons (often losing by 30+ points) was competitive in every game, finishing 2-4-1 on the year. Our worst loss was 28-0 to the annual league champs who hadn't lost a game in over 10 years. Other than that, we had 2 losses of 14-0, and the fourth loss was 8-0. We feared our coach, but we LOVED him, because playing competitive football was a LOT more fun than getting your arse kicked 48-0 or 72-0 every week. He wasn't abusive, verbally abusive, or emotionally abusive...he was just TOUGH and held people accountable. "YOU allowed that sack and got your QB creamed"....it was embarrassing to be called out in front of all your teammates...but then he would call ALL of the OL together on the sideline and coach technique in the game. "When the NT does THIS (and he would be the NT), use your hands to jam his pads like this and parry him AWAY from the play." Valuable instruction and demonstration to a bunch of 12-13 year olds. That NT went from a 1-man wrecking crew in the 1st half, to INVISIBLE in the 2nd half. But just as quick as he'd call you out in front of teammates for your mess up, he'd praise you in front of those guys for playing well...."Jimmy shut him DOWN in the 2nd half and put him on his arse every other play." He was COACHING and we were learning.
Sometime during the season, some of the parents attempted a coup and got the coach dismissed because he was "too hard on the kids". When we heard this (all us players), we all decided that "if coach wasn't coaching, we weren't playing" and we all handed in our uniforms on Monday. We still had over half the season to go and would have had to forfeit all remaining games. There were emergency meetings to decide what to do. Long story short...they asked him back, but he turned them down. He felt they were using him just to get through the season, and were going to fire him end of season anyhow. He was probably right, and even us 12-13 year olds knew he was right. But we BEGGED him to be our coach for the rest of season, told him we had learned more football from HIM in that season than the 4 prior seasons combined, that we had won more games than the prior 4 seasons combined, and that he made playing football FUN again. He agreed to finish out the season for US. But it wasn't the same. Looking back, he was likely on a short leash and wasn't being allowed to coach in the way he knew...a way that got RESULTS. He wasn't coaching with "fire" like he was before that incident; he was coaching for the "honor"....we defended him as OUR coach, and he was reciprocating. Another lesson learned.
I tell you all of that so I can tell you this. That's exactly what the Saints are missing since CSP left. No one fears the repercussions of wearing the wrong cleats on the turf, and no one is worried about whether the gum is Juicy Fruit. "Gameday Sean" may be obviously MIA, but the bigger loss is that dude during the week, IMO.