What kind of a record would make Richardson pull the trigger?

[rayzor]

Nothing new here......move along.

must not have been important.

nothing new here...move along.

[God]

I hope hes gone regardless of what happens. He is a horrible vanilla non fiery coach.

[Udogg]

nothing he can do this year other than like 1-15 or something... Next year..anything less than deep playoffs and hes gone.

[panther4life]

The talent on this team outweighs bad coaching when we win...not vice versa

[grateflday]

No playoff appearance = no more John Fox for me.

Squeeking into the playoffs with the same defense getting shredded, and more embarrassing losses = no more John Fox for me.

[unicar15]

Stale? Oh come on now... Let's look at the history:

2008: Fox gets the running game and O-line into fantastic shape. 30 rushing TDs for the regular season for DWill and Stewart. Throw in a couple more for Jake and Hoover. 30 Frikkin TDs! That's unheard of. Heck, how many teams in history haven't scored 30 total TDs over the course of a season? Offensive line gives up fewest number of sacks in team history. A few come from behind victories keep things very interesting. Panthers capture first round bye in the playoffs for the first time ever. Lose said game embarassingly, gives fans something to grouse about during the offseason.

2007: Ought to give him a Mulligan on this one. However, it was entertaining to see Carr running for his life and screaming like a little girl. Dusts off Vinnie Testaverdi which innovates the use of a walker in the shotgun formation. Veteran receivers and evolving run game makes Matt Moore look like a wunderkind by end of season. No playoff berth, but still a few exciting moments. 7-9, but it coulda been a lot worse, a lot worse.

2006: The Keyshawn Johnson year. 8-8 and a genuine heartbreaker of a year. No real innovations, but Weinke was rolled out for some decent performances.

2005: Fantastic year, as long as you weren't a Carolina running back. Devastating injuries to the running back corps pushes Carolina to a much more pass happy offense. And it works. 11-5 record gets them into the WildCard Playoffs and they overachieve all the way to the NFC Championship when a tired, battered, broken team just can't answer the bell. They could call it a TKO. Definitely not a boring season.

2004: Another season where the team was devastated by injuries. Coming off of the Super Bowl, the team just looked tired and worn out. Still managed 7-9, pretty impressive considering Smitty broke his leg in the season opener and the team had been raided of many veterans in free agency (which often happens after the Super Bowl to the losing team). However, the team was in WildCard contention until the last game of the season where they lost a nailbiter to NO by three points. One kick could have really changed history.

2003: Made it to the Super Bowl. Nothing to see here, move along.

2002: Takes over team with longest consecutive losing streak (at that time) in NFL history. Drags out Rodney Peete and dusts him off as a care taker QB. Starts building a solid, competitive team. 7-9 record much, much better than anyone expected.

Nah, no innovation. Stale right out of the box. Meteor success, burned bright once and then faded. Panthers games are ho-hum, filled with ennui for the inevitable disappointment.

Sheesh.

Every time there is an excuse because of injuries and I'm sick of it. Good teams get past injuries and good teams don't suffer stupid injuries. Kemo getting injured this year was the coaching staff's fault. There is no reason for a 350lb DT to be running sprints.

The fact that the 7-9 season was a waste was because we had ZERO opportunity to get a good backup in the game. The Pats won ELEVEN freakin games last year with a backup QB.

He stuck with Deshaun Foster for WWAY too long. He would have been cut from most teams after the 2004 season. He was a terrible running back.

He couldn't keep arguably the best DT in the league happy b/c of his scheme. He is now on the verge of losing a DE that under any other coach is probably motivated to get upwards of 16 sacks a year. Instead he pisses around at 10 or 11.

We didn't find a legitimate MLB for YEARS and played Chris Draft (a backup) like he was a starter because nobody would give up on Dan Morgan until he finally gave up on himself.

Since 2002 we have had one safety that could even attempt to cover (Minter) and people try to make the case that a safety isn't important in Fox's system because he never goes after a good one. That makes a HELL of a lot of sense when the best defenses in the league coincidentally have the best safeties in the league.

The guy is the most stubborn coach I have ever watched. We are going to lose our most talented defensive player because he doesn't want to play for us anymore. I CRINGE to think about what our defense will look like after Julius Peppers is gone. When the ENTIRE scheme of Fox's D is predicated on one guy taking up 3 blockers at a time and the DBs running around like chickens with their heads cut off.

[pepaw]

LOL dont Shock him electro!

Your sig is awesome.

[Dpantherman]

All that matters is the money, which someone already said, but its worth repeating. If we continue to lose, and people quit coming, JR will have no choice but to make a major move, which would probably be firing the HC. We might see some "Fire Fox" signs at the game if we go into BOA stadium winless. but there are a lot of "IFs". i really do think we can bounce back, if not, Fox will be gone.

[matrix]

All that matters is the money, which someone already said, but its worth repeating. If we continue to lose, and people quit coming, JR will have no choice but to make a major move, which would probably be firing the HC. We might see some "Fire Fox" signs at the game if we go into BOA stadium winless. but there are a lot of "IFs". i really do think we can bounce back, if not, Fox will be gone.

Agreed. JR might be reluctant to can Fox personally. But seeing so many empty seats in BOA at the end of the season( I bet there will be ) , he will have to pull the trigger to save the team.

[2plankingpanther]

I can see both sides of the arguement,Fox has brought success for 3 out of 7 years,finally a good running game,semi decent offensive c...,packed houses and revenue,but he also is showing the past couple of sseasons a staleness and predictable coaching style.He also has been making terrible decisions on holding on to players that aren't working out.If the trend continues,the empty seats and great free agent coaches available might convince JR to fire Fox!How many seasons in the past have there been a surplus of great coaches ripe for the pickin(Cowher,Gruden,Shanahan,Shotenhimer(sp))?

[Cat'sGrowl]

We should just have change for the sake of change.

Afterall, everyone's doing it.

[BlueHose]

What??? Fire him after the seesaw went into the down position. After a losing season this year we are due for a winner next year. The time to fire him would be after next season.

[Cat'sGrowl]

I can see both sides of the arguement,Fox has brought success for 3 out of 7 years,finally a good running game,semi decent offensive c...,packed houses and revenue,but he also is showing the past couple of sseasons a staleness and predictable coaching style.He also has been making terrible decisions on holding on to players that aren't working out.If the trend continues,the empty seats and great free agent coaches available might convince JR to fire Fox!How many seasons in the past have there been a surplus of great coaches ripe for the pickin(Cowher,Gruden,Shanahan,Shotenhimer(sp))?

3 of 7??

We went 7-9 his first year here-coming from 1-15.

Every year he's been here-we've been a winning team.

We have had losing records, courtesy of devestating injuries and such, but every year Fox has been here, the Panthers have been in the hunt for the playoffs come December.

Fox is a VERY underrated Coach who will land a job somewhere days after we cut him.

[BlueHose]

If memory serves correctly...the Panthers were 12-4 last year. I guess Fox forgot how to coach during the off season. A blended version of Bill Belichick, Vince Lombardi and Bill Walsh probably couldn't coach this team, with this defensive line, into the playoffs. Be careful what you wish for people...another George Seifert is only a hire away.