It Was Only a Matter of Time; Coryell Out, Saunders In : But Timing of Resignation Is a Surprise

One of this city’s most poorly kept secrets for nearly a year has been Don Coryell’s non-future as coach of the San Diego Chargers.

A 1-7 record this season, including seven straight losses, hastened the departure of Coryell, who announced his resignation Wednesday.

With Coryell’s departure, Al Saunders got a new title and officially assumed responsibility for guiding the team. In reality, his accountability to owner Alex Spanos increased only marginally.

In elevating Saunders, 39, to his first head coaching job, Spanos tapped a man whom he had already entrusted with key decisions regarding hiring, budgeting and charting the team’s future. The only question concerned when the word assistant would be dropped from his title of assistant head coach.

Saunders moved quickly to imprint his personality on the team.

“My job is to get people to feel good about this organization again,” he said. “When you lose, people feel embarrassed to walk around with the Charger logo on their shirt, and the fans wear bags on their heads. . . . What I want to do is focus on a new direction. This is a new team. It starts today.”

It really started late last December, when Saunders was designated as the heir apparent for the job. Since then Coryell’s duties have been limited to on-the-field coaching, while Saunders has assumed the administrative role and has been the person answerable to Spanos.

After an 8-8 record last season, Coryell was rehired for the 1986 season, with an option year in 1987. But it was generally believed within the organization that this season, Coryell’s ninth with the Chargers, would be his last.

There was no sign of friction between the men, and Saunders reiterated Wednesday that he entered into the relationship only after seeking Coryell’s approval. But, just as there was no doubting Saunders’ loyalty, there was no way to disguise the awkwardness of the situation.

The team’s dismal first-half record was a bitter disappointment, particularly to Spanos, who had talked openly last summer of his desire for 10 or more victories and a playoff berth.

Among the questions raised by Wednesday’s announcement of Coryell’s resignation were these: Did he really quit, or was he nudged out? Was the division of powers between Coryell and Saunders an untenable situation from the start?

Spanos, who seemed edgy at a late afternoon news conference, answered emphatically when asked if Coryell had been pressured into resigning.

“Absolutely not,” he said. “I had made a commitment to stay with the staff I had. But if Don felt it best to resign for the good of the team, I had to go along with that. It was a shock to me. . . . But if Don feels this was the best thing for him and the team, God bless him. . . . I don’t like losing. My fans don’t like losing. I’ll do whatever it takes to win.”

In an interview last week, Coryell said he realized he had only so many games left to coach, “only X number of games left.”

A well-placed source in the organization recently said Coryell could not keep his job if the team’s losing streak increased to seven or eight games. It reached seven Sunday.

Several men close to Coryell said it would be highly uncharacteristic of him to quit at anything.

“He’s not a quitter,” said Saunders. “The word quit is not even in Don’s vocabulary. I can’t imagine him perceiving this in that way. In his mind, his resigning had to be (thought of as) not quitting, but something that needed to be done for this team.”

Tom Bass, Coryell’s longtime friend and associate who was fired as defensive coordinator in 1985, made a similar remark.

“Don isn’t the type to walk away in the middle of something unless he felt it would help,” Bass said. “He must have decided this would benefit the team. As a friend, I only wish he was leaving with a little more dignity instead of cleaning out his desk at midseason. But in another sense, I am happy that Don can now get away and relax. He certainly has it coming. People in this city should really be thanking the man for all he’s done for football in San Diego.”

Another longtime Coryell coaching associate, Ernie Zampese, the team’s offensive coordinator, said he believed Coryell made the decision to quit on his own.

“Don is a very private guy and you don’t feel you’re really close even though you’re a friend, but if he said he resigned, that’s the way it happened,” Zampese said.

The issue of whether the dual coaching relationship hurt the team was also tough to unravel.

“I didn’t think it could work,” Bass said. “You have to have one person leading the club. There had to be a negative effect. When you are a lame-duck anything, you lose a certain amount of power and people take liberties with you.

“Consciously or subconsciously, the players must have been looking past this year, thinking this (Saunders) is the guy I need to impress and get close to.”

Former owner Gene Klein expressed somewhat similar thoughts.

“It had to have some effect,” said Klein, who hired Coryell nine years ago and sold the team to Spanos in 1984. “I am sure it had to be very hard on both people. There had to be some grinding. But that really isn’t in my purview, and I’ll be the first to admit I made some bad decisions myself.

“Among my mistakes was not hiring Don out of San Diego State (in 1973). I felt it would take him too long to get oriented to the NFL. I was dead wrong about that. I can’t use the word genius to describe Don--a genius is somebody who discovers the cure for cancer--but I know he was a very proficient man in the passing game. He built one of the great offenses in history. And I believe it’s a false accusation to say the man didn’t care about defense. Every coach has a propensity for one side of the game or the other. There is no completely even-minded coach.”

Members of the Chargers’ coaching staff and front office downplayed any impact the Coryell-Saunders relationship may have had on the team’s record.

“Maybe I am so close to the forest I can’t see the trees, but honestly, I didn’t see it as a problem,” defensive coordinator Ron Lynn said. “On every staff I’ve worked on, there’s always been a guy who relieved the head coach of some of the burden. I can’t tell you for certain there was no effect on the players, but I know I never saw a vacant look in their eyes. Everything is moving so fast, right now I just want to sit down, take my shoes off and think about what all this means.”

Scouting director Ron Nay said he had no inkling a change was about to take place, and he endeavored to absolve Coryell of some of the blame for the team’s record.

“All that has happened to this team is not Don’s fault,” Nay said. “We’ve had our share of bad luck this year with deflected passes and penalties and other things. But, at this stage, something had to be done.