Don Strock a fan of new Dolphins QB combination
Some football coaches believe if you’re using two quarterbacks it’s because you don’t really have any. Not here.
The Miami Dolphins are using Tua Tagovailoa as their starter; in two of the rookie’s past five starts, he has been benched by coach Brian Flores in favor of Ryan Fitzpatrick, who’s asked to serve as something of a reliever.
And the Dolphins famously did this before.
It happened in the early 1980s when coach Don Shula liked David Woodley as his starter but had no qualms about bringing Don Strock off the bench if Woodley wasn’t performing well.
It was nicknamed WoodStrock.
“The WoodStrock era was about, ‘OK, it’s not working with David today, go in there and try to win the game for us,’ ” Strock said Monday. “And a lot of times it worked.
“I would say I prepared to play from the first play of the game to the final whistle. Because if it was working, fine. But if it wasn’t working, OK, I’m watching the game, I’m seeing what’s going on. I see what’s not working. Let
me go in and implement what I like to do into what I think will work. And that’s what I did.”
Woodley died in 2003 at age 44. Strock remains a Dolphins fan who’s enjoying the success the Dolphins are having with their latter-day quarterback tandem as they chase a playoff berth.
“They’re going to be in the playoffs in my mind,” Strock said. “They start Tua. If it gets to be a little rough sledding, you know what you got in Fitz.
“And it’s nice to know for Coach Flores and the staff, like it was nice to know for Coach Shula, that a guy like me could come in and hopefully help him win football games the same way Fitz does for them.”
Strock just turned 70 but sounds spry and enthusiastic about what the Dolphins might do with Tagovailoa as the starter and Fitzpatrick on call.
“Well, I’ll tell you, I think Tua’s got a very bright future,” Strock said. “He’s accurate. As a rookie, he’s accurate. He knows how to manage games. The kid’s played in championship games. There’s a pedigree there. ... Tua played at Alabama. You know, the big stage doesn’t frighten him.
“And a veteran guy like Fitz on the sideline, hey, that’s good.”
When he watched the Dolphins make the quarterback change with nine minutes to play against Las Vegas on Saturday, Strock was perhaps one of the few people who understood exactly what Fitzpatrick was thinking and feeling.
“I thought, ‘Man, have I ever been here before.’
And a lot of times,” Strock said. “So he’s a pro, that’s why he’s been around a long time. I’m not sure I could play for eight different teams and learn eight different offenses. I mean that says something about his football mentality and mentality all around.
“In my mind I would look at the clock, how much time is left? And then, whatever we do, score something — whether it’s a field goal or a
touchdown or whatever, so they know we haven’t given up and we’re going to try to win this football game. And I think that’s the mindset Fitz has.”
Everyone obviously saw how the Dolphins’ offense came to life once the change was made against the Raiders. Strock noticed something else as well.
“What I saw in the game was there was a difference in the plays that were called for Fitzpatrick and for Tua,” Strock said. “They were totally different plays ... I don’t know why. That’s my question.
“Everybody’s different in the way they attack things and how they go about their business. I understand that. But I think there’s a little bit of a safeguard for Tua right now as far as the plays they run. That’s from what I can see. I’m not criticizing anyone. It just seems to me as a guy who played the game, that’s what I’m seeing.”
Strock is talking about the governor Dolphins offensive coordinator Chan Gailey apparently uses when Tagovailoa is in the game that he doesn’t use when Fitzpatrick takes over.
This isn’t about the playcalling for different players with different physical abilities. This is keeping the youngster out of trouble. Strock is familiar with that. He lived it with
Woodley.
“The plays were called for David Woodley,”
Strock said. “I called my own plays my whole career here in Miami. So there’s a difference right there. I wasn’t going to call something that I knew I couldn’t do. You weren’t going to see me bootleg and try to run down the sideline.”
There was, of course, another man who made up the WoodStrock combination, and it’s clear now Woodley didn’t love the two-quarterback dynamic. He would often tell roommate and tight end Joe Rose, now a morning show host at 560 The Joe, that his nerves were shot from worrying about getting benched.
“I know all the stories,” Strock said.
And did that affect Strock?
“No,” he said. “I think everybody on that football team that I played with knew that when the opportunity came and I was in the game, we had a chance to win. So making changes and stuff wasn’t anything. As a matter of fact, I know sometimes they were thinking, ‘What are we waiting for?’
“But David Woodley was a different kind of guy. He was more of a loner-type guy. Professionally we got along. I’m not saying we hung out or anything, but you don’t have to do that to win. It was sad the way
it ended for him, but he was different than me, I know that.”
It makes sense then that Strock isn’t worried about Miami’s current quarterback situation.
“The two situations Fitz was put into were very tough situations,” Strock said. “This last one was let’s throw the ball straight up in the air and the guy caught it. The one in Denver was a tough situation — it was, ‘OK, we got to go down and score and then we got to score again.’ This time it worked, that time it didn’t.
“So he understands, he’s been in that situation before. And I totally understand what they’re trying to do with Tua, you know, working him into what is a very tough job. Not because I played the position but, I tell you, there are few positions in sports that are tougher than that position.
“I mean, forget about being able to throw. It’s management, who’s in the game, who does what best, what’s the clock say? There’s so much going on in 40 seconds that most people don’t totally understand. It takes time to figure out.”