Year 2 of Whisenhunt era brings new confidence

You don’t fully know what a head coaching job is like until you’ve done it.

So even Ken Whisenhunt, who coached under such NFL luminaries as Joe Gibbs and Bill Cowher, had a learning curve when he took over the Cardinals last year.

First it was learning how to manage all the off-the-field stuff.

SLIDESHOW: Cardinals training camp in Flagstaff

“The thing that you don’t really understand is how much outside of football that this job involves,” he said.

That includes nearly daily dealings with the media, setting a schedule for meetings and even the team’s travel details.

“That was probably the biggest challenge last year — getting everybody on the same page, working to get that done.

“As a position coach or assistant coach, you just focus on the X’s and O’s. When you become the head coach, everybody wants answers so they can do their job. There’s a lot more burden on your time, other than football.”

To say the Cardinals were ready for prime time in Whisenhunt’s first season is a stretch. The late-season showdown at division kingpin Seattle punctured that idea.

Still, at 8-8, Whisenhunt had one of the three best records since the Cardinals moved to Arizona 20 years ago.

As Whisenhunt enters his second season as head coach, “I think this year will much easier for me. A lot of our staff understands already how we want to operate.

“A big part of being successful is continuity and minimizing the distractions. That’s where a lot of our energy is focused.”

His team seems to have bought into that program. Players exude the kind of confidence rarely seen in Cardinal-land since their playoff run 10 years ago.

“For the team, it’s completely different,” Whisenhunt said. “Last year was more of a feeling out process. This year, there’s a little bit more confidence.

“They’re excited because they saw a modicum of success. If they continue to work that way... we have a chance to be a pretty good team.”

On the field, the biggest challenge can be learning how to best use a team’s personnel.

A year ago, Whisenhunt repeatedly said he wanted to develop a team with a run-first mentality. He was talking psychology as much as anything else. Still, his comments raised eyebrows on a team whose weapons could mostly be found in the passing game.

And sure enough, the Cardinals turned out to be a passing team (No. 5 in the NFL with 254 yards per game); their running game ranked No. 29 with 90 yards per game.

“One of the things we’ve always done when I’m around teams is try to gear your team around your personnel,” Whisenhunt said. “Do what they do best (while) still keeping with the philosophy you want to be a tough, physical team.

“What I’ve found out about our team is we are tough. We CAN be physical.”

The Cardinals threw frequently early last season because they were behind in games, he said.

“We had to catch up. That skewed our run vs. pass. (The Cardinals passed 37 times per game vs. 25 runs.)

“You’d always like to be around 50 percent, even a little bit more than 50 percent run because... it means you’re running the ball at the end of games with the lead, which obviously translates into victories.”

That said, Whisenhunt insists he’ll be flexible.

“We’re going to do what we think gives us the best chance to win. If that means we have to throw the ball a bunch, we’re going to do that.”

The key: “We just have to be a little bit smarter.”

The reference is to the Cardinals’ continuing problems with penalties, where they ranked as the league’s worst team for much of the season.

All those penalties obviously were a huge downer for the new coaching staff, particularly in light of the host of down-to-the-wire games the Cardinals played.

“If we just eliminate that one area... that will put us in position to win some of those close games,” Whisenhunt said.

So let the second year of the Whisenhunt era begin.

“The onus falls on me a little bit,” he acknowledged as camp opened. “We were 8-8. We were an average team.

“We got a lot of work to do to be better than that and be a potential playoff team. There’s no feeling complacent.

“From what I’ve seen... these guys have a mindset that they want to work and get better because they feel like we have a chance to be successful.”