[browna]

The problem I had with the hiring of Hartley is that it appeared to be Feaster running out of ideas, and pulling in any last contacts he had in going to a old (as he tried with trying to land Richards the year before) pal who was the godfather of his child.

Hartley hadn't made the playoffs and won a round when he arrived here, for about the same amount of time that Keenan had since he had won in the playoffs when Keenan got hired here. His role was to get a last year out of vets when he was hired...vets who had no idea what the organization was doing under Feaster.

Hartley then pushed players pretty hard, and not many liked that, and there were a lot of injuries and some resentment. So, Hartley and the other coaches wasn't the proper hire, IMO, for that roster, and it was made tougher by the GM who was all over the place and talking in the media etc.

Hartley does seem to be better with young players, and I do think he was coaching for his job from the day Burke got hired and especially after Feaster was punted, for the rest of last year.

And as I said, I think he adapted the better part of last year and convinced Burke that he was the guy though the rest of last season, and that the new GM would have to give a very good reason NOT to stick with Hartley for the most part.

So Feaster gets credit IMO for hiring him away from Switzerland, but Feaster hired him for the wrong task, and didn't hire him to do what he's doing now. It's Hartley by himself that managed to prove his value and survive the regime change last year that very easily could've happened under Burke and/or Treliving.