By Dan Parr
Jan. 23, 2008

Updated at 5:30 p.m. EST Friday, Jan. 25

Falcons owner Arthur Blank completed the first phase of rebuilding his organization in Atlanta, as GM Thomas Dimitroff introduced Mike Smith as the new head coach at a Thursday press conference.

Now the hard part begins. Dimitroff and Smith — two low-profile hires — have the task of overhauling a roster and scrubbing away the grime left by former coach Bobby Petrino’s abrupt resignation 13 games into 2007. Neither Dimitroff, the former Patriots director of college scouting, nor Smith, who served six years as an assistant with the Jaguars, the last five as defensive coordinator, has previous experience in his new role.

Some questioned Blank’s decision to bring Smith into the fold, considering no other NFL team had interviewed him for a head job. 

“Whether he was interviewed by one other team or 10 other teams didn’t really make a difference to me,” Blank told PFW in an exclusive interview Thursday. “This was not going to be a celebrity hire. We were looking for a football coach, not somebody who would get the greatest amounts of votes, day one, in terms of a press conference. We wanted somebody at the end of the year, and in years to come, people look back and say, ‘You hired a really good football coach, a good leader of men.’ ”

Comments made Wednesday morning on ESPN's "First Take" by analyst and former player Marcellus Wiley, who was coached by Smith during the 2005 season as a Jaguars defensive end, magnified the doubts about the Falcons’ choice.

"I was looking at this and saying 'Wow, they went way down low on the totem pole for this," Wiley said on the program.

Wiley spoke with PFW Friday.

“(Smith’s) a very nice guy, just generally a good guy, and when it comes to football, the guy knows the game backwards,” Wiley said. “He’s like a 'Jeopardy' champion when it comes to football; he just knows everything about it. But when it came to discipline issues, when it came to respect of being a leader, guys tested him, guys pushed the envelope with him.

“I don’t have any bitterness toward him; I enjoyed my two years in Jacksonville. There’s no ax to grind.

“The only reason it becomes a real issue is because of what the situation is in Atlanta. If he was going somewhere where there weren’t so many needs and off-the-field issues — and you think about the locker room this year, and the players were vocal about how much they disliked Petrino … That’s a hard situation to go into, especially when it’s your first year as a head coach.”

Blank said he heard differently when gathering background information on Smith during the search.

“During the press conference (Thursday) one of the last questions somebody asked (Smith) was, ‘What did you do to Wiley?’ ” Blank said. “I don’t know the player, but I do know this: We’ve probably gotten six or eight current players that are playing for Jacksonville today or in the very recent past, including guys like (Patriots LB) Adalius Thomas, who played for Smith in Baltimore. They all had the highest things to say about Mike. Very consistently we heard, 'Great coach, good character guy, good leader, very responsive, very good open-door policy, open communication, treats people with respect,' etc. We heard that very consistently. What happened with Wiley, I don’t know.”

Before joining Jacksonville’s staff, Smith was the D-line coach for the Ravens from 1999-2001. The Jaguars had the 12th-ranked defense in the league this season. His first interview with the Falcons occurred before the Jaguars were eliminated in the divisional round of the playoffs. He had a second interview the same night of Jacksonville's postseason loss to New England, following the game, with Dimitroff, who had reached an agreement in principle to become the Falcons' GM earlier that same weekend.

Along with Smith, the other finalists for head coach were Giants defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo (although he had yet to interview with the club), Vikings defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier and former Ravens defensive coordinator Rex Ryan.

Smith replaces interim head coach Emmitt Thomas, who served as the squad’s secondary coach before Petrino’s abrupt resignation. Thomas was named assistant head coach Thursday.

Brian VanGorder, who served as the Falcons’ LB coach last season before leaving in mid-December, following Petrino’s resignation, to join Steve Spurrier’s staff at South Carolina, will be Atlanta’s defensive coordinator. Former Buffalo Bills coach Mike Mularkey is reportedly the squad’s first choice to become offensive coordinator.