Redskins Insider says a WaPo story is pending naming Jim Fassel as the mystery candidate that received interviews on January 11th and yesterday. So far as hidden prizes go, I would've just kept this one in the box and taken the coach in hand.
Waiting for the word from the Post, here's the story from Fox Sports:
Fassel originally interviewed a couple weeks ago when team brass flew to Arizona. At the time, it was incorrectly reported the Redskins contingent flew there to interview Cardinals assistant Russ Grimm, when in fact Fassel was their target.
But, to SA's credit, I think we do need to start concerning ourselves with coordinators as much as who will be the Head Coach. Depending on what contingency works out, it isn't clear that we'll have a defensive coordinator. Should the team go to Fassel or a Jim Schwartz as Head Coach, will Gregg Williams reallyw ant to sit in as coordinator under the newcomer or even his old apprentice? If he walks, we'd turn our attention immediately to finding a new defensive coordinator. Even if Williams gets the job the question would be who gets the job he vacates, and perhaps that is where a newcomer comes in. I'd vote for promoting Jerry Gray from within, personally.
Mark Maske, in a WaPo Q&A this morning discussed the coordinators issue:
Is he maybe just interviewing Fassell to be the next offensive coordinator and maybe Schwartz to be the defensive coordinator?
Mark Maske: It's certainly possible that those were really coordinator interviews (provided that Fassel really has been interviewed) under the cover of being called head coaching interviews. On the bigger issues, I don't consider hiring from the outside a step backward if the Redskins get a head coaching candidate who's clearly better than Gregg Williams. Yes, he's done a good job as a defensive coordinator with this team but he's not a sure thing as a head coaching candidate. His tenure in Buffalo as a head coach demonstrates that.
Mostly quoted because Maske is a wise man who lends credibility to the theory that Schwartz and Fassel were merely offensive coordinator hires merely by stating that as a possibility. It is worth not taking for granted that when a coach is interviewed at Redskins park it is for Head Coach, necessarily. For all we know, Gregg Williams was interviewed for Food and Beverage Commissioner.