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In charge Robiskie-era begins in Washington
Updated: Saturday December 09, 2000 11:43 AM
By Mark Morgan, CNNSI.com ASHBURN, Va. -- When Terry Robiskie led the Redskins through his first practice as head coach on Wednesday, he wasted no time in placing his own stamp on this team. Robiskie has condensed the practice schedule, eliminating morning walk-throughs and moving practice time up to allow the players more rest. But where Robiskie's immediate impact has been most important has been on the players' psyches, like that of quarterback Jeff George whom Robiskie named as the starter at Dallas on Sunday. "This is a perfect opportunity for us to go out there [and] play for a guy that you believe in and who believes in the players," said George. "And you want to win for him and he's a guy that everybody's going to give all they have on the field and I don't know if we had that before." Robiskie remembers what it was like on his first day as the new head coach.
"I think Monday as we all came into the building, boy there was a black cloud over [head]. It was amazing, we went out and the sun was shining a little bit. And just walking away, I felt some energy, I felt some life and I felt the focus." Robiskie knows he was not promoted at this juncture of the season to re-build this team for the future. He has to lead the underachieving 7-6 'Skins to the playoffs against a Cowboys' team that has beaten Washington six straight times. "We've got to focus on the task at hand," says Robiskie. "We've got to do it with speed, we've got to do it with energy, we've got to do it with life and we've got to prepare to go to Dallas and try and win a football game." Defensive leader and future Hall of Famer Bruce Smith recognizes what Robiskie is trying to do. "He's just trying to set a tone that it's desperation time. Along with that, he's a fighter and if he goes down, he's going to go down fighting." Teammate Marco Coleman also knows what a crucial time this is for everyone on the team. "This is an opportunity for us to come together and we can go either one of two ways. We can go ahead and take it to the top or we can go completely into the tank." Robiskie told CNNSI.com that when he took the field Wednesday, he was actually nervous. He said he looked around and for the first time in seven years only to see that Norv Turner was not on the field. But after what he termed a good, focused practice, Robiskie started to feel right at home in his new role. He'll find out a lot more about himself and his team come Sunday in Dallas.
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