jeff fisher

Old NFL coaches being recycled

BY MICHEL GONZALEZ – FAN FUEL BLOGGER

Am I the only one who’s noticing a 180-degree turn when it comes to NFL coaching? Young coaches are being ushered out the door and old retreads are being courted.

The coaching merry-go-round is becoming a rusty and creaky ride.

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Case in point, 53-year-old Jeff Fisher is being chased by not one, but two teams. the same Jeff Fisher who boasts six winning seasons in 17 years as a head coach in Tennessee, a 5-6 career postseason record, and zero Super Bowl titles. with guys like bill Cowher, Urban Meyer, and Jon Gruden technically “off the market,” there’s Fisher being courted by desperate suitors like he’s the hottest dame at the dance.

So when young coordinators are up against the likes of two Schottenheimers, Wade Phillips and Mike Sherman, it’s hard not to look like Scarlett Johansson in a mini skirt leaning up against a jukebox. Fisher’s “stock”, which has always been pretty high since his firing from Tennessee, has skyrocketed in the last two months and it’s certainly not because of some new, innovative offence he’s been outlining on a beach somewhere. It’s because he’s up against a bunch of dogs.

The mere fact that Marty Schottenheimer, who’s 68 years old and fresh off a stint in the highly unsuccessful UFL, has a resume that includes a career 5-13 postseason record and zero Super Bowl appearances, is being considered as a serious candidate for the vacant job in Tampa Bay should give you an idea on the sorry state of NFL coaching hires.

After putting all of his eggs in the Raheem Morris basket three years ago, Tampa GM Mark Dominik saw his team literally quit on its 35-year-old coach somewhere at the midway point of the season. Players tuned out a guy who was only 10 years older than most of them… and a year younger than starting cornerback Ronde Barber. Dominik ended up doing what most GMs do when they fire a coach and luckily remain employed. He’s pulling a 180 and going a completely different direction. Dominik rolled the dice on Morris in 2009, and after a 10-game losing streak to end what started a promising 2011 season, he lost big. Now, he’ll go safe and play the penny slots. Mind you, in three or four years, the pendulum will no doubt swing the other way.

If Tampa Bay ends up going with the elder Schottenheimer, it will go from a young, innovative unknown coaching entity to an old, well-traveled recycled one. you know what you’re getting with a Marty Schottenheimer or a Wade Phillips. It might not be Super Bowl rings, but it’s stability, it’s a time-tested process, and for at least a few years. Basically, you’re bringing in someone who will put some order in the asylum.

We see the 180 move from organizations all the time. when the Jets hired Eric Mangini, he was seen as a young bill Belichick, a disciplinarian who was a bore with the local new York media. then Mike Tannenbaum hired Rex Ryan, the complete opposite in every way. Jim Fassel was viewed as too soft with the players up in new York. the Giants went out and hired Tom Coughlin and his iron fist. the “Complete 180″ philosophy can be good for a franchise. It’s fresh, it’s a shakeup, and it can certainly satisfy the local media and fan base who are fed up with the way things had previously been. But like anything, it grows stale and soon, someone calls for a change. a lynch mob soon follows and… well, you know the rest.

Another name that’s making the round is Mike Sherman. Mike who? To put it in context, Sherman’s 2011 Texas A&M Aggies team was ranked no. 8 overall by the associated Press back in August. they finished the season with a 6-6 record, losing a handful of games in the fourth quarter. As one Buccaneers fan wrote in a tweet Sunday night, “Mike ‘effin Sherman?!”

With the recent successes of first-time head coaches Jim Harbaugh, Sean Payton, Ken Whisenhunt, John Harbaugh, and Mike Tomlin, we tend to roll our eyes when teams go back to the well and dig up a guy who’s had one, two, even three stints at being a head coach before.

Fans crave for one of two extremes, really – a young, hot coordinator who’ll bring new blood and new energy to the franchise or a proven, Super Bowl-winning coach who can bring along years of experience and a winning culture.

When that first list of candidates isn’t exactly enough to get you all giddy, the old standards – bill Cowher, Jon Gruden, Brian Billick and Jimmy Johnson – start popping out. To a certain extent, it’s reminiscent of older women you’ve seen with countless other dance partners in failed relationships.

This is the point where you start to wonder what guys like Rich Kotite and Paul Hackett are up to. I’ve even surprised myself googling “Where is Vince Tobin these days?” on my tablet.

Which brings us back to Jeff Fisher, my original example.

Fisher’s a good man and a proven NFL head coach. Though he’s got no rings to show for it, he coached three different Titans teams to 13-win seasons and came a yard short from hoisting a Lombardi Trophy back in 2000. Refreshed after a year away from the game, he’s as safe a bet as anyone this off-season.

He will improve your team in 2012 and in Miami and St. Louis, two cities where the NFL playoffs seem like distant, dusty memories, that’s more than enough.

ONE MORE THING

In the final minutes of the Giants’ 24-2 win over the Falcons on Sunday, the cameras focused in on Falcons’ fourth year head coach Mike Smith.

Before he came to Atlanta, the Falcons had never experienced winning seasons in consecutive years. since taking over as coach, the Falcons have played in January football three different times and won an NFC South division title. with another dud in the playoffs, though, his team again came up short when it mattered most.

When the cameras panned on Smith, one of my buddies seated next to me in my living room muttered “What a loser.” I told him “Just watch, that “loser” will probably be the hottest coaching candidate on the block in a few years. He’ll be able to name his price wherever he wants to go next.”

Everyone laughed. the sad part is I wasn’t even joking.

Related read:

More Football: NFL thoughts from the couch

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Jeff Fisher Called ‘Must-Hire’ For Kansas City Chiefs As New Head Coach

The Kansas City Chiefs are looking for a new head coach. Whether or not they remove the interim tag from Romeo Crennel or find a new head coach will not be known by anyone until after Crennel’s end of season audition is finished. However, that doesn’t stop the conjecture of people like Fox Sports’ Nick Athan, who says that former Titans coach Jeff Fisher is a must for the Chiefs if he will say yes.

Athan writes, “Per our source, Hunt is prepared to pay whatever it takes to land one of the premier coaching candidates. That includes Fisher. but does Fisher want to coach the Chiefs? He’d be a fool not to. Of all the coaching vacancies open now or in the near future, Kansas City is poised for long-standing success.

“With plenty of starters returning on both sides of the ball next year, a ton of cash to spend in free agency and quite likely a last place schedule in 2012, the Chiefs might even be favored to win the AFC West next year. The rebuilding process in Kansas City is nearly over. right now it’s a matter of Hunt, Pioli and, hopefully, Fisher, getting this team ready to take the next step. with the lockout behind us, they’ll enjoy a normal offseason.”Fisher’s career record is 142-120 in 17 years as an NFL head coach.

Definitive guide to Black Monday and the 2012 coaching carousel

With Jon Gruden and bill Cowher likely to stay in their current TV roles, ex-Titans coach Jeff Fisher should be the marquee name available when hiring season begins.Don McPeak/US Presswire

The arithmetic is unrelenting. since 1989, NFL teams have hired on average 6.5 new head coaches a year, and there have been a staggering 82 coaching changes made in the league from 2000-on. only one team, the Philadelphia Eagles, has completely sat out the frenzy in that department, having brought a young and promising Andy Reid to town in 1999.

This season, including elevated interim head coaches in Dallas and Minnesota, there were eight new coaches in the NFL, and that number is likely to be matched or nearly so once again in 2012. That’s roughly half the league’s 32 teams swapping out the man in the headset in the span of 12 to 13 months. already in the past month, three teams have dismissed head coaches — Jacksonville, Miami and Kansas City — and are preparing to hire replacements.

Is it any wonder that Black Monday in the NFL — the day after the regular season concludes — has become something of a national death watch? With the clocking ticking toward the start of firing/hiring season, here’s a team-by-team breakdown of what we think we know, with a look at the names and resumes of some potential coaching candidates:

• St. Louis — Sources in St. Louis say the fate of Rams’ third-year head coach Steve Spagnuolo has yet to be definitively sealed by team owner Stan Kroenke, but with a 10-37 career record with one game remaining, you won’t find anyone, anywhere who likes Spags’ chances to return for year four. Rams general manager Billy Devaney is also considered a likely goner, but at least one league source I spoke with Wednesday gives him a chance to survive in his job depending upon whom the team hires as head coach. Kroenke isn’t known as "Silent Stan” for nothing, and he doesn’t tip his hand. But there’s a decent chance both Spagnuolo and Devaney are asked to turn in their key cards sometime early next week.

The Rams’ top choice on the coaching front is an obvious one, but probably not the one you’re thinking of. you can discount the Jon Gruden chatter. That doesn’t pass the sniff test. the ex-Bucs head coach is making it known that he’ll stay at ESPN for another year, and even a ridiculous offer from a team desperate to make a headline splash with its hire (Miami, we’re looking in your direction) isn’t expected to be enough to coax him back to the sideline. besides, competing against the likes of bill Belichick and Rex Ryan twice a year in the AFC East, without a clear-cut answer at quarterback, isn’t thought to be Gruden’s idea of a party.

That’s why all signs point to the Rams targeting ex-Titans head coach Jeff Fisher first and foremost. For starters, Fisher, the onetime L.a. Rams defensive coordinator and USC defensive back, has been represented for years by veteran agent Marvin Demoff, the father of Rams football operations chief, Kevin Demoff. There’s a comfort zone between the younger Demoff and Fisher, and Demoff is the guy Kroenke relies on most for the day-to-day contact to the club. His say will carry considerable weight.

With Gruden and bill Cowher both showing every indication of staying in the TV analyst role again in 2012, Fisher and his .538 career winning percentage (147-126) and 17 years of head coaching experience is actually the big fish in this year’s pond. Fisher is smart, has plenty of money in the bank, and knows that in today’s NFL coaching, you have to have a quality quarterback or you’re just marking time until you’re fired.

Fisher looks at the Rams and sees a team with Sam Bradford at quarterback, plenty of cap room in the coming two years (as much as an estimated $40 million) and either the first or second overall pick in the 2012, which could be shopped to a QB-desperate team and used as fodder to replenish other needier areas of the roster. He also likely finds Kroenke’s reputation as a patient, non-meddling owner who gives his team sufficient resources fairly attractive as well. So what’s not to like?

Both the Chargers and Dolphins are expected to come after Fisher as well, but St. Louis shouldn’t worry about losing him to Miami (see earlier reference to QB issues, AFC East, etc…) the Chargers could be a different story. Life in SoCal could be very attractive to Fisher, and so could Philip Rivers at quarterback, with a relatively hands-off owner in Dean Spanos. the wild-card factor could be whether or not the Chargers retain general manager a.J. Smith and how he and Fisher fit together. Sources in St. Louis seem to think Smith likely survives in San Diego, and that might make the Rams Fisher’s more likely destination, with Devaney perhaps remaining in his post in that scenario.

• San Diego — the big question in Charger-land is not whether or not Norv Turner will be retained — he’s thought to be a dead man walking — but whether Smith returns and helps pick the next head coach, or is part of the purge as well. the San Diego Union-Tribune report earlier this week that had Smith and Gruden being a package deal that gets delivered to the Rams is not being taken too seriously around the league. It was viewed by sources I talked to as a somewhat transparent attempt to create leverage for Smith in San Diego, with the rumor believed to have originated in San Diego.

And it might be working, because while no one seems to know for sure who the Chargers will wind up with as head coach (although Fisher is sure to be high on their list), more than one club’s top front office executive on Wednesday told me they’re starting to think Smith might hang on in San Diego and live to fight (literally) another day.

• Kansas City — the Chiefs’ coaching scenario seems the most tidy of all, and of course, the NFL is rarely tidy, so it probably can’t happen the way we’re envisioning. But here goes: Win or lose Sunday at Denver for Romeo Crennel (although a win and a 2-1 interim head coaching record makes the rationale a much easier sell), there’s a pretty good shot he gets elevated to the full-time gig. League sources then expect Chiefs general manager Scott Pioli to go out and hire Rams offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels to the same post in Kansas City, with the expectation that McDaniels will be let go when Spagnuolo is canned.

Pioli will then have made his own locker room very happy with the retention of the popular Crennel, who he likes and greatly respects, but also will have put in a place a succession plan with the arrival of McDaniels, who could use another couple seasons to let the radioactivity from his failed Denver head coaching tenure die down. Crennel is 64, and gives Pioli a trusted short-term coaching option. McDaniels is 35, and gives Pioli a trusted long-term coaching option.

Both men are known quantities by Pioli, who will absolutely gravitate to the familiar in this hire, knowing he has to get it right in order to protect his own job security in light of the failed Todd Haley experiment in his first hiring decision. In McDaniels, there’s the added bonus of having him work once again with Chiefs starting quarterback Matt Cassel, who he developed in new England. If McDaniels can get Cassel’s game cleaned up, then the Chiefs aren’t in the market for another starting quarterback option, other than maybe retaining Kyle Orton as Plan B. and McDaniels even worked with Orton in Denver and started 6-0 in 2009 with him under center.

With Crennel’s great work with the K.C. defense, McDaniels overseeing the Chiefs offense, and Pioli having both stability and potential on hand, he’d be positioned about as well as he could have dreamed of being in the team’s post-Haley era. as I said, this probably makes so much sense it can’t possibly happen. But I’m willing to be wrong about my lack of faith. At least until Kansas City hires Kirk Ferentz away from the University of Iowa.

• Tampa Bay — the Bucs and Raheem Morris are going to part ways, of that I’m convinced. Tampa Bay’s youthful third-year head coach has taken a smoldering situation and turned it into a raging fire in recent weeks, sounding immature, defensive and not up to the pressures and task of being the face of the organization. Oh, and did we mention that his football team is likely to lose its final 10 games this season, many of them in wholly non-competive fashion?

Like Pioli in Kansas City, Tampa Bay general manager Mark Dominik knows this is a critical hire for him, even though he was paired with Morris and jointly elevated in early 2009 by the Glazer family, without having any real authority until the move was made. His scope will be very broad in terms of his coaching search, with a few parameters: I believe the Bucs have to look for an offensive-minded coach, given the crucial stage of development/regression that franchise quarterback Josh Freeman is in after his disappointing 2011 season.

Secondly, while I don’t think Tampa Bay will go after any headline names, I don’t think they’ll be looking for an inexpensive option or a novice in terms of head coaching, unless a coordinator-level candidate blows them away in the interview process and has success written all over him. With Jon Gruden’s contract finally off the books, the Bucs can spend quite a bit more on their next head coach than they did on Morris. and if at all possible, prior head coaching experience, and a proven and successful plan for how to approach everything from practice schedules to play-calling will be prioritized.

Here are a few names that fit the bill as I read the Bucs’ situation: Ex-Packers head coach Mike Sherman, who recently was let go by Texas A&M after five seasons as head coach, but went 59-43 (.578) in Green Bay from 2000-2006, winning three division titles and going to the playoffs four times in six seasons. Sherman will get interviews for NFL coaching jobs this year, count on it. and in retrospect, especially in this year’s field of candidates, his track record and reputation for developing quarterbacks looks pretty darn impressive.

Another possibility in Tampa Bay is Falcons offensive coordinator Mike Mularkey, who not only knows the NFC South well, but who started his NFL coaching career in Tampa Bay on Sam Wyche’s staff in the early ’90s. Mularkey spent two years as Buffalo’s head coach in 2004-05, went 14-18 with a 9-7 season in 2004 (the Bills’ only winning record since 1999), and resigned that gig, without being fired. He has not hurt his resume any by working in Atlanta with quarterback Matt Ryan.

On the coordinator front, if the Bucs go that route, two names will surface: Jets offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer, and Bengals first-year offensive coordinator Jay Gruden. I’m convinced Gruden, brother of Jon, will get some nibbles/interviews this season after he banged the table for the drafting of Andy Dalton in Cincinnati last April, then watched the ex-TCU passer make him look brilliant as a rookie. But in reality, I don’t think the Glazer family and the Gruden family exchange holiday cards, so that particular reunion isn’t going to happen.

As for Schottenheimer, he might be getting pillaged about now in the new York media, but there are those in the league who believe he’ll be a successful head coach some day soon, and see him as having made the most of the limited talents and game of Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez about as well as anyone possibly could have these past three years. Consider him a viable outside candidate to watch in Tampa Bay.

Considerations while waiting for Jeff Fisher

The Jeff Fisher tea leaves have become difficult to read. Everyone has an opinion of what he will do, with even the possibility of him staying out of coaching another year being mentioned. The truth is that Fisher is very organized and deliberate in

Jeff Fisher is really not that good of a coach with all the love he is receiving. He is good, and always got the team ready to play and compete, but there were too many season that were well below expectations and way too

The Jeff Fisher tea leaves have become difficult to read. Everyone has an opinion of what he will do, with even the possibility of him staying out of coaching another year being mentioned. The truth is that Fisher is very organized and deliberate in

For the past few days, the St. Louis Rams were thought to be the favorite to land the services of coach Jeff Fisher. now, it seems the Miami Dolphins hold the lead. at least one prominent agent thinks Fisher will choose Miami

The St. Louis Rams are still waiting on Jeff Fisher to make a decision. their lease and the lure of Los Angeles could be a deciding factor.

Jeff Fisher still deciding between Dolphins and Rams

Dolphins • while they await a decision from Jeff Fisher, who is deciding between the Rams and Miami, they're interviewing others for their head-coaching job. Cincinnati defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer completed an interview Tuesday.

(AP) – Jeff Fisher landed at the Miami Dolphins' complex on Tuesday. now the question is whether the Dolphins will land Fisher. Former Tennessee Titans head coach Jeff Fisher is high on the list of free agent coaches. Former Tennessee Titans head coach

Consider me officially tired of the Jeff Fisher waiting game. yes, I still think that he'd be the best option to coach the St. Louis Rams, but incessant leaking of endless minutia is getting tedious. consider the latest report from

Former Tennessee Titans coach Jeff Fisher on Thursday was still deciding between the Dolphins and St. Louis Rams. Ross used the day of inactivity to host a fundraiser at his Palm Beach County home for Mitt Romney. Fisher was reportedly supposed to make

The cities of St. Louis and Miami wait again today. Will Jeff Fisher decide where to coach next year?

In Search of Jeff Fisher: the Dolphins and Rams are Still Waiting on a Coach

The news leaked last week that Fisher was likely considering Miami, but was interviewing in St. Louis. Then, over the weekend, Jay Glazer said Fisher was about to take the Rams job, according to Glazer, “within the next 24-48 hours.” over those 2 days, instead, we heard reservations that Fisher has over whether the Rams will relocate.

So what is going on? during this time, Kansas City and Jacksonville have hired new coaches, Oakland has entered the coaching market (I doubt there is any interest there from either side), and Indianapolis has officially hired a new GM, Ryan Grigson. The suspicion here is that the sources were all emanating from the Fisher camp, not the teams, and were designed to put pressure to increase the bidding, even as no decision was reached. The other option, or one in conjunction with that, is Fisher is trying to hold out to see if the Colts and the first overall pick are interested now that the new GM is in place.

The National Football Post reported that Fisher could be in line to make upwards of 8 million per year with the Dolphins and get the title of Executive Vice President, with authority over GM Jeff Ireland. Pardon me, but if there was any doubt, if these reports are true, Dolphins owner Stephen Ross is a fool. Fisher isn’t the second coming of Don Shula plus bill Walsh. he is a coach that is safe and stable, but has made the playoffs a league average amount of times in his career. if that is true, though, the Rams would be the winners by moving on. if it is just another planted leak, even if untrue, from the Fisher camp to increase an offer from St. Louis, they should probably move on anyway. let him enjoy his big retirement paycheck and under .500 record in South Beach.

[photo via Getty]

Rams have a draft chip in bid for Fisher

The football gods must be smiling down on Stan Kroenke. Whilethe Rams owner was putting on the full-court recruitment of JeffFisher on Thursday in Denver, Kroenke got a double shot of goodnews that he can surely use to further impress the man he craves totransform his NFL franchise from a flop into a championshipcontender.

With news that another potential franchise-type quarterback(Oklahoma’s Landry Jones) is heading back to school and anotherbig-time wide receiver (Alshon Jeffrey) is coming out, Kroenke andteam vice president Kevin Demoff got another favorable bargainingchip to dangle in front of Fisher.

Why is this good news?

A simple matter of supply and demand. With Southern Cal QB MattBarkley and Jones deciding to stay in college, a first round thatwas shaping up to be heavy with franchise quarterbacks has now beenwhittled down to only two who grade out as franchise-type passers(Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin III). And depending on who you talkto, there are between four and six teams that desperately need todraft a young, strong-armed QB.

So do the math. Suddenly, the value of the Rams’ first-roundpick, the no.2 overall, is even more valuable than we alreadysuspected. Luck will be snatched up by Indy with the first pick,which leaves Cleveland, Washington and Miami desperately scramblingto position themselves for RGIII and the Rams sitting pretty withthe only pick that guarantees his acquisition.

So let the bidding war begin.

This is one of those rare occasions when the football godsbestow wonderful gifts on lousy teams like the Rams. So Kroenke andDemoff can tell Fisher — and whoever they will interview for thehead coach and GM openings — that by the time the April draft rollsaround, the Rams could auction off that no.2 overall pick formultiple picks. OK, this isn’t exactly breaking news. even beforeJones’ announcement, we already knew the pick had added value. Butonce Jones did pull his name out of the NFL’s lottery, it onlyheightened the already obvious value of the Rams’ pick.

That’s a little tidbit that Fisher has to know.

And while I wouldn’t suggest dropping too far down the firstround (and losing out on superb Oklahoma State wideout JustinBlackmon), Jeffrey’s presence in the draft does give the Ramsoptions. And with a flood of some very talented offensive linemendeclaring for the draft this week, the Rams are in much betterposition to come away with not only a game-breaking WR, but end upwith no fewer than three or four immediate impact players among thefirst 40 picks.

That is the sort of draft value that should be tantalizing to anew coach coming into a rebuilding project like the Rams.

There is no magic pill to make all this losing go away. There isno guaranteed formula for success either. While it’s great that theRams have all these picks, it’s no guarantee that Fisher would beable to turn this thing around no matter how much success he had inTennessee. as they say in business, past performance is noguarantee of future success. Daniel Snyder’s hiring of MikeShanahan in Washington has gotten the Redskins 11 victories in twoseasons. And drawing on the Patriot way as a formula for success isno sure thing, either. just take a look at the slow process goingon in Kansas City under Bill Belichick disciple Scott Pioli.

But it still makes all the sense in the world to go after himhard, because he is clearly the best candidate out there, becausePlan B is a humongous question mark.

If Kroenke’s big-game hunting comes up short, it will be a lotharder to win over your fan base when you’re prepared to present itwith unknown commodities. Harder, but not impossible. Butdefinitely harder.

They will have to work hard and fast to identify the rightGM/coach combination for themselves, but they know that isn’t goingto be easy. Going with non-brand names has certainly worked inAtlanta with the Tomas Dimitroff-Mike Smith combination. but thisis a fan base that will get a little queasy if Kroenke and Demoffchange directions and bring in unfamiliar names and unprovencoaches.

That’s why the Fisher gambit is so important. Kroenke is not thekind of guy who loses very often at the negotiating table, so Ihave to imagine the full-on push to get Fisher will be a furiouspursuit. as we’ve already seen with the firing of Steve Spagnuoloand Billy Devaney, Kroenke doesn’t dawdle. if Fisher is his guy, weshould know that by week’s end.

Jeff Fisher only eyeing Miami, St. Louis

Jeff Fisher said Friday he is considering coaching next season in only two places, Miami or St. Louis, and that he will make his decision next week. the former Tennessee Titans coach declined to comment further when speaking to ESPN NFL Insider Adam

Jeff Fisher said Friday he is considering coaching next season in only two places, Miami or St. Louis, and that he will make his decision next week. the former Tennessee Titans coach declined to comment further when speaking to ESPN NFL Insider Adam

Jeff Fisher will choose between St. Louis and Miami, leaving the Bucs free to pursue other coaches.

Jeff Fisher is supposedly looking at only the Rams and Dolphins. Are the Bucs already out of the race?

How Does Wind Power Work? A Beginner’s Guide

Producing electricity from wind (or water) is all about converting energy from one type to another. Perhaps you’ve always wondered – how does wind power work. This article discusses the process of transforming wind energy and it into electricity.

Did you know that wind power comes from the sun? That’s right, the process of making electricity from wind starts with the sun. the sun warms land masses. some of the radiant heat changes air temperatures around the land. Hotter air is lighter than cooler air. As the warmer air begins to rise suddenly, cooler air rushes in to fill the space the hot air left behind. All this motion creates what we know as wind.

If you find it difficult to imagine these rapidly drifting gas particles as having enough power to move the windmill blades, think about tornadoes and hurricanes. the force of the wind in a tornado will easily move houses and livestock, so of course it will move windmill blades.

That is right, wind is nothing but drifting gas particles. think of the wind as fluid. As with water, the resulting energy from the motion of the air (or gas particles) can be captured to generate electricity.

Now that we understand what wind is let’s look at the question, how does wind power work?

First, you need to understand the anatomy of a windmill. the basic parts include the blades, the shaft, and most importantly, the generator.

A windmill uses the same principle as the turbines in a hydroelectric dam. the kinetic energy of the fast moving air is captured in the wind turbine blades.

The blades catch the motion of the wind. Much like a sailboat; when air pushes on the sail of the boat, it transfers its energy to the sailboat. the same happens when air meets resistance in the blades of the wind turbine. That motion rotates the shaft, transferring the energy to the next part of the windmill, the generator. the generator turns the kinetic energy into electricity.

The generator uses electromagnetic induction to create electrical voltage. Basically, voltage is electrical pressure. It drives electricity from one point to another, generally using magnets and a conductor. the magnets surround the conductor and rotate around it. when the magnets rotate, they create voltage in the conductor.

So when the blades turn the shaft, the shaft turns the group of magnets, which creates voltage in the conductor. then that voltage forces the electrical current out into the grid for delivery to your home, and that my friends in a fairly low tech way answer the question, how does wind power work?

What Can Celebrated Graphic Designer Jeff Fisher Teach us About Small Business Marketing?

One of the key mistakes small businesses make when creating an online presence is trying to do it all themselves, says Jeff Fisher, a graphic designer with 30 years experience, and author of two books on graphic design. Fisher also is a member of the advisory boards for How Magazine, UCDA Designer Magazine and the How Design Conference.

I always tell business owners do not try this at home, he says. Hire a professional who knows what they are doing. it does not need to cost a fortune, but there will be tremendous benefit in bringing in someone who really understands how to create what a business needs to get off on the right foot.

His suggestions for finding a professional include:

• Check out designer portfolios online.
• Contact local design schools, universities or community colleges for recommendations of outstanding students who may be able to help for monetary compensation and possible school credit.
• Some college business programs have outreach programs to assist small businesses in marketing and promotion efforts.
• Research the resources available through the Small Business Administration. If your business has a service or product of value to a design professional, consider bartering or a partial trade of equal value.

Remember, that the initial online impression made with a potential customer can make all the difference; the cost of the online presence is an investment in the future of your business, says Fisher.

The Portland, Oregon graphic designer, writer and speaker hails from a family with deep roots in PR and marketing; his father, mother and sister have all had careers in some aspect of the business. In fact it was his sister, who owns an ad agency, who helped Fisher zone in on the aspect of graphic design he enjoyed most at a time when he was experiencing burnout.

For about the first 17 years of my career I took on any and all design projects that came my way, he explains. I thought that was what graphic designers were expected to do. In a conversation with my sister I mentioned I was starting to get burned out by my work. her comment was, Why aren’t you focusing on what you enjoy most? I kind of looked at her with a blank stare and she said, Logo designs.

That was when he adopted the business name Jeff Fisher LogoMotives and began marketing himself primarily as a designer of corporate identities.

Although his customers typically find him these days, Fisher has a lot of ideas about what works and does not work with small business marketing. for example, he avoids paid traditional print advertising and Yellow Page advertising.

I learned that print advertising was simply not effective in marketing my services, Fisher says. While Yellow Page advertising, tends to bring designers too many tire kickers looking for services based on price only.

Strategies that have worked for Fisher include:

• Press releases, distributed online and through traditional snail mail. the relationships developed with editors and writers over the years are incredibly valuable to a business.
• Writing also has become a major marketing element for my business, Fisher admits, mentioning he has been asked to write numerous articles for design and business publications and websites.
• Two books, the Savvy Designer’s Guide to Success: Ideas and tactics for a killer career released in 2004, and Identity Crisis: 50 redesigns that transformed stale identities into successful brands, in 2007 have earned him the status of industry expert.
• Business blog, bLog-oMotives, started in 2005.
• Speaking Engagements – Fisher speaks to high school groups, design schools, colleges and universities, design organizations and at conferences like the industry HOW Design Conference.
• Pro bono work - While such efforts might now be considered marketing by many, it does get my name out into the business community, puts me in contact with many local movers and shakers, and provides an opportunity to promote the end results.
• One direct mail-piece long ago generated a targeted, self-created list of 500 individuals so powerful that Fisher has not needed to do a mailing since.

Like many small business owners, Fisher prefers low-cost – or no-cost – marketing tools. He has even managed to turn some of them, like the writing of articles and books and speaking engagements into income-producing activities.

With my writing, and speaking engagements, my business is also evolving into one of becoming a professional industry expert while taking on limited design projects, Fisher said. At a design conference a few years ago I explained to an audience that I wanted to work less, charge more.