(photo by Brian Murphy)

I know this is going to come as a shocker, but rookie head coach Jim Zorn is not Joe Gibbs. None of this is groundbreaking, but to recap – he doesn’t have the Hall of Fame credentials, his friends call him “Z-Man,” and he looks like he’d be more comfortable in shorts with a surfboard, rather than running an NFL franchise. I’d go as far as to say that if Seattle QB Matt Hasselbeck wasn’t considered a Pro Bowl quarterback, then Zorn would simply be known as the inappropriate coach who brought a Slip n’ Slide to practice.

Redskins fans almost universally agreed Zorn was a solid choice as the young and upcoming offensive coordinator when he was brought on board in February, but weren’t nearly as convinced two weeks later when he won the Redskins reality show and earned the chance to run the biggest team in town. When he began talking about opening the offense up and rumblings of five-receiver sets started making the rounds, more than one skeptical ‘Skins fan invoked the name of the ol’ ball coach, Steve Spurrier.

While it’s still really early in the game, I’m here to tell you that things might not be as gloomy as the pessimists portray. During minicamp, I was interested to see what changes would be implemented by the new regime. Little things like names on the backs of jerseys to help the rookie coach didn’t bother me. Neither did the lack of NFL referees on site, although they’ve been a staple of Gibbs’ camps for years. And yes, while Zorn still looks as though he could easily spend an afternoon jamming to Bob Marley with proverbial pothead Ricky Williams, he just might make it as one of the 32 NFL head coaches.

Very early on, those of us on the sidelines couldn’t help but notice the confidence and authoritative tone with which Zorn speaks during practice. He’s not a disciplinarian in the mold of a Marty Schottenheimer (he’s much more likely to have players use video games than the Oklahoma Drill), but he’s very much in command of the situation, in the way a veteran quarterback commands a huddle. When rookie wide out Devin Thomas cut one way and Sam Hollenbach’s pass went another, Zorn met Thomas en route back to the huddle.

“That was a good throw right there, but you were still in college,” the Z-Man said.

No wasted words. No sugar coating. At that moment, only one of the guys in the conversation seemed to be a rookie.

Later in practice, veteran cornerback Shawn Springs picked off an errant pass and pitched it back to fellow cornerback Fred Smoot, who juggled the ball for a few steps before tackle Jon Jansen sent him flying. Immediately, Zorn came flying in and ripped into both defensive players, essentially saying, “Cut the crap. We don’t do that here.” More than any other minicamp moment, this is what I’ll remember. As one veteran writer put it, “I guess the inmates won’t be running the asylum around here anymore.”

The purpose of this entry is not to suggest that Jim Zorn is going to be better than Joe Gibbs, with his three Super Bowl rings. It’s simply to point out the stark contrast between the two individuals and to suggest that maybe, just maybe, taking a chance on this promising young first-time coach could end up working out for a Redskins franchise in search of stability, over the long run.

While I was down in Richmond sneaking my way onto the racetrack, it looks like one of the Redskins newest additions was making headlines of his own.

Fred Davis, the rookie tight end out of USC, has caused an uproar after missing Sunday’s practice because he overslept, which has prompted some folks to jump on the ridiculous “he had character issues in college” bandwagon.

Before I get into it, let me John Clayton explain exactly what happened. According to Clayton:“Then there was second-round pick Fred Davis. He couldn’t sleep Saturday night because his roommate wouldn’t shut up. So he went to the desk of the hotel and asked for a different room. He slept until 11 a.m., and the team couldn’t find him because he wasn’t in the right room.”

When asked for comment after the final practice of minicamp (and before he knew all the details), rookie head coach Jim Zorn was refreshingly candid and honest about the situation.

“If it is [oversleeping], he’s got to be mortified,” Zorn said. “But that’s a young guy, let’s set the alarm. You can call for a wake-up call, whatever. And some of these guys are young enough, I’m serious, to not even understand that. He thought maybe somebody else was going to wake him up, I don’t know. But he’ll learn, he’ll learn real quick.”

Here’s the thing about this — this is a non-story. Anyone saying otherwise is a twit. Even coming from an established program like USC, this entire NFL experience is still a culture shock for a 22-year-old kid. I equate it to when I first joined the Army and suddenly found myself in Panama and way out of my comfort zone. Being fairly responsible, I had never had issues with forgetting my wallet or oversleeping during my youth, but almost immediately after I arrived in country I started screwing up left and right. Making a mandatory formation was no longer routine and more than one my sergeant had to put a foot in my ass to guide me in the right direction.

As best as I can tell, this has more to do with Davis ending up with loquacious roommate than him being a knucklehead. Let’s all take a deep breath and chalk it up to a little bad luck for this young man. I guarantee, with his professional career at stake, he’ll be too scared to have anything like this happen again.

And just to drive home the fact that I think that Davis is a good kid, I want to share my interview with him from Friday’s practice. Out of all the interviews I did at Redskins Park that day, he was the most enjoyable person to talk to. The biggest gripe I have with him is he grew up idolizing Michael Irvin, but as you can hear in the audio, I took care of that real quick.