He wore glasses and a graying goatee, and on this day, Ron Middleton found himself head coach of the COVID-17 Jets.
Seventeen Jets, plus Robert Saleh on Wednesday morning, sucker-punched by the merciless football gods who just can’t leave the long-suffering franchise alone.
Ron Who? wasn’t wearing a mask on his Zoom call, perhaps because he has essentially worn one for his entire football coaching life in the shadows over the course of 24 years … and even before then as an undrafted 6-foot tight end from Atmore, Ala., out of Auburn who played for five teams across a 10-year career and caught 42 passes and three touchdowns and won Super Bowl 26 with Washington along the way.
Ron Who? had never been a head coach on any level until Wednesday, when he ran practice for a MASH unit of blindsided, shell-shocked players with Saleh testing positive and dealing with COVID-19 symptoms. He has never been the hot assistant coach summoned to make the head-coach interview rounds … and after the players finished virtual meetings conducted by their rookie head coach, they headed out of the Atlantic Health Jets Training Center wondering whether Ron Who? might be their interim head coach on Sunday against Trevor Lawrence and the Jaguars … his previous stop from 2013-20, where he was tight end and assistant special teams coach alongside Saleh, the linebackers coach there from 2014-16.
Saleh could return on Thursday if he is symptom-free and push for his fourth win on Sunday.
In the meantime, if it turns out that Ron Who? is merely King For A Day, he wore the crown with honor and won the press conference.
Around noon, a mere 45 minutes after Saleh had informed the staff that he had fallen ill, Ron Who? addressed the players on the field before the walk-through. And from the up-close-and-personal perch of C.J. Mosley, acted like he had been there before.
“We’re all professionals,” Ron Who? told them. “Nobody knows what’s going to happen, but what we do know is that we have a game on Sunday. Last I saw, they didn’t change any of those routing numbers, we’re still gonna get paid. … So let’s get better and let’s start preparing to get ready to beat the Jaguars on Sunday.”
He is 56 years old, a mature man and husband and father of four who certainly appears to be the right choice to fill in for Saleh if need be. Mike LaFleur is a rookie offensive coordinator who needs to tutor and mentor Zach Wilson, and defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich has enough on his hands trying to plug all the holes on his embattled defense. Ron Who? graduated from Auburn with a degree in pre-law/history and later received a master’s degree in sports and fitness management from Troy University, where his coaching career began.
It was during his time at Duke as associate head coach/special teams coordinator/TE coach from 2008-12 when one day he was asked to run practice.
“But other than that, no,” Ron Who? said, “this is it.”
He was the anti-Al Haig, the former Secretary of State whose infamous “I’m in control here in the White House” following the assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan still lives in infamy. Ron Who? lavished praise on his coaching president.
“He has a great plan and he’s very clear with his plan,” Ron Who? said. “I’m not reinventing the wheel here, I’m just trying to steer the ship, keep the ship steered in the right direction. So far, no issues.”
There were no issues conducting the post-practice press conference with the media. He was at ease, smiled freely and exuded humility.
“I’m not going to get into his train of thought as to why he chose me,” Ron Who? said. “I think that would be a question that he would be better able to answer.”
Everyone around the Jets is hoping that Saleh feels well enough to return quickly to answer that question. Until he is, the Jets are in good hands with Ron Who?
