Eagles Notes | Eagles coaches venerate Walsh

BETHLEHEM, Pa. - If you read about Bill Walsh today, you're bound to come across a sentence that describes him as the brains behind the West Coast offense.

Walsh, the former San Francisco 49ers coach and general manager who died yesterday at 75, was much more than that, according to Eagles offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg.

"He really was an innovator both on the field and off with the way he handled personnel and the way he practiced," Mornhinweg said yesterday at the Eagles' Lehigh University training camp.

There are a long list of coaches who blossomed from Walsh's coaching tree, including Mornhinweg and Eagles head coach Andy Reid. Both men are well-versed in the West Coast offense, which the Eagles and a lot of other NFL teams continue to run.

Reid said the Eagles' version of the West Coast offense wasn't all that different from what Walsh popularized with the 49ers when he led San Francisco to three Super Bowl titles in 10 years during the 1980s.

"It's fairly close to what he did," Reid said. "We don't do quite as much split-back stuff as what they did back then. We see a couple different defenses than they did, but it's all kind of coming around because the 3-4 is coming back and that's predominantly what he set that offense up for.

"He was a creative person - very well-organized and a good, out-of-the-box thinker."

Reid met Walsh in 1983 when the 49ers were in the early stages of their dynasty. Reid was in his rookie season as the offensive coordinator at San Francisco State.

"I went up to see Mike Holmgren . . . at training camp and he introduced me to him and it was quite an experience," Reid said. "I had just got done playing college football, and it was quite an honor to meet him."

Mornhinweg doesn't think Walsh gets enough credit for the things he did beyond putting his mark on the West Coast offense.

"Everybody refers to the West Coast system, but that's not only the offensive plays," Mornhinweg said. "It's the way you practice and the way you meet. It's the daily schedules, the weekly schedules, the monthly and yearly schedules. He really developed those things."

Mornhinweg spent a considerable amount of time with Walsh when the two worked together in San Francisco during the late 1990s.

"I was the offensive coordinator in San Francisco when he was the general manager, and it wouldn't have been real smart if I didn't try to grab him on a daily basis and talk football," Mornhinweg said. "We did that quite a bit. He gave me an awful lot of advice throughout the years, and I can't remember any bad advice he gave me."

Mornhinweg said his training-camp conversations with Walsh remained a vivid memory, as does Jerry Rice's final game in a 49ers uniform, at Candlestick Park during the 2000 season.

"Bill came down to the field with about two minutes left," Mornhinweg said. "The game was basically over, and we were going to go into our slow-down offense. Bill came down and said, 'Let's get Jerry one more [catch].' "

As instructed, Mornhinweg called one more play for Rice.

About a month ago, he said he called Walsh one last time to see how his mentor was doing. It was obvious yesterday that Mornhinweg will miss those conversations.

Walsh, who had leukemia, said last season that he was rooting for the Eagles in the playoffs because he was so fond of Jeff Garcia, the quarterback who filled in for the injured Donovan McNabb.

"He was excited and happy that we were doing well and that Jeff was doing well," Mornhinweg said.

Extra points. The Eagles will go through conditioning testing this morning and have a short afternoon workout at Lehigh. Both sessions are closed to the public. The first full-squad public workout is tomorrow at 8:15 a.m. . . . Eagles long snapper Jon Dorenbos will stage a 30-minute magic show - "Magic Snaps with Jon Dorenbos" – at the Eagles' Carnival and Auction Aug. 19 at Lincoln Financial Field. The carnival and auction will take place from 3 to 8 p.m. Tickets are available at philadelphiaeagles.com.