He was appointed interim head coach with the promise of an interview for the permanent head coaching job, and now after helping the Bills to complete their final seven games of the 2009 campaign Perry Fewell will now make his best case to Buffalo GM Buddy Nix to remove that interim tag.
"We'll be doing that sometime this week," said Fewell when asked if he has an interview with Nix.
Fewell led the Bills to a 3-4 mark over the final seven games with wins over Miami, Kansas City and Indianapolis on Sunday. He was proud of the heart his team showed in the season finale despite the fact that there was no bearing on the outcome of the game.
"I think it says a lot about them and their character," said Fewell of his players. "They could've given up a long time ago and they never did. "I've coached seven games with them. We fought and had a chance to win each ball game except the Atlanta game, but they kept fighting until the very end and I think that says a lot about them. They wanted to go out and win a football game. They wanted to have one win to feel good and it does. It feels good to win."
The players showed genuine appreciation for Fewell picking up the flag for the team and assuming the head coaching role after Dick Jauron was released of his duties in Week 11. Some even admitted they wanted to win for Fewell, knowing that next season things could be a lot different.
"I think a lot of guys wanted to come out here and do that for him," said Fred Jackson, who had a career-high 212 rushing yards. "We enjoyed playing for him in the short time that we had him as our coach and hopefully some things can happen and we'll see where we are next year."
After the season-ending win over Indianapolis Fewell made sure to let the players know he appreciated the effort they put on the field down the stretch this year.
"I thanked them for their cooperation," he said. "This football team, they could've gone astray and gotten in trouble and done this and done that, but they didn't. They stayed focused. They came to work every day, every week, even when guys were going down and they were injured. They just kept plugging right along so I just thanked them for their efforts."
"He was proud of the guys sticking together and trying to finish the season strong," said Kyle Williams. "Obviously it was a rough year in terms of wins and losses. We had so many guys on I-R, so many guys who are hurt and not on I-R trying to play and stick in there for their teammates to help us win. He told us he was proud of us for sticking it out."
Fewell didn't deny that he's eager to lay out his plan for the future of the Bills in his interview with Nix, which has been reported to be scheduled for Monday. In fact he's had his plan laid out for quite some time.
When asked how much time he's had to think about his plan for rebuilding this team with all the added responsibility these past two months Fewell smiled.
"I did that this summer."
Other potential head coaching candidates for the Bills are expected to follow Fewell in the coming days.
