Miami Dolphins owner Wayne Huizenga is not like most owners.
As a chief executive officer of numerous successful companies, Huizenga loves having one main decision maker. During Jimmy Johnson's final couple years as Dolphins head coach, Huizenga was willing to let Johnson skip training camps and early-week meetings if that's what it took to keep him as the man making the decisions for the Dolphins. Huizenga didn't care that not having the head coach around all the time was unorthodox. He trusted Johnson and wanted to keep him.
Under the circumstances of Nick Saban's departure, though, it's unlikely Huizenga will find the right coach who will be the main decision maker. That's why this hiring process, which started Wednesday, is going to be more traditional. As much as Huizenga would like to find the next Don Shula, Jimmy Johnson or Nick Saban, he doesn't have that luxury this time.
In other words, the unconventional Dolphins will be more conventional in the hiring of a new coach.
Sure, it's not out of the question for the Dolphins to go for the home run. USC coach Pete Carroll doesn't appear to be in the 2007 NFL hiring spree. He has a great situation at USC and he's putting out absolutely no feelers about getting back into the NFL this year. Carroll will return to the NFL only for a team that gives him complete authority. Besides, he left for a week's vacation after the Rose Bowl and doesn't seem to be giving thoughts to anything but staying at USC and resting.
The Dolphins did make a quick move on Wednesday, officially making contact with the San Diego Chargers to request an interview for offensive coordinator Cam Cameron.
The formal request arrived in the Chargers office late Wednesday afternoon, and the Dolphins will have to make arrangements to interview him before Sunday. On Tuesday, the Cardinals put in a similar request for Cameron.
Cameron remains one of the league's hottest assistant coaches. He calls plays for a Chargers offense that leads with league with a 30.8 average, produced a running back (LaDainian Tomlinson) who set the NFL touchdown record with 31 and made Philip Rivers a Pro Bowl quarterback in his first season.
The 45-year-old Cameron coached quarterbacks for the Redskins from 1994 to 1996 and was head coach at Indiana from 1997 to 2001. He joined the Chargers in 2000.
Kirk Ferentz of Iowa is another college coach who will go to the NFL only under the right circumstances. Although the Pittsburgh native might have interest in the Steelers' job, expect Ferentz to stay with Iowa.
That leaves the Dolphins' head coaching search on the same plane as Arizona and Atlanta. They all will be interviewing hot assistants. In addition to Cameron, expect them to reach out this weekend for Ron Rivera of the Bears. The interview windows for Cameron and Rivera close this weekend, and they won't be able to resurface as candidates after that until their teams are eliminated from the playoffs.
Dolphins defensive coordinator Dom Capers will get more consideration with Miami than with other teams. Huizenga is going to be interested in continuity, and Capers could provide that. Don't read much into Jason Taylor's retirement talk. He isn't retiring at 32. Taylor and Zach Thomas are the leaders within the Dolphins' locker room and they love the scheme Capers ran. Taylor is the leading candidate for defensive player of the year, but he doesn't want to go into a rebuilding process that often accompanies a new coach, which is where all this retirement talk started.
Capers could stay as the head coach and keep several of the high-paid assistants, such as Mike Mularkey (offensive coordinator) and Hudson Houck (offensive line coach). Taylor and Thomas would be all for that. Such a move would give the Dolphins a base to build on for the offseason. Even though their front seven is getting old, the defense still will be tough with Taylor and Thomas as the centerpieces.
Former Dolphins defensive coordinator Jim Bates probably also will also be in the mix. Huizenga and the players loved what he did as an interim coach in Miami. Even though he might switch the defense back to a 4-3, Taylor and Thomas love the scheme and there are enough parts from the pre-Saban days to make it work.
Other than that, the Dolphins probably will be talking to Ken Whisenhunt of the Steelers, Jim Caldwell of the Colts, Mike Sherman of the Texans and other assistant coaches.
Huizenga didn't know until he hired Saban that his main decision maker labored too much on his decisions. Saban wouldn't delegate authority, but he should have. Every personnel decision was painful and agonizing. He drove staffers and assistant coaches crazy going back and forth on decisions, sometimes at the expense of losing players.
As a result, the Dolphins' defense got older and the offensive personnel didn't seem to have a direction.
Owners rarely repeat what they did last. And with Huizenga not selling the team, you can expect he might go back to the CEO type coach, but there isn't as much time for the Dolphins to find such a person this time. Expect a hot assistant to get the job.
John Clayton is a senior writer for ESPN.com.