Bengals coach Dick LeBeau is a Civil War buff who admires Confederate generals.

        “They were about what kept the thing going as long as it was,” LeBeau said Tuesday, his second day on the job.

        LeBeau, who replaced Bruce Coslet, who resigned Monday, might feel a little like a Southern commander this week.

        Geography aside, his 0-3 Bengals are the underdog Rebels.

        Their opponent Sunday, the 3-1 Miami Dolphins, are playing like Sherman marching through Georgia. The Dolphins are the first NFL team since 1937 to allow only one touchdown in their first four games.

        While Miami's defense is strong, the Bengals are apparently short on ammunition. They've been firing blanks. Cincinnati is the first team since the 1945 Chicago Cardinals to score only one touchdown in the first three games and have been outscored 74-7.

        “They were out-manned and out-produced,” LeBeau said of the likes of Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson. The Yankees had more troops, more supplies and the railroads. But the Confederacy had most of the brains.

        “They had all the guys who graduated at the top of

        their class at West Point,” LeBeau said, “and the North had all the guys who graduated further down.”

        So while he admires how Southern leaders got the most out of their resources, LeBeau doesn't associate or identify with them. He knows when to put the brakes on a simile.

        LeBeau is, however, in the words of Alfred Lord Tennyson (the poet, not an American general), part of all he has met.

        He played for coach Woody Hayes at Ohio State. Don Shula was his first defensive coordinator. He learned from Vince Lombardi for two weeks in all-star games.

        “I think I've been exposed to some of the greatest football coaches ever,” said LeBeau, who played 14 seasons at cornerback for the Detroit Lions. “Are some of them in me? Sure. We're all the product of our environment. Maybe more subconsciously than consciously, those people surface in your personality.”

        LeBeau's battle plans are timeless.

        “I've never had a doubt about the philosophical football we want to play,” he said. “We want to establish ourself collectively. We were not centralized, particularly versus Baltimore. And we've got to go back to Page 1.

        “My philosophy is very simple. You attack. You attack at the line of scrimmage. You attack on the periphery. You attack for 60 minutes. And that won't change. Our situation is pretty unique right now. We've got to re-establish our basics and get this team competitive.”

        Although he looks 15-20 years younger than his 63 years, LeBeau is long on NFL experience. He is a 41-year veteran, 29 of them as a coach.

        This season is his 16th as a Bengals coach and until Monday was in his second stint as the team's defensive coordinator. He represents a first as a Cincinnati head coach.

        “He's our first head coach with a defensive background,” president Mike Brown said. “Maybe that's the way to go.”

        LeBeau, who also coached in Philadelphia, Green Bay and Pittsburgh, is a first in another sense, too.

        He is the oldest rookie NFL coach since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970, one year older than Rod Rust (New England, 1990) and Bud Wilkinson (1978, St. Louis Cardinals).

        LeBeau also is a close friend of Coslet and one of his golfing buddies.

        “I look at myself as exceptionally fortunate,” LeBeau said. “I certainly rue the circumstances under which this transpired. I turned down several head coaching opportunities earlier in my career. And quite honestly I had to face the realization that, probably at my age, that opportunity may be gone. I was fine with that.

        “I was very happy working for a man I respected and coaching defense. Did I always want to be a head coach? Yes. But this kind of serendipitous.”

        There are 13 games remaining for the 2000 Bengals. That's a long time, one game longer than the 12-game schedule LeBeau played when he broke in with the Lions. And it's plenty of time to make his vision for his team a reality.

        “Our goal is to become competitive as quickly as possible,” he said, “to regain our focus, our central spirit and attack people.”

        He's already putting in hours typical of an NFL head coach.

        His second day on the job was only about halfway done as the afternoon wore on Tuesday.

        “Day 1 was about a week long,” LeBeau said. “And Day 2 has come down to about four days.”

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