In with a Bang.... (Updated)

The following is an update to a post from last August, the original which can be found here.

Over the past 20 years there have been 9 coaches to win a national championship within the first 3 years of taking over at head coach of their respective college program, and outside of one, Pete Carroll at USC, that coach never won another one (Urban Meyer won it two years ago so we will have to wait and see, Les Miles (pictured) won it last year and we feel comfortable will never win it again and Pete Carroll won it in his 3rd and 4th seasons. The rest of the lineup is as follows:

Lou Holtz – Notre Dame ’88 (3rd Year)
Gene Stallings – Alabama ’92 (2nd Year)
Lloyd Carr - Michigan '97 (3rd Year)
Bob Stoops – Oklahoma ’00 (2nd Year)
Larry Coker – Miami ’01 (1st Year)
Jim Tressel - Ohio St. ‘02 (3rd Year)

Obviously, each data point has a different backdrop and context from the others…. Holtz continued to field national championship caliber teams after ’88, though the last 3 years were mediocre (23-11-1) by Tying Irish standards. Stallings also, had very good on-field success after his lone championship, though he stepped down in ’96 after an exhaustive 2 yr. investigation of the ‘Bama program which did result in sanctions. Michigan coach Lloyd Carr, though, has not only not won another national title but was perceived as heading a program in gradual decline and was fired, er, stepped down at the end of last season as a result.

Also in the 90s, one has examples conversely of this alleged phenomena where ironically it was two ball coaches that had been at their respective schools for years before winning their first championships in the persons of Bobby Bowden at Florida St. and Dr. Tom Osborne at Nebraska. In fact, those two pretty much owned the decade by combining for 5 National Championships.

Things get a little juicier with this next set. Tressel won in his 3rd year and had a chance to win the title in the last 2 consecutive years before being upset by Florida and Urban Meyer, a 2nd Year guy at the time and then Les Miles of LSU, a year 3 guy. No shame, that.

Larry Coker is the poster-old man for this post. After winning the championship in his very first season with the ‘Canes, his win totals declined thereafter until he was dismissed two years ago. And though by no means is he in the hot seat, Sooner Nation, is getting a little anxious for Bob Stoops to get back to the BCS title game... or least show-up at a BCS bowl game where they have lost their last 4 of which they appeared.

Again… not sure if there are enough data points to lead to anything more conclusive than perhaps that each of the above won primarily with the last guy’s recruits.

We would be remiss if we did not hand out an Honorable Mention-type award as well: Kirk Farentz of Iowa has seen his win totals in steady decline after winning the Big 10 title in both '02 (4th season) and '04 (6th season). And both Ralph Friedgen of Maryland and Chuck Amato as HC at NC State who were fired at the end of the ’06 season, shared similar career arcs starting at the beginning of the decade in the ACC.

It will be interesting to see how Tressel, Stoops, Meyer and Miles, coaches who man one of the 7 or 8 mega-programs in the nation, fare in the coming years.

Better Late than Never

We make no apologies for our general disdain for coaches, particularly at the professional football level. It seems that they fall into this trap of having to prove to the world just how smart they are…. and how much more clever they are than the other coaches. Brian Billick is the poster-boy for this phenomena. The one-time offensive genius while with the Minnesota Vikings has fielded pathetic offensive units year after year as coach of the Baltimore Ravens (3 field goals and 0 touchdowns against the Niners yesterday, by the way). The man just oozes condescension when he speaks which doesn’t help matters any when we wonder why Billick is held in such great esteem.

And Jon “Chuckie” Gruden isn’t far behind Billick in these respects. All that phone book-sized playbook and play names that take up 20 seconds of the 35 second play clock to recite in the huddle have done for him is one of the most moribund offenses in the NFL.

So the only thing Norv Turner gets any credit for on Sunday is just getting the hell out of the way and letting his playmakers make plays in the Charger’s 41-3 trouncing of the Broncos. Actually, the play-calling and the on-field results were very reminiscent of his days in Dallas as the Cowboy’s offensive coordinator: a steady commitment to the running game and effective usage of play-action to go vertical in the passing game later on.

Even when LT wasn’t experience great success early on in the running game, the Chargers stuck with it realizing that it would (and did) pay dividends later on in opening up the passing game downfield to Antonio Gates and Vincent Jackson. We realize we are biased and we know that Randy Moss and Tom Brady are compiling ungodly stats playing catch in New England right now, but we can’t think of any other player who is having as good a season as Gates is.

Defensive coordinator Ted Cottrell is not off the hook, though. Still not generating much of a pass rush so credit has to be given to the secondary for their much improved play over last week in tackling and pass defense.

So it only took Turner a quarter of the season to figure out how to utilize the talent he has on the offensive side of the football. As we said, better late than never. If the Chargers can beat the Raiders here next Sunday, they will be at least tied for first place in what looks like a very suspect AFC West.