I’ve done many stories over the years running down the list of that year’s “hot” NFL head coaching prospects.
Those prospects almost always were offensive or defensive coordinators.
I’ve never understood why it had to be that way.
That’s why the shocked reaction in many quarters to the New York Giants’ hiring of Patriots special teams coordinator and wide receivers coach Joe Judge (“Who the heck is he?”) as their head coach is succumbing to cliched conventional thinking.
If a team is willing to hire a first-time NFL head coach, it should consider offensive and defensive coordinators, sure, but not to the point of making it a requirement for consideration.
Much of this can apply to the college game, too.
A head coach is – or at least should be — a CEO.
In Judge’s case, most who truly understand the pro game get that running the special teams often requires the sort of lobbying, planning and even scrambling that emulates the challenges of head coaching.
Andy Reid’s special teams coach with the Chiefs, Dave Toub, has had head-coaching interviews and has an assistant head coach title, but hasn’t landed a head-coaching job.
One of the biggest jokes was that Bobby April was renowned as the league’s best special teams coach for 25 years, with nine teams, and never got a head-coaching sniff.
The special teams coach works with the players he’s allowed to use, and that does not always mean the best players for the roles.
And veteran position coaches who earn loyalty from their charges – whether offensive linemen, wide receivers, linebackers and beyond — in some cases might be great head coaches waiting to happen. But, gee whiz, “they’ve been only position coaches!”
Every CEO operates differently in the varied circumstances, whether in the corporate world or football.
But in football, I’m convinced the CEO model more could mean running a staff, inspiring a roster, and making in-game strategy decisions.
And, no, it’s not calling a play off the sheet, not dictating a specific defensive strategem, not being involved to a significant extent in devising a game-plan on either side of the ball.
The responsibilities, titles and background don’t have to be one size fits all in determining who might become a great head coach.
You hire coordinators you respect and trust and let them do their darned jobs.
Even if you’d been a great coordinator yourself, you step aside and don’t let meddling in those details deflect you from operating as an effective CEO.
You also deal with the media and broadcasters. Don’t laugh. It’s an important component in the formula, more so than ever in the digital age, unless you’ve won enough to be able to simply say ‘it’s on to Cincinnati’ 52 times in a row.
And then there are those darned “production meetings” with the broadcast crews that, as outlined, seem to take up roughly eight hours each week.
Yes, some head coaches have operated as their own de facto coordinators while massaging assistants’ titles for ego, prestige or salary purposes.
Or if a coordinator is viewed as indispensable, the title can be kicked up a notch, too, and we’re soon going to have an Assistant Associate Vice Head Coach.
Sometimes, though, trying to keep a hand in one side of the ball can detract a head coach from his CEO duties.
Clearly, some great coordinators have struggled as head coaches — with Norv Turner as an examples.
NFL conventionality calls for us to buy into the notion that a terrific coach was going to be that regardless of where he was hired.
As Bill “On to Cincinnati” Belichick was with the Browns, for example. (Oops.)
No, there’s more “horses for courses” involved in this than usually is recognized.
Or being at the mercy of your roster.
But more than all of that, the truly visionary hiring process that settles on a first-time head coach is focused on finding a great head coach. Regardless of what his title has been in previous stops.
THE NFL COACHING CAROUSEL
CAROLINA PANTHERS
- OUT: Ron Rivera (fired during season)
- IN: Matt Rhule
CLEVELAND BROWNS
- OUT: Freddie Kitchens
- IN: Kevin Stefanski
DALLAS COWBOYS
- OUT: Jason Garrett
- IN: Mike McCarthy
NEW YORK GIANTS
- OUT: Pat Shurmur
- IN: Joe Judge
WASHINGTON REDSKINS
- OUT: Jay Gruden (fired during season
- IN: Ron Rivera
About Terry: Terry Frei is the author of seven books. His novels are Olympic Affair and The Witch’s Season, and among his five non-fiction works are Horns, Hogs, and Nixon Coming; Third Down and a War to Go; and ’77: Denver, the Broncos, and a Coming of Age. Information is available on his web site, terryfrei.com. His woodypaige.com archive can be found here.
