College to NFL coaching success

[Eazy-E]

So I was thinking about how often a coach comes straight from the collegiate ranks to the NFL and finds sustained success and it got me thinking about other professions.

Lets say I’m the CEO of my own decent sized company. My dream is to one day be the head of a multi billion dollar Fortune 500 company. If an opening for said position opened up I wouldn’t even be in the realm of possibility to be hired for the job. The most realistic chance I would have is to move into big business, learn the ins and outs of a Fortune 500 company and gain the experience needed to hopefully one day be considered as a successor.

Now let’s take that same approach to football. I doubt high school coaches get calls from colleges to come right up and be the new head coach of a collegiate program. The same applies to the NFL. It used to be the only guys who got that opportunity were national championship winning coaches and even then the vast majority never went on to accomplish much at the professional level.

We have started to see the trend of hiring coaches straight from the NCAA increase because of the success of young coaches like Sean McVay. The funny thing is McVay wasn’t a college head coach. He worked his way through the ranks in the NFL until he got his opportunity.

Most people need experience in things to be successful. Just because you are a football coach doesn’t mean you are qualified to be a coach at any level of football. This is why the overwhelming majority of successful NFL head coaches come from years of NFL experience.

Just seems crazy to me that a guy like David Tepper couldn’t see that as he himself had to put in the time and effort to grind his way to the top. I’m sure he isn’t going to hire a successful day trader to come in day one and immediately start running Appaloosa Management.

[Khyber53]

Just another super rich guy who knows better how to do this football thing better than the other super rich guys who already own teams.

They all kinda go down that road at some point with the college coaches thing. And it rarely has worked out.

It's an entirely different game at the pro level and you are dealing with an entirely different group of players.

[Eazy-E]

1 minute ago, Khyber53 said:

Just another super rich guy who knows better how to do this football thing better than the other super rich guys who already own teams.

They all kinda go down that road at some point with the college coaches thing. And it rarely has worked out.

It's an entirely different game at the pro level and you are dealing with an entirely different group of players.

Yeah but these old rich guys didn’t get handed the keys to where they are currently unless they were family money/trustfunders. Most of them put in the work and got Lucky enough to make it big.

[Panther'sBigD]

25 minutes ago, Eazy-E said:

Just seems crazy to me that a guy like David Tepper couldn’t see that as he himself had to put in the time and effort to grind his way to the top. I’m sure he isn’t going to hire a successful day trader to come in day one and immediately start running Appaloosa Management.

I KNOW RIGHT?!?! How is it that David Tepper can't understand business the way, *checks notes* "Eazy-E" message board poster does?!?!! You should be running this team! 

Come on, man! Listen to yourself. 

[Eazy-E]

13 minutes ago, Panther'sBigD said:

I KNOW RIGHT?!?! How is it that David Tepper can't understand business the way, *checks notes* "Eazy-E" message board poster does?!?!! You should be running this team! 

Come on, man! Listen to yourself. 

I wrote the fuging post I know exactly how I sound. Why the fug would you hire someone for a job who has no experience in the level of work you are hiring them for and expect good things to happen?

Tell me, who was the last NFL coach who was hired straight from the NCAA to win a Super Bowl? I’ll give you a hint, it wasn’t even in this century.

[Panther'sBigD]

Edit: Damn, I forget that being 40 is old now, and half of my life was in another century. Weird. 

Still, upon further review, and looking past the fact that winning a Super Bowl straight out of college coaching is ridiculous bar, McVay has taken his team to a SB, Harbaugh took his team to a SB, Carroll took his team to multiple SBs after a failed HC stint. 

It appears evident that Tepper is trying something different with Rhule and Co. Letting them learn/fail on the job and grow with their team rather than plugging in an NFL retread. I think it could work, but it'll take more than 1.5 years. 

4 minutes ago, Eazy-E said:

Tell me, who was the last NFL coach who was hired straight from the NCAA to win a Super Bowl? I’ll give you a hint, it wasn’t even in this century.

Jimmy Johnson. LOL. 

Edited November 22, 2021 by Panther'sBigD

[Eazy-E]

4 minutes ago, Panther'sBigD said:

 

Jimmy Johnson. LOL. 

Exactly hiring Rhule and giving him that massive contract was a huge dumb mistake. Oh yeah and to top it off, allow him to hire a coaching staff of even more college coaches with no NFL experience. Recipe for disaster.

[Panther'sBigD]

Just now, Eazy-E said:

Exactly hiring Rhule and giving him that massive contract was a huge dumb mistake. Oh yeah and to top it off, allow him to hire a coaching staff of even more college coaches with no NFL experience. Recipe for disaster.

See my earlier post. Also, that contract is a rounding error to someone like Tepper. He's not sticking with Rhule because he's worried about wasting money. He's thinking mid-term/long-term rather than short-term. 

 

[45catfan]

23 minutes ago, Panther'sBigD said:

Edit: Damn, I forget that being 40 is old now, and half of my life was in another century. Weird. 

Still, upon further review, and looking past the fact that winning a Super Bowl straight out of college coaching is ridiculous bar, McVay has taken his team to a SB, Harbaugh took his team to a SB, Carroll took his team to multiple SBs after a failed HC stint. 

It appears evident that Tepper is trying something different with Rhule and Co. Letting them learn/fail on the job and grow with their team rather than plugging in an NFL retread. I think it could work, but it'll take more than 1.5 years. 

Jimmy Johnson. LOL. 

Before him was Bill Walsh and that move was in the 1970's.  This was the very reason I was NOT in favor of Rhule.  History was not on his side.  This topic was debated heavily during the coaching search and while most of the Huddle was dead set on not getting another NFL 're-tread"  those of us that was against a college coach pointed straight to this fact.  Saban and Spurrier were flops in the NFL, but could do no wrong in college.  Rhule turned sorry teams into respectable programs, but by no means juggernauts.

[Panther'sBigD]

4 minutes ago, 45catfan said:

Before him was Bill Walsh and that move was in the 1970's.  This was the very reason I was NOT in favor of Rhule.  History was not on his side.  This topic was debated heavily during the coaching search and while most of the Huddle was dead set on not getting another NFL 're-tread"  those of us that was against a college coach pointed straight to this fact.  Saban and Spurrier were flops in the NFL, but could do no wrong in college.  Rhule turned sorry teams into respectable programs, but by no means juggernauts.

Saban and Spurrier are/were bullies. You can't bully millionaires like you can college kids on scholarships. Rhule got buy-in from kids who had the chance to leave the dumpster fires he took over, and most of them stayed for the turnaround. I don't know if the Rhule experiment will work, but I get why Tepper signed on for it, and I think it's way premature to call it a failure. 

[45catfan]

4 minutes ago, Panther'sBigD said:

Saban and Spurrier are/were bullies. You can't bully millionaires like you can college kids on scholarships. Rhule got buy-in from kids who had the chance to leave the dumpster fires he took over, and most of them stayed for the turnaround. I don't know if the Rhule experiment will work, but I get why Tepper signed on for it, and I think it's way premature to call it a failure. 

Early yes, but I'm not sure the results are going to be drastically different down the road.   At best Rhule will have us as a middling team in the NFC and even may see a playoff season or two.  Perennial playoff participants and serious Super Bowl contenders?  Nah, I don't see that happening under his watch.

[LinvilleGorge]

1 hour ago, Panther'sBigD said:

I KNOW RIGHT?!?! How is it that David Tepper can't understand business the way, *checks notes* "Eazy-E" message board poster does?!?!! You should be running this team! 

Come on, man! Listen to yourself. 

I think what Tepper is learning is that there aren't perfect translations between business and football. The hedge fund world is not a fair fight. Big money, big analytics, and virtually endless variables create huge advantages for the deepest pockets. In the NFL, the hard salary cap creates a much more even playing field and the "stocks" you're looking at are much more limited. There's a lot more stocks than there are NFL caliber draft talents and quality free agents and coaching prospects. There a reason why the same handful of names are rumored to everyone with a need in that particular category. There's still a lot of variables at play, but way fewer than in the investment world and multiple firms can't invest in the same "stocks". It's an all or nothing proposition.

It's just a LOT different and success in one doesn't automatically translate to success in the other.

[raleigh-panther]

12 minutes ago, Panther'sBigD said:

Saban and Spurrier are/were bullies. You can't bully millionaires like you can college kids on scholarships. Rhule got buy-in from kids who had the chance to leave the dumpster fires he took over, and most of them stayed for the turnaround. I don't know if the Rhule experiment will work, but I get why Tepper signed on for it, and I think it's way premature to call it a failure. 

‘Premature’   Lol

As is said, ‘you can put lipstick on a pig but it’s still a pig’

it should Not take too long to realize what Rhule is and what he should have stayed.  

Hope  to wake up on Jan 5 to ‘Rhule and Tepper have amicably agree to split and Rhule is off to USC’

[Pimpdaddy]

5 hours ago, Panther'sBigD said:

I KNOW RIGHT?!?! How is it that David Tepper can't understand business the way, *checks notes* "Eazy-E" message board poster does?!?!! You should be running this team! 

Come on, man! Listen to yourself. 

LoL...Eazy-E ain't so eazy..