Listening to the local sports radio show here in Birmingham, Ala., Dunaway and Brown, the subject came up about who makes a better head coach, an offensively minded coach or a defensively minded coach?
So I looked at the current top 25 and what head coaches had offensive backgrounds and which coaches had defensive backgrounds. It was interesting what I found, and the results may surprise you.
Let's take a look at how the offensive background coaches stack up to the defensive background coaches around the nation. I only used their backgrounds before they became head coaches, so their previous head coaching positions are not listed.
COACHES WITH AN OFFENSIVE BACKGROUND
Mark Richt, No. 3 Georgia Bulldogs (75-19)
(East Carolina OC; Florida State OC)
Urban Meyer, No. 4 Florida Gators (70-16)
(Ohio State TE, WR; Illinois St, QB, WR; Colorado St. WR; Notre Dame WR)
Gary Pinkel, No. 5 Missouri Tigers (125-74)
(Washington TE; Bowling Green WR; Washington WR; Washington OC)
Les Miles, No. 6 LSU Tigers (64-27)
(Colorado OL; Michigan OL; Oklahoma State OC; Dallas Cowboys TE)
Mack Brown, No. 7 Texas Longhorns (189-99)
(Iowa State WR; Iowa State OC; LSU QB; Oklahoma OC)
Mike Leach, No. 11 Texas Tech Red Raiders (68-37)
(Valdosta OC; Kentucky OC; Oklahoma OC)
Jim Tressel, No. 13 Ohio State Buckeyes (75-17) *only counting wins at OSU
(Akron QB, RB, WR; Miami (OH) QB, WR; Syracuse QB, RB)
Skip Holtz, No. 15 East Carolina Pirates (56-40)
(Colorado State WR; Notre Dame WR; Notre Dame OC; South Carolina OC, QB)
Mike Bellotti, No. 17 Oregon Ducks (106-52)
(Weber State OC; Oregon OC)
Mark Mangino, No. 19 Kansas Jayhawks (39-37)
(Oklahoma OC, OL)
Bill Stewart, No. 21 West Virginia Mountaineers (1-1)
(Asst. at North Carolina, Marshall, Navy, Arizona State, Air Force; West Virginia. QB, ST)
Tommy Bowden, No. 23 Clemson Tigers (87-46)
(Florida State DB; Auburn RB; Florida State TE; Duke OC, QB; Alabama WR; Kentucky OC; Auburn OC)
Dennis Erickson, No. 24 Arizona State Sun Devils (160-67)
(Idaho OC; Fresno State OC; San Jose State OC)
Bobby Bowden, No. 25 Florida State Seminoles (301-87) *only counting wins at FSU
(Florida State WR; West Virginia OC)
3 comments Last one added 9 months ago — Leave a Comment
Michael Shibley 9 months ago
Good idea Justin,
My thought has always been, who is the best fit for the school. Just look at Nebraska. They brought in an offensive guy in Bill Callahan to change things up and look what happened. Now they bring in Bo Pelini and we will have to see how he does.
It really comes down to who is best fit to be the top guy. If he can recruit, make all the big decisions, work best with the players, and be a winner.
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BabyTate 9 months ago
Really good article, good research.
Let's look at Jim Lee Howell's New York Football Giants teams of the 1950s. Offensive Coordinator Vince Lombardi, Defensive Coordinator Tom Landry. Now that's sending your assistants on to having a great career, each with a different background but both very successful.
You know I dislike professional football references but since that was over half a century ago I didn't think you or I should mind.
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Timothy Croley 9 months ago
The research here is great. The quality of the article displays your hard work and effort at putting this all together. Good stuff. I enjoyed it!
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