Florida, Ohio State, Virginia Tech and Texas Fans: Your Coaches Are Still Great

Rockne, Yost, Warner, Stagg, Bierman, Wilkinson, Royal, Woody, Bo, Bryant, McKay, Paterno, Gagliardi, Kehres, Holtz, Bowden and Osborne—just a few of the elite coaches to walk the sidelines in college football. 

Over the last two decades, a handful of coaches have risen to the level of the ones listed—Brown, Stoops, Meyer, Saban, Beamer, Ferentz, Tressel, and Spurrier.  Their 1,131 wins and eight national titles are extraordinary. 

Given their success, it seems laughable that any criticism would be made toward their abilities, but all of them have weathered a fair amount this year.  Granted, criticism naturally goes with the profession.  However, these coaches deliver far more joy than pain, so some proper perspective is needed.

All of these coaches share similar characteristics that made them the best in their profession. 

Passion: Not only do they love college football, they are obsessed with it.  Being a coach is their life.  Their enthusiasm is contagious and inspires the team to excel beyond their capabilities.

Discipline: These coaches establish a strong framework that prepares the players to do well on the field, in the classroom and in the community. 

Supporting Families: It is rarely discussed because coaches try to shield their families from the spotlight, but their sacrifice gives the coach the time to invest into the team.

Innovative: These coaches stay true to their core coaching principles, but are willing and able to effectively incorporate new styles of play into their philosophy.

Recruiters: The elite coaches are master sales professionals.  They are able to persuade the players with the most potential to come to their school.  Furthermore, these coaches are able to recruit on a national scale, and no territory is inaccessible to their influence. 

Managers: The amount of different responsibilities a head coach has is incredible.  Watching film, game-planning, practices, recruiting, media, player discipline, community activities and, yes, coaching the players.  The finest coaches are able to create the vision, set the strategy, implement the tactics and delegate appropriately.

Have loyal assistants: All great coaches have long coaching trees.  Success breeds success.  Every coach will have turnover, but the elite coaches are able to maintain stability. 

Teaching ability: These coaches love to teach.  They stress doing all things the proper way, and then make their players repeat it over and over until they become masters. 

University support: The schools invest the resources to help make the program successful.  Excellent coaches work for universities that pay assistants well, build state-of-the-art facilities and are willing to stay the course when success does not come quickly. 

Ambassadors: The finest coaches are leaders beyond the gridiron.  They use their influence to help motivate the troops, give hope to suffering children and raise funds for local charities.  They make their communities better. 

Some fans of Oklahoma, Texas, Florida, Alabama, Virginia Tech, Iowa and Ohio State need to criticize less, and enjoy the ride more.  Perfection is not obtainable. Your teams are at the top year in and year out, and that should be enough.