Quote from: Philosophers on Today at 11:14:17 AMKalen DeBoer was a HC in North Dakota who was highly successful playing nationally. At University of Washington, he put that program at a new level of success. Alabama pounced on him when Saban retired. I've read that what he has developed further in Jalen Milroe at QB and their offense so quickly has been amazing. Some coaches have IT. A record of like 114-12. Very hard to do.
I guess, my question is more about what some around here would consider success as an NFL head coach. I think there are some obvious ones, but there are a lot more that some would say is successful and others would say they were not successful. I bet even a guy like Sean Payton would have those that say he was only successful because of Brees...Or that Mike Tomlin isn't successful because he won early with the previous guys players.... some people would have said that prior to his tenure in KC Andy Reid was not a successful HC even though he went to a Super Bowl and 4 consecutive NFC championships....
Every few years we have this debate (sadly) about which do you prefer - a former HC, a coordinator, a retread....and there is always a group that wants nothing to do with one or more of those groups. I remember people questioning when NE hired BB. "He needed Parcells to deal with the personalities" Of course his not so great record in Cleveland was the best HC tenure they had for some time.
It makes me laugh tbh. I think the issue is that fans want to have an opinion and we base that opinion on what we know. So for instance - "turned that program around", "He has had success at every stop", etc...
In my humble opinion, a great HC can come from any of those places, college, coordinator or retread. Its not where they have been, its if they are the right guy to lead men. And honestly, without having worked with or around any of these guys, none of us actually knows if a guy has those qualities. They all must have some amount of those qualities or they wouldn't get to the levels they have had success at.