Which NFL Coach Would You Hire?
by uclahy on Dec 11, 2011 9:17 AM PST
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PrintThis is not intended to predict anything. It is just food for thought that an NFL record is a poor predictor, period. I believe the manner in which the coaching search was conducted was a microcosm of the ineptitude of our AD for the past ten years, and that the clueless statement from our Chancellor is emblematic of the horrible culture in our Administration that any head coach we hire must somehow overcome to succeed. We still need regime change at the top.
Mr. Mora, however, is a new Bruin and our Head Coach. He is entrusted with recruiting, developing and coaching our football players with class and dignity. I welcome him to our family. May he live long and prosper. Above all, may he challenge and change our recent culture of mediocrity, meet all of his lofty expectations for himself and our program, man up our historically soft program, never forget 50-0 and return the favor to our arrogant and petty rivals, big time.
Anyway, see if you can guess who these coaches are.
GO BRUINS!
Coach 1
TEAM ONE
8-5-1
6-7-1 fired
TEAM TWO
5-9
2-12
6-8
7-7
1-3 resigned, team finished 9-7 with another HC (8-4)
OVERALL
35-51-2 in 6.25 years averaging roughly 6-8 in 14 game seasons
.406
Coach 2
TEAM ONE
9-7
6-10 quit
OVERALL
15-17
.468
Coach 3
TEAM ONE
6-10
TEAM TWO
10-6
9-7
8-8
TEAM 3
7-9
5-7 so far
OVERALL
45-47
.489
Coach 4
TEAM ONE
6-10
7-9
7-9
11-5
5-11
OVERALL
36-44
.450
Coach 5
TEAM ONE
11-5
8-8
7-9
TEAM TWO
5-11
OVERALL
31-33
.484
ANSWERS:
1. Tommy Prothro: legendary UCLA coach.
2. Nick Saban: legendary, controversial National Championship coach at Alabama.
3. Pete Carroll: legendary college cheater who forfeited a National Championship.
4. Bill Belichick: legendary Super Bowl winner and best coach in football. Period. (Record was his gig as NY Jets coach.)
5. Jim L. Mora: new UCLA head coach.
I'm not saying ... Just food for thought.
This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of BruinsNation's (BN) editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of BN's editors.
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You can't compare Mora to Saban and Carroll
Saban before joining the NFL built two powerhouse programs at the college level (MSU and LSU), which included NC stints at Baton Rouge. What folks forget about Carroll is the extensive experience at the college level. Mora is not close to Carroll when it comes to having experience coaching in the college game.
Or, an administration that was willing to turn a blind eye
To Reggie’s free house
Dwayne Jarret living rent free
Mark Sanchez’ sexual assault charges
a drug ring being run from a FB players dorm room
players fighting over gambling debts over video games.
etc.
Winning is not a sometime thing; it's an all the time thing. You don't win once in a while; you don't do things right once in a while; you do them right all the time. Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing. ~ Vince Lombardi
Not sure I consider Saban's MSU a powerhouse
But I get your point and agree.I think that NFL coaching record carries no weight on how the coach will be in college, but it’s the identity and way in which those teams played. By accounts of Seahawks fans, the team was atrocious and it started with JLM so not many positive signs here.
I just hope he can take over the defensive side of things and really lock that down. I also hope he can hire a good OC who can lead an efficient or big play offense and utilize our athletes. Maybe Mike Johnson is that guy and he just had his hands tied by Neuheisel, but whoever our OC is will have lots of talent to work with.
by themichael21 on Dec 11, 2011 10:37 AM PST up reply actions
Right
Probably shouldn’t have used the word powerhouse but IIRC MSU was a very good program under him.
by Nestor on Dec 11, 2011 10:51 AM PST via mobile up reply actions
They went 9-2 his last year
Clearly showed he had the ability to turn them into a powerhouse but left for LSU before he could do so. I think debating Nick Saban’s success is kind of like debating whether the Lakers have been a good franchise
by themichael21 on Dec 11, 2011 12:37 PM PST up reply actions
Defense
Check his numbers and better yet wath some tape of them playing. He is a poor defensive planner. Unless he changes his stripes… Mora=Tresey
by Seahawcla on Dec 11, 2011 11:17 AM PST via mobile up reply actions
I take your word for it
His calling card is his defensive mind but from what you and most Seahawks fans say, not a whole lot to look forward to you on that front. Lots of hopeful thinking and some praying mixed in there with this hire
by themichael21 on Dec 11, 2011 12:39 PM PST up reply actions
I said, "I'm not saying ... "
I made it clear that I’m not saying Mora will be like the other four. That is a logical leap I never made. My unscientific examples were just to give food for thought that, maybe, an NFL record is not a good predictor because there are so many variables or just plain dumb luck.
Does anyone doubt Prothro was a great coach in college? No, but he struggled in the pros for a number of reasons. Belichick stunk with the Jets. He wasn’t so hot at New England either until his QB was injured and he was forced to play an unknown named Tom Brady.
Petey cheated and Saban has had monster recruiting at Alabama that he at least knew what to do with. You just never know.
Mora was not my first, second, third or fourth choice (or any choice of mine) though I figured, based on our history, he was one we might very well hire. But, contrary to what others have posted, his mediocre record in the NFL does not mean he cannot succeed in the future either in college or the NFL. That’s all I’m saying. We can only wait and see. He did go 11-5 his first year with a young, lazy Michael Vick. Who knows? We can only hope.
Hope
I and other commentators have said this, but it’s a shame that UCLA has to “hope” and cross our fingers when we hire a new coach. Personally, I believe Mora’s success will be determined by who he hires as his assistants and what type of culture he establishes.
by hicalliber on Dec 11, 2011 11:49 AM PST via mobile up reply actions
Don't think anybody is disagreeing with you
Regarding the whole hope thing. DG is a failure and should have been fired long ago, not even up for debate. But at this point it would appear it’s all we have to go on with so much uncertainty surrounding this hire
by themichael21 on Dec 11, 2011 12:41 PM PST up reply actions
FYI, Belichick coached the old Cleveland Browns, not the Jets
He was the HC of the Jets for one day in ‘99 before going to New England. But your point is well-taken. We need to remember that NFL coaches don’t typically have as much control over personnel as college coaches. Not to imply that college coaches don’t have restrictions, such as academic requirements, but they know that in advance and can recruit accordingly. Remember there was a trend starting a few years back where prospective NFL coaches were negotiating for total control of personnel decisions if hired. This stresses the importance of the HC having players that he approves of. In college, HCs have that.
Not a fair question, hy
It assume that I (or anyone else) would actually hire an NFL coach. I think the evidence laid out at length in the BN shows that you might want to hire an NFL coach to be a motivation speaker or something, but not to be a head coach.
Understood and not my point, again.
In my original version of my intended post I made reference to MexiBruin’s excellent fan post on why NFL guys do not in general make good college coaches. For some reason my iPad lost that and I had to reconstruct it and omitted that point when I did this post.
I never meant to imply that I would pick an NFL guy, or Mora is Saban or Prothro or Belichick, as my choice for a college coach. I just wanted to focus on NFL experience alone and college results. So, for example, who the heck would hire Belichick at a college after his record with the Browns? Or Prothro after the pros? Probably nobody, but they would be wrong, right?
As for the hire itself, other than Leach, I really had no dog in this fight other than I preferred an up and comer over a “retread.” If, we went the retread route, my pick would have been Bellotti, frankly.
Now Mora is our coach and I’m just trying to be positive as to him. I saw a few comments that we’re doomed because he’s a loser in the NFL. That prompted me to look up a few stats and make this post, the only point being, his NFL record is not a predictor at all, and, hopefully, he may thrive in it, especially if he can develop some young men named Brehaut and Hundley and/or actually teach our kids to wrap up and tackle.
Now that Mora has been hired and has chosen to be a Bruin, I will support him and judge him by the results on the field and the way he runs our program. Undoubtedly that will require him to challenge the hlstoricak mediocrity of support from Morgan Center, and their complete cluelessness about how to run a top tier program.
On the other jand, I remain absolutely committed to regime change. This is an unnecessarily risky, yet bureaucratically “safe” hire and the entire search process has been an embarrassment. Worse, after thousands of fans and alumni voicing their legitimate concerns over ten years of ineptitude at Morgan Center, Blockhead’s ignorant and arrogant response has been to double-down on Dan. Not a very smart move on his part for such a supposedly brilliant guy.
Welcome Mora. Fire Dan.
I would have hired Prothro if I had been the Rams, but I would not have hired Prothro back from the Rams if I were the Bruins
There are lots of people (Chianti Dan for one) who see no problem hiring an NFL guy. I think no one can coach in the NFL and not develop the NFL mindset. I think it’s an incurable disease unless you do what Cheatie Petie did, and that is to cheat without remorse.
Anyway, I see your point. I think it’s fair to give the new guy exactly the same as he’s giving us. He’s decided to watch football somewhere else rather than to come in and see what’s going on in LA. I’ve had several jobs. Missing work on the first day never was high on my priority list. Apparently, the new guy has a different priority list.
Sometimes you have to finish a job before you can leave for a new one.
I don’t know the details, but it seems he finished a last telecast or something. I don’t know his gig really. I assume he will.be here this week to meet the team. If not I will certainly share your concern. For $2.4 million I’d just say let Kilroy do it and hightail my ass out of there. But that’s just me.
Tell your children to coach football. Forget doctor and lawyer!
I have worked in the telecast business, Hy, and it's not like the color man is an irreplaceable cog.
A few guys really work at it. (You may be surprised that the most diligent preparer I’ve seen is Dick Stockton. Maybe others prepare as much or more, but I’ve seen what he does.) The color guy has to do homework, of course, but in the NFL, there isn’t that much homework to do. You know all the teams. You work for the NFL network, so there is an infinite amount of tape to look at, and more importantly, an infinite number of broadcast assistants to look at the tape and give you what you need for the next game. The producer and director give you what they want you to talk about, and you just go wing it. The point is that the new guy could have told his bosses that he had a new gig when he got it, and they would have had an embarrassingly abundant amount of time to get a new fungible talking head in place.
Loyalty to the old gig doesn’t play with our new guy, given that (a) he took the Bruin job when he already had a job, and (b) he has a history of eschewing loyalty to his present job to angle for a job he wants more.
It can’t be that he needed the money from the old job that much. He’s not exactly going to be broke. I conclude that despite all the hupe about his enthusiasm and all that, he doesn’t really give a crap about UCLA. If that’s too harsh, then I’ll temper it. He doesn’t give enough of a crap to show up when he took the job, but rather chose to delay things about a week.
Last point about the color man. Does Vinnie need a color man? One in the booth is far, far better than two in the booth.
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