Jack’s Blog

Heading to Stanford for a one-day trip (post surgery, take out stitches, explain strategy for next year or so).  Blog will return Thursday.  In the meantime, enjoy this reprint from Sept, ‘08.  

Today’s college football coaches are being paid like CEO’s and it’s because, for all intents and purposes, they are.  A great one can not only win games, but account for a substantial contribution to the university’s bottom line - in not only money, but also enrollment.  Ask any admissions officer if there’s a correlation between a winning football program and the number of applications a school receives.  If any of them say it’s not true, you’ve found yourself an admissions director of a school without a football team.

The job description of today’s football coach includes responsibility for the overall program, meaning: naturally, the won-loss record, but also overseeing recruiting; the academic performance of the student-athletes; their strength, conditioning and nutrition activities; their off-the-field behavior - both positive e.g. community service (appearances at elementary, junior high high schools and youth athletic programs, etc.) and negative (legal problems, negative publicity, etc.); speaking engagements, and fund raising functions.

Yet, regardless of how well the coach performs in all the other areas combined, e.g. the players graduate, they’re in top physical condition (through the use of all natural methods and supplements), they’re pillars of the community with nothing illegal or immoral ever occurring, and the coach is always available to speak to whatever group requests him - and can be counted on to make, not only an appearance, but a difference, in a fund raising event, won’t he still be dismissed if the team’s record is, year after (not too many) year(s), a losing one?  Realistically, at the Division IA level (or whatever the football gods are calling it now), the answer is yes - since what really matters to the overwhelming majority of the school’s supporters is - no surprise - winning.  Independent of what any Polyanna-ish fan proclaims, the number one factor in winning is talent.  It, then, would stand to reason that the best recruiter would be the best coach.  But this is not always the case.

Coaching skills (strategy, play calling, motivation, substitution patterns) still are a major factor in which team wins.  It’s very seldom anyone will hear a coach sincerely say he was out-coached.  Sure, every so often, a coach - usually one who has a glossy record and a great deal of job security (if there is such an animal) - will say he was outcoached, but, usually that comes after a disappointing loss and is preceded by the words: “We were outplayed and outhustled.”  So as not to lose his team by looking like he threw them under the bus (and because the loss was so humbling), he’ll add the “outcoached” part.  Then, it shows a type of team unity (or, at least, plays on the misery loves company theme).

So, can a coach make a difference in any area besides talent?  I still believe he can.  The greatest compliment there ever was, regarding “coaching skill” - and I defy anybody to come up with a better one - was when Bum Phillips, coach of the old Houston Oilers, said of his contemporary, Don Shula, then coach of the Miami Dolphins:

“He can take his’n and beat your’n and take your’n and beat his’n.”

Today’s college football coaches are being paid like CEO’s and it’s because, for all intents and purposes, they are.  A great one can not only win games, but account for a substantial contribution to the university’s bottom line - in not only money, but also enrollment.  Ask any admissions officer if there’s a correlation between a winning football program and the number of applications a school receives.  If any of them say it’s not true, you’ve found yourself an admissions director of a school without a football team.   

The job description of today’s football coach includes responsibility for the overall program, meaning: naturally, the won-loss record, but also overseeing recruiting; the academic performance of the student-athletes; their strength, conditioning and nutrition activities; their off-the-field behavior - both positive e.g. community service (appearances at elementary, junior high high schools and youth athletic programs, etc.) and negative (legal problems, negative publicity, etc.); speaking engagements, and fund raising functions.

Yet, regardless of how well the coach performs in all the other areas combined, e.g. the players graduate, they’re in top physical condition (through the use of all natural methods and supplements), they’re pillars of the community with nothing illegal or immoral ever occurring, and the coach is always available to speak to whatever group requests him - and can be counted on to make, not only an appearance, but a difference, in a fund raising event, won’t he still be dismissed if the team’s record is, year after (not too many) year(s), a losing one?  Realistically, at the Division IA level (or whatever the football gods are calling it now), the answer is yes - since what really matters to the overwhelming majority of the school’s supporters is - no surprise - winning.  Independent of what any Polyanna-ish fan proclaims, the number one factor in winning is talent.  It, then, would stand to reason that the best recruiter would be the best coach.  But this is not always the case.

Coaching skills (strategy, play calling, motivation, substitution patterns) still are a major factor in which team wins.  It’s very seldom anyone will hear a coach sincerely say he was out-coached.  Sure, every so often, a coach - usually one who has a glossy record and a great deal of job security (if there is such an animal) - will say he was outcoached, but, usually that comes after a disappointing loss and is preceded by the words: “We were outplayed and outhustled.”  So as not to lose his team by looking like he threw them under the bus (and because the loss was so humbling), he’ll add the “outcoached” part.  Then, it shows a type of team unity (or, at least, plays on the misery loves company theme).

So, can a coach make a difference in any area besides talent?  I still believe he can.  The greatest compliment there ever was, regarding “coaching skill” - and I defy anybody to come up with a better one - was when Bum Phillips, coach of the old Houston Oilers, said of his contemporary, Don Shula, then coach of the Miami Dolphins:

“He can take his’n and beat your’n and take your’n and beat his’n.”

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