Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 6, 1991 TAG: 9102060126
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Bill Walsh will be mentioned as a candidate.
Bill Walsh will turn down the job.
A top NFL assistant with virtually no previous experience as top dog will be picked.
Four positions were available after the 1990 season. They went to Bill Belichick at Cleveland, Rich Kotite at Philadelphia, Richard Williamson at Tampa Bay and Dick MacPherson at New England.
After the 1989 season, three of five available positions went to career assistants. Bruce Coslet took over the Jets, Joe Bugel was hired by the Cardinals and Rod Rust replaced Raymond Berry with the Patriots.
The Cleveland Browns made Belichick, 38, the NFL's youngest coach on Tuesday, hiring the New York Giants' defensive coordinator to replace Bud Carson, who was fired Nov. 5 after the Browns lost seven of their first nine games of the season.
Browns owner Art Modell chose Belichick over several other candidates, including Los Angeles Raiders quarterbacks coach Mike White, former Los Angeles Rams defensive coordinator Fritz Shurmur, Seattle special teams coach Rusty Tillman and Kansas City defensive coordinator Bill Cowher.
Modell described Belichick, who signed a five-year contract, as a coach who reminds him of Miami's Don Shula. At age 60, Shula has coached 28 consecutive NFL seasons, the last 21 with the Dolphins.
"If somebody comes up through the ranks and establishes themselves as a viable candidate, I'm happy for them to get the opportunity," said Shula, the longevity king of the NFL. "That's what happened to me, after being an assistant and coming up through the ranks."
The ranks are filled with proven offensive and defensive coordinators itching for a shot at the head job. Some - remember Buddy Ryan, Joe Walton and Bud Carson - have a shining moment or two, then get fired for an inability to handle all facets of head coaching.
Ryan, for instance, was too outspoken and outlandish for Eagles owner Norman Braman and never delivered on his Super Bowl promises. Walton didn't communicate well with his players and his in-game decisions often were questionable. Carson squeezed one more good year from a decaying organization, then was the scapegoat when everything collapsed.
Rust never had a chance in New England. Coslet's Jets showed a modicum of improvement but also might have gone 6-10 for Walton. Bugel's Cardinals weren't nearly as moribund as expected, but they finished 5-11, hardly a turnaround.
"It takes several years to get a system or a program established," Walsh said. "Assistant coaches coming from winning teams bring with them pieces of those systems. They add their own touch to them and, in time, the better ones become winners."
A look at some of the most successful coaches of the last decade shows just that. Walsh, of course, was an offensive coordinator before guiding San Francisco to the top. Bill Parcells was the Giants' defensive coordinator, a job vacated Tuesday by Belichick. Sam Wyche, Marty Schottenheimer, George Seifert and Dan Reeves served apprenticeships in the NFL before moving to head jobs and significant accomplishments.
Tapping assistant coaches certainly isn't the only way owners fill head coaching jobs. Jimmy Johnson's success came in college, and when his buddy Jerry Jones bought the Dallas Cowboys, he lured Johnson to coach. In two seasons, the Cowboys have gone from 1-15 to 7-9 and, with lots of high draft choices the next two seasons, seem ready to be contenders again.
Houston let Jerry Glanville go to Atlanta and replaced him with Jack Pardee, a former head coach with the Bears and Redskins. Pardee came across town from the University of Houston and guided the Oilers into the playoffs for the fourth straight year.
New England, seeking to rebuild everything, went for MacPherson of Syracuse, whose only pro experience was a short term as an assistant with Cleveland under Sam Rutigliano.
Keywords:
FOOTBALL
by CNB