Championship Coaches

I’m old enough to have applied for a bunch of jobs over the years.  Inevitably, one of the reasons I’ve been rejected is “Lack of playing experience”.  The thing is–that’s a load of bunk (my opinion).  Coaching really has nothing to do with being able to play and has much more to do with teaching skill.  If anything, I would think that players with marginal skills are better coaches–because they will have survived to the highest levels without ‘natural talent.’

It’s easy for me to state that though–everyone’s got an opinion.  But is it true?  What does history say for us?  Well…that’s a good question…and I think it demands looking in to.  Since time isn’t infinite, I’ll limit myself to the highest levels of professional team sports (MLB, NFL, NBA) and then add in college FB, MBB, and VB.  That’s six sports and ought to give a pretty good idea of things, right?  I’ll take it back to the turn of the century so that’ll give 120 sport-seasons to look at.

MLB:2000 – Joe Torre – 17 year MLB career,  9xAll-Star, 1x MVP2001 – Bob Brenly – 8 year MLB career, 1xAll-Star2002 – Mike Scioscia – 12 year MLB career, 2xAll-Star(I’m already noticing the propensity for catchers here…)2003 – Jack McKeon – 15 yr career in minors, player-manage starting at age 242004, 2007 – Terry Francona – 8 year MLB backup.  …first non-catcher on list2005 – Ozzie Guillen – 15 years MLB, 3xAll-Star (played SS)2006, 2011 – Tony LaRussa – 132 MLB games played over 9 years.2008 – Charlie Manuel – 5 years MLB bench, 5 years star/MVP in Japan (another non-C)2009 – Joe Girardi – 14yr MLB career, 1xAll-Star, mediocre player really…another catcher2010, 2012, 2014 – Bruce Bochy – 9 year MLB career as backup2013 – John Farrell – 7 years in MLB.  Pitcher who had arm trouble.2015 – Ned Yost – 4+ years on MLB, never more than 80 games/season.  Catcher2016 – Joe Maddon – 4 years playing in minors.  Catcher2017 – AJ Hinch – 7 years in MLB, backup catcher.2018 – Alex Cora – 13 years in MLB, backup.  Infielder, NOT a catcher2019 – Dave Martinez – 16 years in MLB, roughly 8 as a starting OF.  Career OPS+ = 952020 – Dave Roberts – 10 years in MLB, 2 as a starting OF, Career OPS+ = 89

So…the lesson here is if you want to win, you should probably have a catcher running things.  Other than Joe Torre at the end of the last Yankees dynasty, none of the other managers was an average player (let alone good or great), but all but two had reasonably long careers as bench players in MLB.  So one ‘star’ for one season.

NBA (by championship date):2001-2002, 2009-10 – Phil Jackson – 12 year NBA career, half as a starter2003, 2005, 2007, 2014 – Gregg Popovich – 4 years NCAA D1 college2004 – Larry Brown – 4 years D1 college, 5 years ABA (1xAll-Star)2006 – Pat Riley – 9 year NBA career, role-player (7ppg)2008 – Doc Rivers – 13 year NBA career, 1xAll-Star (10ppg, 5.7apg)2011 – Rick Carlisle – 4 year NBA bench career2012-13 – Erik Spoelstra – 4 years NCAA D1, 2 years German ‘2nd Division’ pro ball2015, 2017-18 – Steve Kerr – 15yr NBA career (mostly role-player), 3-pt champion 19972016 – Tyronn Lue – 10 year NBA career, mostly as backup2019 – Nick Nurse – 4 years NCAA D1,2020 – Frank Vogel – 3 years NCAA D3

So…you’ve got Brown who was a brief star in the NBA’s rival league, Doc Rivers who was good for almost his entire career, but overshadowed by superstars at his position, and Kerr who was a role-player for half of the Bulls’ dynasty and then the Spurs.  No “stars”.  

NFL (by Super Bowl date):2001 – Brian Billick – played D1 college football, never played in NFL2002, 2004-5, 2015, 2017, 2019 – Bill Belichick – Played D3 college football, no NFL2003 – John Gruden – 1 year D3, 3 years as D1 backup, no NFL2006 – Bill Cowher – 4 years D1 college, 5 seasons as NFL role-player2007 – Tony Dungy – 4 years D1 college, 3 years NFL backup2008, 2012 – Tom Coughlin – 4 years D1 college, 3 year starter, no NFL2009 – Mike Tomlin – 4 years D3, 3 year starter (Ivy League level), no NFL2010 – Sean Payton – 4 years D1-AA football, 3 years minor/arena football, NFL “scab”2011 – Mike McCarthy – 2 years JUCO/2 years NAIA, no NFL2013 – John Harbaugh – 4 years D1 college, no NFL2014 – Pete Carroll – 2 years JUCO/2 years D1-AA, no NFL2016 – Gary Kubiak – 4 years D1 college, 9 yrs NFL backup (two Super Bowl appearances)2018 – Doug Pederson –  4 years D1-AA college,  11 yrs NFL backup

So…no stars there and only one (Cowher) who was ever more than a ‘non-emergency’ level player.  Nine of thirteen never made the big time

After the pro leagues, we’re looking at one superstar (Torre), one good player (Rivers), and three key bench types (Jackson, Kerr, Riley).  The rest are ‘depth’ at best, other than Ozzie Guillen–who played a ton for no good reason…which could explain many White Sox/Braves teams underperforming…just sayin’.  Now on to the college teams.  Did their coaches play at the highest levels?

NCAA Men’s Basketball:2000 – Tom Izzo – 4 years NCAA D-2, no NBA2001, 2010, 2015 – Mike Krzyewski, 4 years NCAA D-1 (West Point), no NBA2002 – Gary Williams – 4 years D-1 (also played D-1 football), no NBA2003 – Jim Boeheim – 4 years D-1, 2 years minor league basketball, no NBA2004, 2011 – Jim Calhoun – 4 years D-2, no NBA2005, 2009, 2017 – Roy Williams – 3 years D-1 *manager*, no NBA2006-07 – Billy Donovan – 4 years D-1, 2 years minor league b-ball, 1 ‘season’ NBA2008 – Bill Self – 4 years D-1, no NBA2012 – John Calipari – 2 years D-1, 2 years D-3, no NBA2013 – Rick Pitino – 4 years D-2, no NBA2014 – Kevin Ollie – 4 years D-1, 13 year NBA career (briefly as starter)2016, 2018 – Jay Wright – 4 years D-1, no NBA2019 – Tony Bennett – 4 years D-1, 3 year NBA career, 

So…one guy with significant pro time.  Going through these, what I realized seems to be most important with college basketball–it’s who you know.  If there’s an example of the old boys network in action–here you go.

NCAA/BCS Football (by date listed on Wikipedia list):2000 – Bob Stoops – 4 years NCAA D-1 (4yr starter, team MVP), no NFL2001 – Larry Coker – 4 years NCAA D-2, no NFL2002 – Jim Tressel – 4 years D-3, no NFL2003 – Nick Saban (at LSU) – 4 years D-1, no NFL2004 – Pete Carroll – see NFL above…no NFL2005 – Mack Brown – 4 years at two different D-1, no NFL2006, 2008 – Urban Meyer (Florida) – 4 yrs D-1, no NFL (did 2 yrs minor-league baseball)2007 – Les Miles – 2 years D-1, no NFL2009, 2011-12, 2015, 2017 – Nick Saban (at Alabama) **SEE ABOVE**2010 – Cheatin’ Gene Chizik – 1 year D-1, no NFL2013 – Jimbo Fisher – 3 years D-2, 1 year D-3.  No NFL.2014 – Urban Meyer (Ohio State) **SEE ABOVE**2016, 2018 – Dabo Swinney – 4 years D-1, no NFL2020 – Ed Orgeron – 4 years NCAA D-1 (1 at a FBS school, 3 at a FCS program), no NFL

Well, there you go.  Stoops was a college star.  Fisher was a D-3 star.  No NFL players here.  A couple of things–not only did these guys not have talent to play in the NFL, they didn’t really have enough talent to play at a high college level.  Most of these guys immediately went in to coaching and have a long track-record of running college-level programs.  While most of these guys went into coaching immediately after their playing careers ended, most started at the bottom–the boys network doesn’t work the same for football like it does basketball…speaking of the ‘old boys network’…time for volleyball…

I’m not sure how to approach this with volleyball.  The US has no real pro league and there are tons of issues-gender equity, imbalance between men’s/women’s programs available to athletes…more than are meant for this blog.  So volleyball will be a bit different of a list.

WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL:This is what I get for researching as I write.  Ultimately, it’s not really possible to address with available information.  What you realize quickly (if you didn’t already know) is that there’s never been a female coach to win unlike women’s basketball or softball (the other primary women’s sports).  Just as important–volleyball has the same issue of coaching trees as basketball.  I’m not convinced hirings are made based on ability; I think many of them are made via connections.

I was shocked to see how many schools out there have never had a *FEMALE* coach in school history–for a *FEMALE* sport!  Am I to believe that in 30+ years at all of those schools, there’s never been a female applicant capable of holding that post?  Yikes.

The other thing I noticed–volleyball is the one sport where, at the highest available level (NCAA D-1) coaches’ performance at other levels is effectively ignored.  There is a distinct preference for hiring from within the D-1 level rather than hiring top coaches from any other level–the exceptions are easy to list because they are rare.  I went and checked some NAIA, NJCAA, and NCAA D-3 programs semi-randomly.  It’s not the same for those–there’s a much better gender-equity in those as well as coaches who have worked across multiple levels.

I’m not sure what that means–other than if you want to coach at the D-1 level, success won’t matter.  It’s really 99.9% about who you know…a lot like the college admissions process, huh?