Favorite intense coaches: Harbaugh and ?

Submitted by Zoltanrules on

I still am in a happy state of shock we FINALLY have an emotional, extremely competitve, no nonsense coach that just won't tolerate anything less than 100% effort. Also loving the hires Jim Harbaugh has made so far. This staff will be the same page of intensity and persuit of excellence and the team will have attitude.

It is also no secret that Harbaugh can be .. eh well.. a real pill to deal with. After some discussions with fellow fanatics, I come to realize I love this type of personality. I worship Beilein, but at the end of the day, prefer the more intense Harbaugh personality - maybe if for no other reason than it is more entertaining, and I feel they have as much pain as their fan's when their team underperforms.

Yesterday, I was watching Atletico upset Real Madrid yesterday and it reminded me of Harbaugh's Stanford dumping of pretty boy Pete Carrol and his all-star USC team. Atletico's coach, Diego Simeone, was so passionate you could just feel him will his team on to kick RM's butt. Diego looks like he is ready for a street fight every game. Love him!

Stan Van Gundy is another scruffy, kooky coach who is having a great run playing hardnosed ball (they look fresher than their opponents) and leading the troops with "the f'ckin wall". I'm on the bandwagon now.

So my question is who are your favorite intense coaches and is this the best personality to lead a team (for example did Caldwell's calmness, and no lack of make up call, cost the Lions?) ?

 

Mr. Yost

January 8th, 2015 at 6:57 PM ^

Yelling and screaming has nothing to do with it and it short changes any coach who's great, but also yells.

Go sit next to Bobby Knight for 15 minutes and you'll learn more about the game of basketball than you ever could've known in your life. Tom Izzo is a great coach who screams (whines and cries too)

A great coach is a great coach...period. Screaming motivates some, others it does not. But a great coach will still reach that player who does not respond to his/her screaming.

Beilein isn't a yeller or a screamer and he's a phenomenal basketball coach. One of the top 5 in the country.

And he's won with less talent or 3* level talent. So it's not like he's Calipari who recruits top players.

Bill Snyder. I don't see him screaming a ton...the man is a legend. So you don't have to scream in football either.

There are plenty of coaches who scream kick and yell...but they're not very good in other areas and it shows.

A great coach is a great coach. You can be a great coach and scream and yell and be INTENSE...or you can be a great coach and be more passive in comparison.

Mr. Yost

January 8th, 2015 at 11:23 AM ^

And it's not like he just sits there with his hands folded. He's screamed, he's yelled, he's gotten t'd up.

But he's not Bob Knight or Bob Huggins or Tom Izzo or Frank Martin.

I don't think the OP meant someone who is never instense or never screams - ever. I don't know if there is a coach in America (hell, or a human being) who doesn't scream.

But I didn't think that was the question.

Beilein takes a teaching approach, he's always teaching, and he's great at it. But you're not going to see him throw a chair across the court or pull a Woody Hayes and choke out a player.

Zoltanrules

January 8th, 2015 at 11:50 AM ^

and the type of kids we can recruit. Absolutely he is a teacher and one who will always represent the University with class and humility. I think he will produce great cyclical results which I am totally fine with. I think football is a different animal now that D'Antonio and Meyer are in our division.

Not saying Harbaugh is a win at all costs guy, but he is a different animal. Like Michael Jordan, the guys wants to win all the time whether it is wind sprints, checkers of football. These people are just wired differently and often wear their hearts on their sleeves. Most here probably don't remember Bo's early years - he was a flat out head strong maniac - but he produced uncanny results having an uphill battle vs Woody.

Glennsta

January 8th, 2015 at 4:21 PM ^

You are getting students (your players) to do what it takes to win.  You set expectations and goals and then you try to get the kids to meet them.

Sometimes you need to yell, sometimes you need to back off, depending on the kids. 

A few things that teachers learn early on though are 1) It's easier to take your foot off the gas once you're at a high speed than it is to get them to get to a higher speed after being at a lower rate.

2) Yelling is effective only if teaching is going on behind it.  Yelling just to get attention gets tuned out after a while and, to continue to get attention, you have to yell louder and louder.

Bo seemed to be the best I've ever seen. I haven't read the books about Knight but I suspect he was pretty good.  Itseemed to me that he crosses the line ot the point where he got tuned out regularly at the end.

DaRiddla95

January 8th, 2015 at 11:17 AM ^

When you win...whatever is the current personality is the greatest thing ever.  When you lose... that personality is the worse thing ever... the nature of sports.   There was a time on this blog when Brady's calmness was looked upon as a good thing and having an intense coach was the worse thing ever (Brian Kelly was usually the example used there).

In reply to by JBE

Zoltanrules

January 8th, 2015 at 12:05 PM ^

We shared a long elevator ride and the guy was like a bundle of energy. He also reminded me of the wrestler, George the Animal Steel. Never got the inkling that he was worried about kid's grades....

FormAFarkingWall

January 8th, 2015 at 11:29 AM ^

Everything is situation specific and cyclical.   There are times when calm, even keeled coaches are the right answer and others when FIRE is needed. 

Lions are a great example, I think.  After the 0-16 season, they needed artificial confidence from a leader, and Jim Schwartz provided that almost immediately.  It helped them believe and win some games that they wouldn't have the year before under Marinelli.  After a few years that style seemed to lead to an undisciplined team that saw the fire as WWF wrestling talk - at which point Caldwell came in, calmed everyone down, and had mostly good results (though you could argue there may have been certain times where a tad more emotion would have been nice). 

Doug Collins is kind of another example of a very good coach whose intensity wears thin and stops producing results after a while.  Harbaugh is in this mold - which is EXACTLY why college and a constantly cycling roster is the best place for him (IMHO).