Who's your favorite non-Michigan football coach?
I have been watching the SEC media days this week at work with a co-worker who happens to be a Buckeyes fan, and we got into a discussion about who our favorite coaches are, excluding anyone from Michigan or Ohio State.
This discussion mostly started because of Steve Spurrier and his ability to take subtle jabs at other coaches without causing a lot of hostility. He mentioned how Saban was the greatest recruiter ever, and did not mention him as being a great coach. Some people took that as a jab at Saban for not winning more champioships with all that talent. I found it pretty funny.
We just got on the topic of other coaches we enjoy, whether it be for their personality, passion, demeanor, X's and O's, ability to get the most out of their player, etc.
Personally, I have quite a few coaches that I really like. The ones that stand out to me the most are Chris Peterson, Kevin Sumlin, Charlie Strong, Mike Leach, Dabo Swinney, Kliff Kingsbury, and David Shaw.
Obviously coach Hoke is #1, but I wanted to switch things up, and was just curious to see who, if any, you fellow mgobloggers enjoyed or followed as far as a coach goes outside of the Michigan football program.
As a Giant fan this is a no-brainer. Won two super bowls while he was here, then beat him for two more.
Pat Fitzgerald
I loved that guy. I'm still holding out hope OSU brings him back.
UAUM and MGoStrength have it dead-on. John Cooper should be EVERY Michigan fan's favorite coach. God I miss him.
Alternate: First Bucs coach John McKay. Most quotable coach ever:
"I have a 5 year plan for taking this team to the playoffs"
"Why a 5 year plan?"
"Because I have a 5 year contract."
"Well we didn't tackle anybody today, but we made up for it by not blocking anybody."
"Would you care to comment on your team's execution?"
"I'm in favor of it."
I'm going Pat Riley and Chuck Daly. Two very smooth men. I tend to like coaches with form (the look) and substance.
College Basketball - give me John Thompson, Steve Fisher (he's still wining), and Coach K with more personality, lol.
Tony Dungy in the NFL. I would have to create my college coach - give me some Hoke (family values and morality), intellect of Lloyd Carr (presentation) and Belicheck (knowlege of game), and swag of Pete Carroll .
He isn't pulling off a Saban or Carroll here. He is able to consistently send his best player to the top ranks of his profession and in this year's case, virtually the entire team, yet the fans of M know no other coach in America could pull off what he has and he isn't guaranteed blue chip players to replace those that depart. And many of those weren't of that caliber before they went through his program. He simply brings out the very best in his players and that is what great coaches do and they do it on a perennial basis. Reminds me of a fb coach we had here for twenty years. Thinking I might like our fb coach to set in on a few of his sessions in an attempt to grasp some of his communication techniques. His players seem to have no problem deciding when it's time to run and when it's time to pass.
Will be interesting to see how he does at Washington. His work at Boise St. was impressive and fun to watch.
Every msu coach before mark dantonio is tied for first. aside from saban, obviously... though i didn't mind him when he was at msu. haha.