So Charlie Weis finally got fired. After five seasons with Notre Dame Chuck managed a 35-27 record, going 16-21 in the last three seasons. He had only one bowl win but lost to Navy twice. His teams never had a 50 point game and he was a staggering 1-13 against top 25 opponents. (By the way he has the second highest yearly salary in college football)
Apparently the “offensive guru” label that he was saddled with back when he was with the New England Patriots was a little unearned. Let’s face it, Bill Belichick is the CEO of that team. So giving anyone else on the staff a huge amount of credit is a little silly. But, it can be perfectly reasonable to hire that guy hoping that he might have learned something from in his time under the headmaster. But when you look at it, that might be silly too….
Here’s a list of “genius” coaches that never quite reached their potential.
Eric Mangini
Yet another Belichick student that walked into a situation where he was expected to put a fairly good team over the top into a contender, Mangini looked like he might even have a shot at it. In his first year with the Jets his team went 10-6 and actually made the playoffs. But looking back at the stats it might have been a soft schedule that allowed them to win those 10. And the next year things went the wrong direction, which is strange ’cause the team actually got better. The Jets brought in Thomas Jones to put a true rushing threat in the backfield, but all it got them was a 4-12 season. So the next season they pull the big move and bring in Brett Favre to right the ship. And 9-7 with no playoffs is what they got. So, now Eric is at the helm of the Cleveland Browns which is kinda like getting sent to the minors. You’re not quite done but if you don’t improve things, you’ll be out of the sport soon enough.
By the way he is 1-10 there so far…. that makes it 24-35 in 3+ seasons.
Romeo Crennel
The above mentioned Mangini replaced another Belichick coordinator on the Browns. (Anybody notice a pattern here?) Coach Romeo was the defensive half of the Pats Superbowl dynasty opposite the also above mentioned Charlie Weis. In four full seasons as the Head coach of the Browns he had one winning season and that was only because Derek Anderson decided that he wanted to take a trip to Hawaii so he went ahead and made the Pro Bowl. A combined 24-40 in the Romeo era there were very few highlights in his time, but the one thing that he can cling to is that the Browns haven’t been good since long before I was alive and it looks like I’ll be dead before they are any good again.
Josh McDaniels
Too early, you say? I say, never! Besides, I really wanted to stick with the Belichick thing we have going on here so far. This guy is supposedly responsible for getting Tom Brady and Matt Cassell to be so good. Now he just looks like a guy who’s in way over his head. After dumping Cutler for Orton (which hasn’t looked too terrible…yet) after a very public fued, he then moved right into another public fued with Brandon Marshall, the best player on his team. But he started the season 6-0 so everyone forgot about that. But in a sports world of “what have you done for me lately?” McDaniels is really starting to show cracks. Denver has free-fallen out of first place in the AFC West, and he continues to show a lack of decorum we are used to out of our NFL head coaches (getting caught dropping the MF bomb on national TV during Thanksgiving).
Isiah Thomas
Thomas was a great player, who was an integral part of the championship, Bad Boy, Pistons teams. And everyone thought that this member of the original Dream Team would be able to translate his leadership skills on the court to the coaching chair. How did that work out for the Knicks? Terribly. They became the laughing stock of the league as Thomas made terrible signings as GM, then couldn’t figure out how to make those round pegs (some, like Eddy Curry were VERY round) fit into square holes. Then he sexually harrassed a coworker. Classy, Isiah…
Now I know there are more than four crappy coaches out there in all the sports that exist so if you are a fan who happens to think you’re supposed savior actually wears a helmet when he’s not on the sidelines, go ahead and leave it in the comments…..or don’t.