About Coaching Football

History

• Football coaches have been around for as long as the sport itself. From the earliest days of football in the late 1800s, coaches emerged to organize teams, create offensive and defensive schemes, place players in best-suited positions and call plays during games.
  Coaches gained prominence along with each level of the sport. College coaches began getting hired in the late 1880s, with high school coaches following suit in the early 1900s and professional coaches taking over jobs in the 1920s.
  Arguably the most famous coach from the early days of the National Football League was George Halas, who led the Chicago Bears to several championships. He helped further the development of the forward pass, which revolutionized the game.
  Coaches have been adding wrinkles and helping shift the tides of the sport for more than a century. Perhaps the most important change over the last 30 years has been the prominence of the passing game, particularly in the NFL. About 70 percent of all offensive plays into the 1970s were running plays, but in the modern era, about 60 percent of all offensive plays are passing plays. This was a result of innovate coaches who designed a variety of passing formations and schemes that have made offenses more effective.

Function

• There are four basic levels of football that require coaching.
  One is youth football. Coaches at that level teach the basics of the sport such as blocking, tackling, passing and catching the ball. They also must infuse enthusiasm for the sport into their players.
  The next level is high school football. Coaches of the high school game teach the intricacies and nuances of the sport to maximize both individual and team performance. They also use football to teach life lessons such as team unity and dedication to achieve goals.
  At the college level, coaches begin stressing the importance of winning to a greater degree because of the money and prestige the sport brings to the universities. Coaches use their players in a more specialized way at the college level. In high school football, the top players often perform on both offense and defense. Coaches almost never utilize players on both sides of the ball at the college and professional levels.
  National Football League coaches win or they get fired. The importance of winning reaches its zenith at the professional level. Coaches must develop a strong respect from and rapport with their players in the NFL because those players are grown men and are generally making more money than they are.
  At all levels of the game, coaches must be a disciplinarians. But at the youth and high school levels, coaches are generally respected just because they are coaches. In college and in the pros, that respect must be earned.

Significance

• Some believe that coaches are only as good as the talent they have on hand. But that is not always the case. Coaches must also motivate players, particularly at the lower levels of the game. They are also responsible for making certain the staffs in control of their offense and defense is running at peak efficiency.
  Most importantly, however, coaches need to place players in positions that maximize the efficiency of both those individuals and the team itself. They are also responsible for calling plays, both offensively and defensively, that either help the team win or lose on game day.
  Establishing a winning program, especially at the NFL level, is very difficult because the rules are bent toward parity. That is one reason that the average tenure for NFL coaches on one team is less than 5 years.

Potential

• Highly successful coaches who last a long time with one organization are few and far between because of all the challenges involved and the importance of winning. But when a coach does establish a consistent winner, he is revered around the league and often ends up in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
  The most famous coach in history is Vince Lombardi. The coach of the Green Bay Packers in the 1960s was not only immortalized because he guided the Packers to the first two Super Bowl championships, but because of how well he motivated his players to win. Lombardi's line, "Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing" has become the most famous words ever uttered by a professional football coach.
  Though the results of changes in American society mean that no coach can be as revered as was Lombardi or old school college coaches such as Ohio State's Woody Hayes, the most successful coaches still earn respect. And Lombardi's theories about the importance of winning remain firmly in place today. Only consistent Super Bowl winners are considered to be the best coaches in today's game.

Misconceptions

• The all-or-nothing mentality regarding the talent of a football coach is not necessarily a healthy one. A coach certainly makes a huge difference, but those with little player talent to work with can be a great coach and win fewer games than a poor coach with tremendous talent to work with.
  The measure of a coach's performance should be based on maximizing the potential and talent of his team. If a coach guides a team with little experience and ability to an 8-8 record, he has done a far better job than a coach who guides his experienced and vastly capable group to a 9-7 record. But the latter will undeservedly receive more credit from the fans and media.
  All a coach can do is motivate his players, maximize personal and team potential, call effective plays and manage a game as well as possible. If he can look in the mirror and tell himself that he has achieved all those goals, than he has done a masterful job as coach, whether his team has won or not.

Expert Insight

• It was former United States president Harry Truman who said, "If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen." That is perhaps the most appropriate quote regarding the current state of college and professional football coaching.
  Coaches understand that winning is everything, but also that they can't win without superior talent. They are braced for dismissal at all times, particularly when their teams are losing.
  The almighty dollar is greatly responsible. College programs and professional teams bring in millions of dollars through ticket sales and marketing. But they can only maximize their earning potential when they win. Losing teams don't sell out stadiums and don't motivate fans to purchase team-related goods.
  Owners can't fire all their players, so the coaches are always going to be the scapegoats. And that means, fair or not, they will be the ones looking for jobs if they don't win - never mind that they never had talented enough players to do so.