Following Saban, Belichick is no picnic
It’s tough for any coach to replace a living legend
Within less than 24 hours, football saw indisputably the two most accomplished college and NFL coaches in history, who happen to be good friends, head to the exit.
Nick Saban, architect of the greatest college football dynasty at Alabama, decided he had enough and abruptly retired at 72.
Bill Belichick, 71-year-old architect of the greatest NFL dynasty with the New England Patriots, came to a mutual parting of ways with owner Robert Kraft.
Many expect him to resurface with one of seven other teams with vacancies, or maybe a team that exits the playoffs early deciding to make a coaching change.
Now comes the hard part: Alabama and the Patriots finding coaches that can handle the suffocating shadow of their predecessors and win with consistency.
Imagine carrying the burden of followCollege ing an Alabama legend with six national titles and nine SEC championships. Or a Patriots’ legend with six Super Bowls and nine AFC championships.
History says the odds of not being overwhelmed are stacked against them. Whoever follows a coaching legend is almost set up for failure, albeit there have been some rare exceptions in both football worlds.
Nobody in the college ranks did a better job following a giant than Nebraska’s Tom Osborne, who succeeded his boss, Bob Devaney, after he won back-to-back national titles (1971-72) at the finish line. All Osborne did was last 25 years, win three national titles and become a bigger icon with a 255-49-3 record.
Has anybody done the following-a-legend thing better than the Pittsburgh Steelers? Three coaches in the last 55 seasons — Chuck Noll, Bill Cowher and
Mike Tomlin — and they’re either in the Hall of Fame or Canton-bound.
Jimmy Johnson went 1-for-2 succeeding a legend, raising as many Super Bowl trophies as Tom Landry did with the Dallas Cowboys. He also fell short trying to duplicate Don Shula’s success with the Miami Dolphins, ending his career alongside Hall of Fame quarterback
Dan Marino by getting a 62-7 playoff thumping from the Jacksonville Jaguars.
A large majority of coaches who succeed legends never measure up. The shadow becomes too daunting, especially in college.
Whether it was Alabama’s Ray Perkins after Bear Bryant, Florida’s Ron Zook after Steve Spurrier, Georgia’s Ray Goff after Vince Dooley, Penn State’s Bill O’Brien after Joe Paterno, Oklahoma’s Gary Gibbs after Barry Switzer, it didn’t work.
On the basketball side, Gene Bartow following UCLA giant John Wooden and Mike Davis coming after Indiana icon Bob Knight were equally overwhelmed. In the NFL, other than the Steelers and Tom Flores winning two Super Bowls after the Oakland Raiders’ John Madden, it’s a short list of coaches who thrived in a legend’s shadow.
Chicago Bears legends George Halas and Mike Ditka were both followed by coaches, Jim Dooley and Dave Wannstedt, that finished 16 games under .500.
Richie Petitbon lasted one season with the Washington Commanders after Joe
Gibbs brought them three Lombardi trophies.
Best wishes to ex-Patriots player Jerod Mayo on his pursuit of anything close to the Belichick bar. Good luck to whoever ‘Bama chooses to follow Saban.
Boy, are they ever going to need it. …
Jaguars double-dipping in London again?
Though the NFL schedule won’t come out for another four months, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the Jaguars play back-to-back games in London again this year, one as the home team at Wembley Stadium and another as the visitor at Tottenham Hotspur.
While the league announcing Thursday the Jaguars would play at Wembley for the 12th time was fully expected, the accompanying revelation of the Chicago Bears also hosting a game at Tottenham means Jacksonville could be repeating a London double dip.
Last year, the Jaguars beat the Atlanta Falcons 25-7 at Wembley, then stayed another week to face the Buffalo Bills as a road team the following week at Tottenham, winning 25-20.
In 2024, a strong possibility exists that Jacksonville could be given the option of facing the Bears at Tottenham because the Jaguars are playing NFC North teams and Chicago is one of its road opponents. Since any NFL franchise can decline to play a division foe in Europe as a home or away team, the Bears choosing an AFC opponent (Tennessee and New England are their other options) would seem more likely.
The advantage for the Jaguars of playing the Bears or anybody as a visitor in London is obvious: it would be a neutralsite matchup instead of a true road game. Jacksonville isn’t inconvenienced much from a travel standpoint because the game would be scheduled the week before or after hosting a game at Wembley.
As for who the Jaguars’ home opponent might be, the odds-on favorite might be the Cleveland Browns. While the Jaguars have played division rivals Houston and Indianapolis previously in London, that’s less likely this time around and the Tennessee Titans will be breaking in a new head coach.
The Jaguars can protect one home game at EverBank Stadium from going to London, and that opponent is the Green Bay Packers. That leaves the New York Jets, New England Patriots, Minnesota Vikings and Cleveland as options. Since Minnesota is also hosting a game at Tottenham, it may be more reluctant to play a second game as a road team.
Strange axing of Vrabel
When the news came down Tuesday that Titans head coach Mike Vrabel had been fired, there was good reason for a lot of collective head-scratching around the NFL.
Yes, Tennessee had lost 18 of its last 24 games and dropping their last seven games in 2022 to hand the AFC South title to the Jacksonville Jaguars was a bad look, but that precipitous slide was also accompanied by the league’s worst rash of injuries.
Team owner Amy Adams Strunk decided to move on from the coach whom she gave a massive contract extension in Feb. 2022, along with previous GM Jon
Robinson. He was inexplicably fired on Dec. 6, 2022, before the Titans’ downward spiral hit full throttle. Now both are gone, leaving GM Ran Carthon to pick the next coach and start a substantial rebuild.
Vrabel, who has a reputation for getting the most out of his personnel and won two division titles and two playoff games, won’t be unemployed long. His departure left a lot of Titans players dismayed, including star running back and Yulee High product Derrick Henry, who told The Athletic’s Diana Russini: “I know he will get another opportunity right away. I look forward to it.”
Whether that means the impending free agent will reunite with Vrabel elsewhere next season remains to be seen, but one thing is certain: the Jaguars, who just got humiliated by Vrabel and Henry, will be glad to have them out of the AFC South.
Florida hoops hits pothole
It was bad enough that Florida’s basketball team again played poorly in the last five minutes against Kentucky last week to drop another winnable game, as was the case against Virginia, Wake Forest and Baylor.
But what happened in Wednesday’s 103-85 loss at Ole Miss, that was undoubtedly a jolt for head coach Todd
Golden. The Rebels scored 59 secondhalf points on 21-of-28 shooting and 7foot-5 Western Kentucky transfer Jamarion Sharp had nine of his team’s 16 blocks.
After the game, this was the damning assessment from Gators forward Alex
Condon, who had 11 points and 15 rebounds: “We’re not sticking to our defensive principles. There are too many times when guys just go off and do their own thing. Have some pride and not be happy taking the ball out of the net every possession.”
Sheesh. That reality punch is something you might hear from a head coach, but not a freshman who comes off the bench.
It should get the full attention of UF coaches and players. We’ll see if Florida responds in a positive way to such a chilling rebuke.
Quick-hitting nuggets
University of North Florida basketball coach Matthew Driscoll has been involved in more games against crosstown rival Jacksonville University than any hoops coach on either side of the River City Rumble. You might say Driscoll has turned things around. Going into Friday night’s battle against the Dolphins at UNF Arena, Driscoll’s Ospreys had won 19 of the previous 27 games against JU after he started out 0-5. …
Totally overshadowed Wednesday by the Saban bombshell was UCF gaining its first Big 12 basketball win by knocking off No. 3-ranked blueblood Kansas 65-60, compelling Knights fans to storm the court in a wild celebration of their first Big 12 victory. UCF (10-4, 1-1) beat a Jayhawks team that had already defeated top-10 teams Kentucky, Tennessee and UConn, so this was a stunning upset, especially when you consider KU led 35-19 in the first half. Guards Jaylin Sellers (18) and Darius Johnson (17 points) led UCF, but the amazing part is the Jayhawks shot 51 percent (24 of 47) from the field and still got held to 23 second-half points. It’ll be interesting to see if the Knights, with only one NCAA tournament appearance in seven previous AAC seasons under Johnny Dawkins, can use this monumental win to find success in a much tougher hoops league. …
This should be the reaction of Jaguars fans to the news that Houston Texans first-year offensive coordinator Bobby Slowick, who has done a masterful job in developing quarterback C.J. Stroud, will interview for head coach openings with the Carolina Panthers and Washington Commanders: “Please hire Slowick away from Houston and put him in the NFC.” …
Pigskin forecast
Cleveland Browns over Houston Texans by 4 (senior citizen QB discounts); Kansas City Chiefs over Miami Dolphins by 6 (hand-warmers); Buffalo Bills over Pittsburgh Steelers by 7 (Josh Allen ball security reminders); Dallas Cowboys over Green Bay Packers by 1 (Love feast); Los Angeles Rams over Detroit Lions by 1 (awkward homecoming); Philadelphia Eagles over Tampa Bay Buccaneers by 3 (slump-busters). Last week: 5 right, 2