Who is the best college football coach? Who is the best NFL coach?

Dungy is a decent coach. But when another coach comes in and wins a Super Bowl with the players you couldn't win one with, you don't belong on a Top 5 list, and you sure as hell don't belong at No. 1. In Tampa, that team quit on him. And his one ring with Indy came against Lovie Smith, so he got lucky to match up against a coach even more in need of a personality transplant (and 6-8 uppers). Dungy's a great person and has gone through a hell of a lot to remain a decent coach, but he's not among the best in his field.

 

Pall,

Dungy has won everywhere he has been. And he consistently has the Colts contending, which is more than can be said for most NFL coaches. Do the Colts feel like the NFL's Atlanta Braves? Yeah. But if I am running a franchise, getting to that level is the goal because it puts you in contention almost every season. Gruden got all of the credit for winning the SB in TB, but we don't have any way of knowing if Dungy would have done the same if given the chance.

 

That's ridiculous.

He is a Hall of Fame coach -- one who revived the Buccaneers -- who by the way sucked ass before he arrived -- and did the impossible -- got Peyton Manning a title.

And what has Jon Gruden done since that first year when he had Dungy's team? Oh that's right, been mediocre or worse despite being in a horse shit division with the perennially underachievers of the NFL.

And then to discount his Super Bowl win because it was against the Bears -- as if beating Ravens, with one of the best defenses in NFL history, in Baltimore and knocking off the Patriots in the AFC title game to get there didn't count.

There aren't three better coaches in the league than Dungy, and certainly not Fisher, who, oh by the way, has NOT won a championship.

 

Gruden hasn't done anything, which shows just how much Dungy underachieved with that Bucs team.

And I would say the Colts defense got that title for him and Manning.

Fisher has managed to hang onto his job for 15 years and won consistently despite not having half the talent Dungy has had on all his playoff teams that choked. Just like QBs, winning a championship doesn't automatically make a coach great.

Also, the Colts didn't play the 2001 Ravens defense to make the Super Bowl in 2006. That's like saying the Cowboys deserve extra credit for beating the Bears and their vaunted 46 defense in the 1991 playoffs.

 

Pallister,

You can bring up the Gruden point right after you are done with your Steven Q. Urkel Counterfactual Time Machine.

So Dungy gets no credit for taking a subpar defense and getting them to the point where it carried that team through the playoffs? What else do you give a coach credit for?

And Jeff Fisher's Titans have choked just as much as Dungy's teams. Fisher broke up the string by throwing in a few 4-12 seasons.

 

Or Manning did the impossible, and got Dungy a title. Watching the AFC title game, it sure felt more like that than the reverse. I like the Braves analogy, with the Bears playing the role of the '95 Indians.

 

Except for the Colts run was about four or five years long -- as opposed to 11 or 12 or 15 or whatever the Braves run was -- and Dungy built that defense despite being hamstrung with a lot of big contracts for the offensive players.

It was also Dungy who, at least for one year, got Manning to respect, understand and embrace the running game as his best friend -- and that is why they won a championship.

Had Don Shula done that with Marino -- he'd probably be known as the greatest quarterback ever as opposed to the greatest quarterback without a ring.

 

Um, who built that defense? And did so with very little flexibility due to a salary cap bloated with contracts for stars on offense.....

Further, I did NOT make a typo when I said the Colts beat perhaps the best defense ever in Baltimore......The Ravens 2006 defense was better than the 2001 defense, statistically, and on the field and the Ravens in 2006 were 13-3 -- their best season over. And statistically -- where it was ranked -- you could make a good case that the 2006 defense of the Ravens is the best ever.

Here is an excerpt from the Ravens history about that 2006 defense -- otherwise known as showing work....

"2006: Baltimore won the AFC North by 5 games, producing the best regular-season record in team history at 13-3…The defense finished 1st in the league in points allowed (201), yards (264.1), 3rd downs converted (28.8%), fewest 1st downs allowed (236) and interceptions (28)…The team was 1st in takeaway/giveaway ratio (+17)…Billick took over the play calling when the Ravens dropped 2 games in a row (dropping to a 4-2 record)…The Ravens led the NFL in time of possession (32:49) and sack ratio (+43)…A new team record was established with 17 sacks allowed."

 

This leads me to take two shots at the same family:

1. Dungy's greatest failing in Tampa was when he hired Mike Shula as offensive coordinator. Dungy's defense held the greatest offense of all time to 11 points in the NFC championship game, and lost.

2. As for Daddy Don, his championship game failings started long before Marino became his quarterback. Don Shula coached in six title games — the 1964 NFL championship game and Super Bowls III, VII, VIII, XVII and XIX. His teams scored a total of two touchdowns in the second half of those games.

 

Amen.

And in response to PopeDirkBenedict ("Belichick will lose his team during bad times, but I think Dungy would keep his team together."), and I really don't want to sound callous, but it merits mentioning: Weren't Dungy's Colts at one point a 13-0 team and strong favorites in 2005? His son was tragically murdered, which would constitute "bad times," no? How did that season finish? Oh yeah, yet another disappointing playoff exit for the coach who is too nice to be called out.

 

I would say that Dungy's son had a helluva lot less to do with the Colts playoff loss that year than the fact that they went literally about six weeks without having to play a meaningful game and they ran into a team that had played about five weeks in a row with their backs against the wall and thus was focused, ready to play and not rusty.

 

Wait ... James Dungy committed suicide, right?