Dan Campbell was the tight ends coach and the Dolphins are now 4-7 under him. Same With Jim Tomsula and the 49ers. He was the D-line coach and he's a disaster. Both teams named them Head Coaches because they were respectable leaders. But somehow it just doesn't pan out. Why?
Plenty of position coaches have become good head coaches. Plenty of coordinators do not become good head coaches. But most head coaches do not end up as "good" head coaches.
Coaches are leaders, not miracle workers. And when you have the highest paid defender in football in a non-impact position, it means you have lots of glaring holes that simply can't be fixed by coaching alone. And I hate it for Campbell, but the guy was doomed from the start.
Ascending levels of responsibility, some guys just don't want the responsibility or the hassle with moving the coaching ladder.
If I had to guess it is probably "Why him and not me syndrome" Seeing the big picture and being able to allow your coaches to do what they do best under your guidance is extremely difficult to do. Multiple personalities and knowing when and when not to intervene is key. I have 9 coaches under me on my team and it is a constant challange to make all happy. Sometimes it is very difficult to maintain a certain amount of respect to be the "Head Coach". It is difficult to articulate in words. If you do not maintain that level of respect, you are doomed because some will go off and do their own thing - like it or not. Getting the coaches to "Buy in" is often over looked but I can tell you from expierence sometimes you must rule with a heavy hand or things can quickly spiral out of control and clicks and distention could develop and then a head coach can find them selves being under minded. As an example this year we installed the 46 defense, switching from a 5-2. Despite meeting with coaches, teaching them the basic fundamentals of the defense I had one coach who insisted on coaching the corners when I wasn't with that group to be spying into the backfield to support the run. I specifically told this coach and 2 others that we were not going.to coach to do that. They were to coach to jam and take away the inside - if done effectively we could shut down the pass and force our opponent to run ------right into our strong point which was our run defense. This particular coach caused confusion, frustration and a lack of disiplin among our starters which caused us to give up 28 points over a 3 game streak on passes where our dbs let guys get behind them. I added a coach to the Defensive backs who was tasked with handling the issue and making sure this coach DID NOT again coach this way. I corrected and set the rule in front of this coach and the entire team and without embarrassing him or chastising him. Although I did not.need the distraction, I was told several of the other coaches on my staff appreciated how I handled it. We over the next 4 games gave up a whopping 34 points. In 2 of the games our opponents had negative total offensive out put. I did not speak to him about it until after the season ended and the way he coached was directly partially responsible for 2 losses. This coach thanked me for handling it the way I did and said I earned a ton of respect from him as a result. I have already asked this coach to return next year and he has agreed. He will be my head defensive backs coach. But he will do it my way. Hope this helps
