THE MORNING WALK-THROUGH #42 – The case against a “one side of the ball” head coach.

Coaching Process Wins

The all-time great head football coaches have used a multi-disciplinarian approach to the game. I argue that if you want to be an effective head coach over a long term successful program you better be involved in every aspect of that program. The great ones have done it that way, and the singleminded ones have repeatedly been fired. Bill Walsh was the greatest "one side of the ball" head football coach in history. He was an offensive genius, and maintained his position as the offensive coordinator while still being the head man. Most football people today would point to Walsh as the shining example of a great head coach can still be great while maintaining a one side of the ball focus. However, I argue that Walsh was much much more than just an offensive coordinator/head coach during his all-time run in San Francisco. Arguably he was also one of the best personnel men in the history of the NFL. His drafts and trades kept his 49'ers constantly at the top of the leagues talent pool. The players he drafted and traded for on defense always made that side of the ball tough and statistically strong. Make no mistake about it, Bill Walsh had a multi-disciplinarian approach to the game. In order to make my case I simply will offer a brief list of the all-time great head coaches that approached the game in a multi-disciplinarian way: (This list is far from complete, and some will argue that some of these men totally favored one side of the ball over the other. While most may have been raised on one side, the head coaching prowess reflects more of a style of the multi-disciplinarians) NFL: Tom Landry Chuck Noll Bill Parcells Don Shula Bill Belichick College: Paul Bryant Bo Schembechler Tom Osborne Nick Saban SportSource Analytics offers a brilliant case: