This past week I finally got the dreaded "monkey off my back" and joined the names of Lombardi, Shula, and Noll.....after 11 long years, I finally won my first championship -- fantasy football league championship that is....
After winning the title, I came to ponder who is currently the best head coach in sports to not win a championship.....I flipped through the college ranks, baseball, and basketball and did not come up with a top name.....(Texas’ Mack Brown shed that horrible monkey last night)....
However, the NFL had three coaches who have yet to "win it all".....they are Marty Schottenheimer, Tony Dungy, and Bill Cowher.....but which of these three truly deserves to finally win a Super Bowl....let’s take a deeper look....
Poor Tony Dung
y got robbed when he was the head man at Tampa Bay.....after bringing this once putrid franchise to respectability and then to the brink of a championship, owner Malcolm Glazer fired Dungy.....as Dungy headed off to Indianapolis, ole’ smiley face Jon Gruden swooped into Tampa and won the Super Bowl in his first year.....Dungy has some impressive numbers during his 10 years as a head coach....he is 102-58 but a sub-par 5-7 mark in the playoffs including an 0-2 record in League Championship games.....despite getting jobbed in Tampa, Dungy misses the mark as "the best coach to never win a title"...
Browns fans love to take cheap shots at Marty Schottenheimer because he could never get them to the Super Bowl in the 1980s.....but Marty has been the best coach the Browns have ever had whose last name is not Brown.....after leaving Cleveland, Marty made stops in Kansas City, Washington, and now San Diego.....he has the most wins of any current head coaches with a 186-124-1 record.....but much like Dungy, M
arty is only 5-12 in the playoffs including an 0-3 mark in League Championship games....Marty truly deserves a title, but somehow it will not happen for him -- partly because of his conservative playcalling late in big games.... but one day, when he finally dies, hopefully Marty gets to coach in a "big game" up there, but hopefully he remembers not to play the prevent defense with less than 3 minutes left in the game....
That brings up "The Jaw".....Bill Cowher is truly an incredible coach and not fully appreciated by the football world.....since becoming the Steelers head coach in 1992, Cowher’s teams have posted a 141-82-1 mark which is the best in the NFL over that timespan.....as much as Browns fans hate him, each and every Browns fan wishes Cowher was the head coach of the brown and orange....unlike Dungy and Marty, Cowher has an 8-9 playoff record including one Super Bowl appearance.....at least he has felt what it is like to coach in a Super Bowl.....but there should have been more than just one appearance.....five times the Steelers hosted the AFC title game, only to have their heart stomped on four out of those five times.....
Like I said earlier
, all three of these coaches deserve to win a Super Bowl.....but I believe Bill Cowher deserves it a tad more because of one simple stat that I was unaware of until just a few weeks ago....since taking over in Pittsburgh, Cowher has a record of 100-1-1 whenever his team gets at least at 10 point lead during the course of a game.....
Think about it, once the Steelers get a 10 point or more lead at any time during the game, they have 100 of those 102 games.....that is truly astonishing and just shows Cowher’s greatness.....also, unlike Dungy and Marty, Cowher has been with the Steelers his entire career.....he is the face (and jaw) of the Pittsburgh Steelers.....
So in the end, I believe that Bill Cowher is the best head coach in sports to not win a championship.....sorry Browns fans, but even you have to take off those dawg masks and acknowledge Cowher.....
THE EYES OF TEXAS ARE UPON YOUHOOK 'EM
Charlie Weis may have four Super Bowl rings on his fingers, but Ohio State’s Jim Tressel schooled the old NFL assistant about the college game in Monday’s Fiesta Bowl....somehow, someway Tressel always finds a way to win his games....and on Monday, he simply outcoached Weis....
- The talk has already started again about Ted Ginn for the 2006 Heisman.....not so fast....just because he ran crazy against an unprepared and undermanned Irish defense, that does not mean he will continue that success next season....after bursting onto the scene mid-way through the 2004 season, Ginn surprised the Big Ten coaches with his speed and took the nation by storm.....however, this season the Big Ten was prepared for Ginn as they lassoed him....just because Ginn chopped up a poor Notre Dame defense, doesn’t mean he will run crazy next season and win the Heisman....
- There are going to be as many as 8 NFL head coaching vacancies during the next month....why isn’t Tressel mentioned for any of these jobs?.....the guy has a knack of winning games, so why not take a chance on him?.....instead the NFL will give failures like Norv Turner and Mike Tice another opportunity....
- Give Miami (Fla) coach Larry Coker credit for making changes on his coaching staff....Coker will clearly be under fire next season.....he has been a disappointment after winning the National Championship with Butch Davis’ players.....
- By the way, where will Butch Davis end up next season???.....
- Unlike Coker, Michigan’s Lloyd Carr continues to be stubborn and not make changes with his coaching staff – specifically defensive coordinator Jim Hermann.....for the last 8 years Michigan fans have had to endure watching the Wolverines defense continually collapse late in games....Hermann has been living off of Michigan’s 1997 defense which was led by Heisman Trophy winner Charles Woodson.....Woodson made Jim Hermann.....since Woodson left after the 1997 season, Michigan has lacked a dominating defense....at the start of the 1998 season, without Woodson, Michigan was whipped by Notre Dame and carved up by a Syracuse team led by Donovan McNabb....and who could forget the infamous game against Northwestern when Drew Henson helped Michigan rack up 51 points only to lose because the defense gave up 54....I could go on and on and on.....Hermann has to go – right now!!!....
- Everyone knows the story of Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn’s sister, Laurie, dating Ohio State’s A.J. Hawk.....Laurie Quinn is
definitely a babe, but she has poor taste in men....before the Buckeye faithful get upset, let me say that Hawk is a dominating player.....but let’s be truthful, he looks like the son of Frankenstein.....come on Laurie, you could do better!!!.....
- After the Rose Bowl game, we won’t see Lee Corso until August – I already miss him....
Until next time, the beat goes on . . .
It’s been a while, but I’m back at the keyboard and what better way to start off Stiles Points than by predicting the BCS bowl games....
Sugar Bowl - Georgia (-6.5) vs. West Virginia - the Mountaineers will be a team to reckon with next year as they have two good young players in White and Slaton....head coach Rich Rodriguez knows this is a coming out game for West Virginia so expect this team not to quit....however I have liked the Dawgs all years with D.J. Shockley as their quarterback.....Georgia 26-17
Orange Bowl - Penn State (-10) vs. Florida State - the matchup of the all-time winning coaches....the Seminoles struggled late in the season but came up big against Va Tech in the ACC title game....Joe PaPa has 
been the story of the year in college football and should rightfully be 11-0 if not for that last second loss in Ann Arbor....Penn State is rock tough on defense, just ask Troy Smith and the Buckeyes....the Nittany Lions roar....Penn State 27-13
Fiesta Bowl - Ohio State (-4.5) vs. Notre Dame - in any other year, this would be the dream matchup game....Charlie Weis showed what a little good coaching can do....with basically the same team that former coach Ty Willingham had, Weis transformed the anemic Irish offense into a force....the Buckeyes have a solid defense, but they can be picked apart which was apparent when the vanilla flavored Michigan offense scored on them in the second half of their game....Notre Dame wins a tough battle....Notre Dame 34-31
Rose Bowl - Southern Cal (-8) vs. Texas - Southern Cal has the best offense in the last 25 years....this year all the attention
has gone to Reggie Bush, and rightfully so....but people forget that it was Matt Leinert who came up big in the Notre Dame game with that precision pass on fourth down to Dwayne Jarrett....there is no doubt that the Trojans have the best offense, but the Longhorns have the best team.....the Horns offense is not that bad either with Vincent Young running the show and Billy Pittman and Limas Sweed at wideouts....but the Horns clearly have the better defense with Rod Wright anchoring the line and Michael Huff patrolling the secondary....plus the Horns are on a mission this season....Texas 37-28
It’s good to be back!!!!
ton @ Tampa Bay (- 3) - here is my upset pick of the week.....these teams meet for the second time this year....the Bucs won the first one in a controversial donnybrook.....but not this time....Redskins 21-13
team is going to have to use its power game....many think the Giants are ripe to get picked off here.....but the G-men win this one because of the home field.....NY Football Giants 21-20
