In his fourth college job, John spent eight years coaching special teams at Cincinnati. In his first pro job, he spent nine years coaching special teams at Philadelphia before he asked Andy Reid to give him the defensive backs. He had to try something different. He'd twice failed to get the head job at Cincinnati. He'd lost out at Boston College, and he thought he had the job at UCLA and a chance to fight Jim at Stanford for control of the West Coast before the Bruins hired Rick Neuheisel.