What is a football coach's job?

#1
carolinaviking

carolinaviking

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#1
This was posted in another thread:

ckelly33 said:
A full year without a single conference win.

Do you have employees that don't even come close to accomplishing their job - or would you be OK with that?
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This is interesting. What is a football coach's job? Is it to win? Or is it to raise young men to do their best, work as a team, face adversity, and deal with loss?

It could be argued that winning every game indicates that they are working as a team and are doing their best. But does that prepare them properly for life? We all know what happens when someone who has won everything for a long time finally loses. It's ugly because they do not know how to deal with it.

It could be argued that losing every game indicates that they are not working as a team or doing their best. But then again, maybe it doesn't. In high school, there were always teams that lost most or all of their games. They didn't have the resources to compete. But they competed, anyway. Why field a team? Why would students try out for that team, knowing they would get whupped every game for four years straight? Could it be because those kids understood that it was about competing and not about winning? Could it be they understood that it was about a coach teaching them to be men? To be team members? Why does Vanderbilt field a team every year, knowing they will most likely have a losing record? Is it because those few wins are so much sweeter?

Like everyone else, I wish Tennessee would dominate and win a championship, and unfortunately, they are not doing that. But I am quite uncomfortable with all of this hatred and vitriol spewed at Coach Jones. He is a Vol. He has a family. He is a human being whose failures are on full display for the world to see. If your father/brother/son/best friend coached the Vols this way, would you be willing to shoot an arrow into his back the way so many here on VN do to Coach Jones every day? I know he gets paid millions, but that is not on him; that is on the school, and it is the nature of the beast.

This thread is not about whether or not CBJ should be fired. It is a question of responsibility.

So, what is a coach's job?
 
#2
#2
At $4+ million a year, recruit, develop players, manage your coaching staff, maintain discipline, all in the name of winning. Winning is the reason a coach is paid millions a year. It's not to run a Boy Scout camp.
 
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#4
#4
“This thread is not about whether or not CBJ should be fired. It is a question of responsibility.“

Hmmm. . . OK, then he should take responsibility and resign! It is about wins and losses. He failed. Next up!
 
#5
#5
Well, the job title is Head Football Coach, not head life lessons coach.

So break it down:

head = in charge, leader of a team of fellows
football = American team sport
coach = instructor or trainer

So he's the lead instructor and trainer of this American team sport for the university.

And, all other things being equal, the better he does that job of instructing and training, the better the team should perform. Better performance in the game of football = more wins against other football teams.

This is stripping his job title all the way down to its bare bones, the most basic possible definition, of course. There are many other elements to his job which grow off of that base role. And yes, teaching character and life lessons, encouraging academic success, instilling discipline and values, they're all ancillary duties.

But at its base, the job is about training and guiding our football players in winning the game of football.

...

I'm not a fan of all the Butch-hate, either. I think he's a good man who tried and failed. He didn't have all the attributes (particularly intellect) to perform the job at a championship level. We shouldn't vilify him for that, we should thank him for bringing the program out of the depths of our Dark Ages (in many ways, we're far ahead of the worst now, even if the W/L column isn't one of them), and send him on his way.

Because Tennessee football must be championship football.
 
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#6
#6
To answer your original question...it’s both. The head football coaches job is to develop and support these young men but also produce an environment primed for success, ie winning.

In real life, as you allude with your career reference, it’s important to know the emotions, accept loss, build character and integrity, but your employer will also eventually expect results that keep the business alive and relevant.
 
#7
#7
The real HC is now in Indiana as an OC.....I’m sorry but I just wanted to point that out and agree with the other posts above mine.
 
#8
#8
All a HC has to do is recruit, surround yourself with great coaches, and do well at press conferences.

Recruiting - B
Press Conferences - F-

Surround self with coaches: D

Everyone knew he made a mistake when he hired Larry Scott. I remember being pissed with everyone else on volnation about the dumb hire.

He failed on 2 requirements of his job.
 
#9
#9
VFL-82-JP said:
And, all other things being equal, the better he does that job of instructing and training, the better the team should perform. Better performance in the game of football = more wins against other football teams.
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Nope. All you have to do to rebuke this perspective is look at all the "winners" that were later found to have cheated their way to the top.
 
#10
#10
Well I am at the point now that I only want the wins. I do not care if the kids that wear the Power T are hoodlums off the field. Heck it never hurt Miami under Jimmy Johnson or Schnellenburger or any of those other coaches they had. As long as they win games I don't care. That is how despondent I have become. I do not care one bit what they do with their lives or what kind of citizens they become later in life. The FOOTBALL COACH'S ONLY JOB IS WIN FOOTBALL GAMES, THAT IS IT, I DO NOT GIVE 2 SHYTS ABOUT ANYTHING THAT HAPPENS IN THE KIDS LIVES. They can do like the rest of us and get it together themselves, or screw their lives up themselves. It is the same thing each and every poster on here has to do every day. I do not have a Chamions of Life coach myself and I bet none of you reading this do either. The FOOTBALL coach needs to win CHAMPIONSHIPS ON THE FIELD. He is NOT the players keeper, he is their coach.

Sorry fellow Vol fans for venting it is just where I am at now after this s@@+ show of a season. But unfortunately this is how I truly feel now. Jones has driven me to this. It is why I do not even care if whenever we someday do hire a new coach he has any morals or scruples. The new coach can be a drunk, a philanderer, a cheat, I don't care as long he wins Nattys for us and stays one step ahead of the NCAA. It is now only about the W for me.
 
#11
#11
ALLVOL24/7/365 said:
Well I am at the point now that I only want the wins. I do not care if the kids that wear the Power T are hoodlums off the field. Heck it never hurt Miami under Jimmy Johnson or Schnellenburger or any of those other coaches they had. As long as they win games I don't care. That is how despondent I have become. I do not care one bit what they do with their lives or what kind of citizens they become later in life. The FOOTBALL COACH'S ONLY JOB IS WIN FOOTBALL GAMES, THAT IS IT, I DO NOT GIVE 2 SHYTS ABOUT ANYTHING THAT HAPPENS IN THE KIDS LIVES. They can do like the rest of us and get it together themselves, or screw their lives up themselves. It is the same thing each and every poster on here has to do every day. I do not have a Chamions of Life coach myself and I bet none of you reading this do either. The FOOTBALL coach needs to win CHAMPIONSHIPS ON THE FIELD. He is NOT the players keeper, he is their coach.

Sorry fellow Vol fans for venting it is just where I am at now after this s@@+ show of a season. But unfortunately this is how I truly feel now. Jones has driven me to this. It is why I do not even care if whenever we someday do hire a new coach he has any morals or scruples. The new coach can be a drunk, a philanderer, a cheat, I don't care as long he wins Nattys for us and stays one step ahead of the NCAA. It is now only about the W for me.
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Book of Job, brother. Book of Job.

Don't sign a deal with the devil just because you're in a terrible place. Keep your values intact and persevere.

Better days are ahead. Don't sell your soul just before they become visible.
 
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#12
#12
His primary job is to win. his secondary jobs are to represent the program, recruit,develop talent, and manage.
 
#15
#15
To accomplish the preset goals.

Whether in sports or in business, the boss (supervisor, coach, manager, president, CEO, etc) sets the goals of what should be accomplished. The employee ( athlete, line worker, manager, Director, Coach, etc ) is responsible and should be held accountable for accomplishing those goals.

If I hire you to work in my factory, and tell you that you should be able to put a screw in 1000 widgets per night, and others reach and surpass that number consistently, then that is what you should be held accountable for.

If you routinely fail to meet this quota, what should happen to you? Is it the screwdriver that you use? You've been given multiple screwdrivers, and you keep breaking them. Others are given the same screwdrivers with less breakage. Whose fault is the extreme number of breakages, the lack of quality, and failure to meet quota? What would happen in this scenario?
 
#16
#16
Godfatha said:
At $4+ million a year, recruit, develop players, manage your coaching staff, maintain discipline, all in the name of winning. Winning is the reason a coach is paid millions a year. It's not to run a Boy Scout camp.
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^ This exactly. I agree 100%. The reason coaches are paid millions of dollars per yr is to win.
 
#17
#17
Villainous_Vol said:
^ This exactly. I agree 100%. The reason coaches are paid millions of dollars per yr is to win.
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Exactly. Shoot, I'll take $200,000 a year right now to coach and lose games. That's a pretty easy objective.

If you'd like, I'd even have bonus incentives in. An extra $1000 per class per student athlete that passes a class with an established grade level. Maybe a $100,000 bonus for a winning record. How about another $100,000 for winning division? $200,000 for winning a bowl game? Say, $400,000 for winning SEC? A cool million for winning a NC?

I'd still be cheaper than Butch. And if you are happy with losing, I'm cheap, too.
 
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