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Can Michigan Coach Gary Hammermill Turn Around The Bears?
Bobby Petrino, Steve Spurrier, Nick Saban, Dennis Erickson, Butch Davis, Rich Brooks, and Mike Riley were all great college coaches. They were also failures in the NFL. Will Michigan Coach Gary Hammermill be more successful?
To answer that question we first have to look at why the other college coaches couldn’t replicate their success at the next level?
There are actually many reasons why college coaches fail at the next level. One of the first problems college coaches encounter is how they deal with their players. DT Grady Jackson had this insight to share after dealing with college coach Bobby Petrino in Atlanta, "He was accustomed to dealing with kids in college. Now, he's dealing with grown men. That was the big thing right there."
One very big adjustment college coaches need to make is getting used to losing. Coaches hired from college are, by definition, the most successful. One, two or three losses per season is the norm. In the NFL, a successful season can be five or six losses. Many new coaches usually are hired by bad teams and lose twice as many in their first year.
Steve Spurrier suffered through this in Washington when he was brought in by owner Dan “the Fan” Snyder. Spurrier went 12-20 in two seasons with Snyder acting as general manager and overpaying for average talent, to bolster an already mediocre team. Two seasons was enough for Spurrier, and off he went back to college.
One of the few college coaches to be successful in the NFL was Jimmy Johnson with the Cowboys. One reason Johnson succeeded is that he was able to tolerate losing and enjoyed rebuilding; as good as he was as a coach, he was better as a talent evaluator.
Coach Johnson took over a Dallas team that had been 3-13 in 1988. In order to build a contender, Johnson ran a revolving-door tryout camp during the 1989 season, bringing in new players weekly and disposing of all but a handful of carryover players. The Cowboys went 1-15 with rookie Troy Aikman at quarterback, were 7-9 the next season, then 11-5 in 1991.
The next two years, they won the Super Bowl, making Johnson the first coach to win both a college national championship and an NFL title.
Few coaches have the patience to build slowly. Nor do modern owners have that kind of patience. With anyone other than college buddy Jones as the owner, who knows how long Johnson might have lasted, especially with a franchise with the winning tradition of the Cowboys?
With that said, I for one think Michigan Coach Gary Hammermill will successful in the NFL. Yes, the Bears are a bad team, signified by their woeful 2-13-1 record (#31 ranked offense), but they do have some positives to build on.
Their defense is aging but still strong (#6 ranked defense) (LE A. Ogunleye OVR 84, RE Mark Anderson OVR 82; DT Tommie Harris OVR 92; OLB Lance Briggs OVR 91, MLB Brian Urlacher OVR 92; CB Nathan Vasher OVR 90, CB Charles Tillman OVR 87, FS Mike Brown OVR 82); they have two solid receivers in Devin Hester OVR 87 and Earl Bennett OVR 86; the building blocks for a solid OL (LT John Tait OVR 88; C Olin Kruetz OVR 92, RT Gosder Cherilus OVR 89); Solid special teamers in Gould and Maynard OVR 89/87. One solid draft and Hammermill could start turning things around in a hurry.
Coach Hammermill is widely considered to be very talented at maintaining a positive team chemistry and has shown himself to be one of the best at getting his players to perform to the best of their ability (Team Chemistry 4, Play Call 5, Strategy 5, Performance 5, DL Phys 2, LB Phys 4, DB Phys 3, DL Intg 2, LB Intg 5, DB Intg 2, LB Learn 4, DB Learn 2; Ambition, Improved Tackling.) So, I don’t think he will have the communication problems some of the other college coaches had.
And let’s not forget, The Michigan Spread Offense. This offense was lethal in college and looks to be a perfect fit for the NFL.
Mark my words, Gary Hammermill will have the Bears in the playoffs in two years.
Bobby Petrino, Steve Spurrier, Nick Saban, Dennis Erickson, Butch Davis, Rich Brooks, and Mike Riley were all great college coaches. They were also failures in the NFL. Will Michigan Coach Gary Hammermill be more successful?
To answer that question we first have to look at why the other college coaches couldn’t replicate their success at the next level?
There are actually many reasons why college coaches fail at the next level. One of the first problems college coaches encounter is how they deal with their players. DT Grady Jackson had this insight to share after dealing with college coach Bobby Petrino in Atlanta, "He was accustomed to dealing with kids in college. Now, he's dealing with grown men. That was the big thing right there."
One very big adjustment college coaches need to make is getting used to losing. Coaches hired from college are, by definition, the most successful. One, two or three losses per season is the norm. In the NFL, a successful season can be five or six losses. Many new coaches usually are hired by bad teams and lose twice as many in their first year.
Steve Spurrier suffered through this in Washington when he was brought in by owner Dan “the Fan” Snyder. Spurrier went 12-20 in two seasons with Snyder acting as general manager and overpaying for average talent, to bolster an already mediocre team. Two seasons was enough for Spurrier, and off he went back to college.
One of the few college coaches to be successful in the NFL was Jimmy Johnson with the Cowboys. One reason Johnson succeeded is that he was able to tolerate losing and enjoyed rebuilding; as good as he was as a coach, he was better as a talent evaluator.
Coach Johnson took over a Dallas team that had been 3-13 in 1988. In order to build a contender, Johnson ran a revolving-door tryout camp during the 1989 season, bringing in new players weekly and disposing of all but a handful of carryover players. The Cowboys went 1-15 with rookie Troy Aikman at quarterback, were 7-9 the next season, then 11-5 in 1991.
The next two years, they won the Super Bowl, making Johnson the first coach to win both a college national championship and an NFL title.
Few coaches have the patience to build slowly. Nor do modern owners have that kind of patience. With anyone other than college buddy Jones as the owner, who knows how long Johnson might have lasted, especially with a franchise with the winning tradition of the Cowboys?
With that said, I for one think Michigan Coach Gary Hammermill will successful in the NFL. Yes, the Bears are a bad team, signified by their woeful 2-13-1 record (#31 ranked offense), but they do have some positives to build on.
Their defense is aging but still strong (#6 ranked defense) (LE A. Ogunleye OVR 84, RE Mark Anderson OVR 82; DT Tommie Harris OVR 92; OLB Lance Briggs OVR 91, MLB Brian Urlacher OVR 92; CB Nathan Vasher OVR 90, CB Charles Tillman OVR 87, FS Mike Brown OVR 82); they have two solid receivers in Devin Hester OVR 87 and Earl Bennett OVR 86; the building blocks for a solid OL (LT John Tait OVR 88; C Olin Kruetz OVR 92, RT Gosder Cherilus OVR 89); Solid special teamers in Gould and Maynard OVR 89/87. One solid draft and Hammermill could start turning things around in a hurry.
Coach Hammermill is widely considered to be very talented at maintaining a positive team chemistry and has shown himself to be one of the best at getting his players to perform to the best of their ability (Team Chemistry 4, Play Call 5, Strategy 5, Performance 5, DL Phys 2, LB Phys 4, DB Phys 3, DL Intg 2, LB Intg 5, DB Intg 2, LB Learn 4, DB Learn 2; Ambition, Improved Tackling.) So, I don’t think he will have the communication problems some of the other college coaches had.
And let’s not forget, The Michigan Spread Offense. This offense was lethal in college and looks to be a perfect fit for the NFL.
Mark my words, Gary Hammermill will have the Bears in the playoffs in two years.
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