SMQ: Evaluating the backgrounds of championship coaches
By Zach Bigalke
Beginner’s Luck: 4 who won at their first stop as a head coach
Even when a coach wins a national title, there is no guarantee of permanent job security at a location. That is especially true of these four coaches, who by nature of either their nomadic disposition or an eventual downturn in their performance ended up somewhere else after the spot where each won titles.
This group includes John Robinson, who was the offensive coordinator at USC before taking over the program. Robinson won his first and only national title with the Trojans in his third season at the helm in 1978.
Danny Ford is another whose career did not end at his first stop. The former Clemson head coach got his first chance to lead a program when he was promoted from offensive line coach to head coach in 1978. After leaving the program due to a falling out with the administration at Clemson, Ford spent five years at Arkansas early in the school’s SEC tenure.
The other coaches who experienced beginner’s luck aren’t all like Ford. Sometimes a disappointing streak of results follows a title season and a school eventually decides to move on. In these rare cases, the result of the departure usually has less to do with either each coach’s championship season than it does with the years thereafter.
The Full List (4)
- John Robinson (USC)
- Danny Ford (Clemson)
- Howard Schnellenberger (Miami)
- Larry Coker (Miami)