Dungy over Coryell are fucking kidding ?

[BlazingBolt]

The cannons were blabbing last week that if Coryell did not get in that Dungy getting the nod would be the best news. Hartman thinks Coryell is the nest coach in line of those eligible after Dungy

[ArtistFormerlyKnownAsBKR]

It's an injustice that Coryell didn't get in as coach. I'll say that.

I think Dungy gets it because of a SB and his longevity as a player, assistant, HC, membership on league committees and broadcast work. He's popular. But note that his two rings were more about his teammates (Pittsburgh dynasty team) and his QB (Manning), than about anything he himself did. I think he's a very good coach as far as soft skills go. He kept Indy going even with all of their disappointments. But in the end this is more about his popularity than his football thinking.

It's shouldn't be enough to get in over Coryell, but it apparently is more of a popularity contest.

[SDFan]

Like it or not, Coryell's teams were always looked at as 1 dimensional and the offense could be stopped (or stop themselves with errors) and not play well in big games. Look at our home playoff losses against Oakland, Houston, and the Ice bowl in Cincy. The perception is/was he didn't care about the defensive side of the ball. I'm betting the voters for HOF feel he simply wasn't a good enough HEAD COACH, whereas a guy like Dungy managed his whole team better and actually won a Super Bowl along the way.

[ArtistFormerlyKnownAsBKR]

Like it or not, Coryell's teams were always looked at as 1 dimensional and the offense could be stopped (or stop themselves with errors) and not play well in big games. Look at our home playoff losses against Oakland, Houston, and the Ice bowl in Cincy. The perception is/was he didn't care about the defensive side of the ball. I'm betting the voters for HOF feel he simply wasn't a good enough HEAD COACH, whereas a guy like Dungy managed his whole team better and actually won a Super Bowl along the way.

That's not a bad take. One could argue that while he was far more of an innovator than these guys that he was more of an 'excellent (offensive) coordinator-type but not a head coach' like Norv or Wade Phillips. It's not my take because the defensive issue had a lot more to do with personnel decisions than anything. Trading Fred Dean really did a number on that defense.'79-80 were his most complete teams. But we didn't have any semblance of a running game to take advantage of it. Clarence Williams and Mike Thomas? We lost those games bc we were too one-dimensional on offense. So by the time we got Muncie, Dean was gone. And some of the other personnel moves (bringing in washed up vets like Dewey Selmon and Glen Edwards) and hiring of Tom Bass turned out to be pretty poor in hindsight.

[6025]

Unlike Wade or Norv, Coryell actually made an impact upon arrival and won. He took two moribund franchises who never sniffed the playoffs and took them there. The other two guys teetered from abject failure to stumbling into the playoffs. Norv had the distinction of stumbling in even with teams going 13-3; you could never say those teams were dominant like the 1979-1981 Chargers were.

[Steve]

Sid Gillman, Marv Levy, George Allen, and Bud Grant are all Hall of Fame coaches, none has a SB ring as a HC. There are some other pre-SB coaches, but these all had a chance post SB. Got in anyway, and Coryell has a better playoff record then George Allen does.

Also, they could let him in as a contributor anyway. Curly Lambeau was allowed to go in as a contributor, even though he was a HC, as well as other things (GM,owner, player.....).

He also had to deal with 2 of the more difficult owners in football in Gene Klein and Bill Bidwell. Coryell got the Chargers and Cards winning right away and both teams imploded after he left.