In the Jamarcus Russell thread:


So I saw this and I agree, but I was wondering if that's just because I'm a Vikes fan. Being a stats geek, let's do some investigation. First off, let me revise it slightly to say never to win a championship, ie counting championships won prior to Super Bowl I, but not counting the 1 NFL championship the Vikes won before Super Bowl IV. This way we're not counting coaches prior to the Super Bowl era like Halas, Lambeau, and Paul Brown (who have 6, 6, and 7 championships respectively). I went to pro-football-reference and sorted by wins. Here's the list of coaches with more than 100 wins and no championships.

Marty Schottenheimer
Dan Reeves
Chuck Knox
Bud Grant
Marv Levy
Jeff Fisher
Jim Mora
George Allen
Denny Green
Don Coryell
Andy Reid

Checking deeper, Bud sure seems like the best of that list. George Allen has a better winning percentage, and impressively, was over .500 every season he coached. But, his playoff record was abysmal, 2-7, with both of those wins coming when he took the skins to the Super Bowl in '72. Bud, of course, made the SB 4 times. Dan Reeves and Marv Levy match the 4 SB's. Bud has 12 playoff appearances, only topped by Schottenheimer. Bud made the playoffs 66% of the time (12/18). Only one better is Andy Reid (72%, 8/11). Another interesting stat they have is average division finish. Bud and George Allen are the best on this list with a 1.8 (ie averaged a little better than 2nd place, interestingly, this is Chili's average too).

So, Bud's pretty much #1 or #2 in all those stats, and the #2s are not all to the same guy. I'd say Bud was the best never to win a SB.

Interesting investigation. I agree that Bud looks like the best of the bunch. Schottenheimer never went to the Super Bowl. As you said,George Allen has 2-7 record (possibly as bad as schottenheimer!)

Marv Levy is the most interesting of all. He did take the Bills to 4 straight super bowls,which is impressive,but lost all of them.

Marty Schottenheimer: A good regular season coach,but choked come playoff time
Dan Reeves:Beat a better Vikings team in '98,didn't do much else again
Chuck Knox: Wait,what team did he coach with again
Bud Grant: Legendary coach with one blemish in his resume. You can fill in the blanks
Marv Levy: 4 straight super bowls: 4 straight losses
Jeff Fisher: Always an underacheiver of sorts. Been with the Titans for over a decade. But has only been to one super bowl
Jim Mora:"Playoffs?!" a coach who is known better for his postgame conferences than his coaching.
George Allen: He liked a lot of Veterans,possibly why they do not have a good playoff record. They wore down at the end of the season
Denny Green: "The Bears are who we thought they were!' A coach for my two favorite teams. Better with one than the other
Don Coryell: Innovatative offense. Couldn't stand up to the best teams though
Andy Reid: Best team 2005,lost Super Bowl,lost a lot of NFCCG before that

This is an amateur's fan's analysis so there is likely to be errors

green should have won in 1998. as good as any 49er, rams, or cowboys offense. his teams were always competitive.

Marv Levy was an awesome coach. Those Bills teams were so fun to watch in the 90s. I would have to give Bud the edge tho, but not by much..

I think so too about Levy. They should've won against the Giants in '90. But Norwood said he could make it from 47 yards and sailed it Wide Right. About what Anderson's kick is to us

so who is the worst coach to ever win a superbowl?

Barry Switzer with the Cowboys. I think this is agreed upon by most fans.

John

agreed,he just got put on a good team

I'd have to consider putting Don McCafferty at the top of that list. Similar to Switzer, he took over a very good Colts team from Shula, won the SB in his first year, got spiked out of the playoffs by Shula's Dolphins the next year, and got fired in the middle of his third year at 1-5.

What about Mike Holmgren? After Seattle gave him all the power, his true colors seemed to shine.

He had a long successful run in Green Bay, much better than McCafferty or Switzer had. Just because he couldn't handle both GM and coach doesn't make him a bad coach.

Another option is John Coughlin, but he has had some decent teams I guess.

NFL Network did a list of the top coaches never to win the championship. I have it recorded on my DVR. Will watch it soon

I loved when Bud Grant acknowledged that Jim Marshall was his favorite player of all time. Speaking of, I get to hang out with Jim tomorrow night. He is a staple of our Celebrity golf tournament that benefits Big Brothers Big Sisters club. He is possibly the coolest guy I've ever met.

how about george siefert? rich kotite could have won a superbowl with that team. or brian billick. supposedly an offensive genius but his defense won that superbowl with trent dilfer at qb.

Sean Peyton. Just kidding, I just hate the dude.

how about shanahan. he hasnts sniffed a superbowl since john elway. i think he is over-rated, neither has "chucky" john gruden since the great tampa defense, or mike ditka. he didnt do much after the great bears defense.

Billick was the master of the gadget play. Or at least the timing of when to use one. He had a 'reborn' Cunningham, a Prime Cris Carter, and Moss. He exploited their talents. He had defensive weapons in Baltimore, he exploited them. Where would we be if the post Dennis Green Vikings had Billick instead of Tice

Agreed. He also coached two franchises to Super Bowl appearances and nearly became the first coach to win the Super Bowl with two different teams. I'd say those accomplishments firmly remove him from "worst coach to win the Super Bowl" consideration.

Jim

dick vermiel. the only reason he won was because he had torry holt, Az-Zahir Hakim , marshall faulk, issac bruce, ricky proehl, kurt warner. the greatest show on turf.

kurt warner wasn't kurt warner until that year. doesn't vermeil get some credit for seeing warner's talent and giving him the shot?

but he was the backup and then Trent Green went down with an injury right?

That's correct. He had been 3rd string the year before (his first making an NFL roster at 27, behind the illustrious Tony Banks and Steve Bono). Rams brought in Trent Green to start, moved Warner up to #2. Green got injured in a preseason game. People forget now that Warner turned out to be a likely HoF'er that this was a very gutsy move by Vermeil. At the time, Warner had a whopping 11 attempts in the league after going undrafted, bouncing around Arena and Europe for a couple years, 1 year as a 3rd stringer and then he's your starter going into the season? Your other two QB's are 5th round pick Joe Germaine and Paul Justin? Vermeil retired after that season (his second of three retirements), but had Warner not been great, they may have ended up with a third losing season in a row and he'd have probably been fired.

he was lucky kurt warner was good. the rams and vermiel were very scared. david shula could have won with that offense. they should have beaten the patriots to win a second superbowl but was outcoached.

Vermeil didn't coach in that SB. Martz did

yeah youre right. martz didnt run marshall faulk enough and milk the clock.