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ESPN celebrates the 100th anniversary of Vince Lombardi's birth with the "Greatest Coaches in NFL History" series, saluting the finest innovators, motivators, tacticians, teachers and champions ever to stalk the sidelines. Follow along as we reveal our list of the top 20 coaches of all time and document the lineage of the league's most influential coaching trees.

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/page/gre ... -bud-grant

It's interesting that they explore coaching trees, because as far as I know, Bud Grant didn't really spawn any good coaches from his staff of all those years. Certainly not Les Steckel and, arguably, not Jerry Burns. Was there anyone else?

Eli wrote:It's interesting that they explore coaching trees, because as far as I know, Bud Grant didn't really spawn any good coaches from his staff of all those years. Certainly not Les Steckel and, arguably, not Jerry Burns. Was there anyone else?

Buddy Ryan was on Bud's staff in the mid-'70s.

Mothman wrote: Buddy Ryan was on Bud's staff in the mid-'70s.

I did not know that. Interesting: The author of the 46 defense came from Grant's tree

I don't know that that's anything to be proud of. Buddy was something of an embarrassment, wherever he went. Apparently he was just a defensive line coach for a couple of years with the Vikings, so whatever he did afterward is unlikely to be heavily influenced by Grant.

Its pitiful that Bud Grant was the LAST excellent coach we have ever had. I am old enough to remember Bud Grant very fondly. The man had ice water in his veins and did very well dealing with a loose canon, crazy QB like Tark, even though they had completely different personalities. Sadly, since those ancient days of my youth we have never had a Coach or QB even come CLOSE to either of these guys.

Eli wrote:I don't know that that's anything to be proud of. Buddy was something of an embarrassment, wherever he went. Apparently he was just a defensive line coach for a couple of years with the Vikings, so whatever he did afterward is unlikely to be heavily influenced by Grant.

Who knows? For all we know he may have been influenced quite a bit by Grant. Anyway, you asked a question and I consider Ryan one of the answers. He was the architect and coordinator of one of the greatest defenses the game has ever seen and he's viewed as one of the game's great defensive minds. I think it's safe to say that qualifies him as a good coach. YMMV. Things didn't work out as well for him as a head coach but he had three 10+ win seasons in 5 years in Philadelphia.

Anyway, for what it's worth, here are some other coaches who were on Grant's Vikings staff and went on to be NFL head coaches:

Bob Hollway (Cardinals 71-72)
Jack Patera (Seattle '76-'82)
Neil Armstrong (Chicago '78-81)
Pete Carroll (Jets 1994, Patriots '97-'99, Seattle 2010 to present)

Carroll was on Bud's staff in his last season as HC of the Vikes.

Mothman wrote:Who knows? For all we know he may have been influenced quite a bit by Grant.

Personality-wise, coaching-wise, and leadership-wise, Buddy Ryan was the very antithesis of Bud Grant. Maybe he picked up a few of Bud's ideas, but like you say, who knows. The lineage isn't apparent.

Anyway, for what it's worth, here are some other coaches who were on Grant's Vikings staff and went on to be NFL head coaches:

Bob Hollway (Cardinals 71-72)
Jack Patera (Seattle '76-'82)
Neil Armstrong (Chicago '78-81)
Pete Carroll (Jets 1994, Patriots '97-'99, Seattle 2010 to present)

Carroll was on Bud's staff in his last season as HC of the Vikes.

Thanks.

Eli wrote: Personality-wise, coaching-wise, and leadership-wise, Buddy Ryan was the very antithesis of Bud Grant. Maybe he picked up a few of Bud's ideas, but like you say, who knows. The lineage isn't apparent.

It certainly wasn't apparent in ryan's demeanor but perhaps he seized on some other aspects of Grant's coaching.

You're welcome. There's not a lot of head coaching success there (other than Carroll) .

Buddy Ryan was also on Weeb Ewbanks' staff with the Jets, during the AFL years. He probably belongs to the Ewbanks tree.

VikeMike wrote:Buddy Ryan was also on Weeb Ewbanks' staff with the Jets, during the AFL years. He probably belongs to the Ewbanks tree.

He's a Weeble!