Football, more than any sport, is a coach s game. Great coaches find ways to win with the talent at hand. They take the players they are given and mold them into a team. They push the right emotional buttons and devise the strategy that maximizes their team s strengths and exploits their opponents weaknesses. Among coaches, there is no higher praise.
Football coaches are like generals.
It is hard to say why one is successful and another is not. Which clears things up nicely. The great coach, like the great general, finds a way to get it done. Which, so far, both Fassel and Billick have done admirably. The fact that neither man coaches what would be called a complete team makes the case.