Coker's National Title is akin to Switzer's Super Bowl win. Coker -- like Switzer -- just stayed out of the way and reaped the rewards of what his predecessor built.
Comical. You don't have to go any further than opinion of Barry Switzer to decipher whether or not somebody knows anything about football.
Switzer won the Super Bowl in one of the most negative situational scenarios in pro football. It's only been done two other times in league history, and never happened in the decade of the AFL.
Teams that are one season removed from being dethroned as champion have a horrendous history. It's a natural lull and decline. It's the situation Seattle is in right now. Pete Carroll and their general manager knew darn well they couldn't maintain status quo and expect to threaten where they've been the past two seasons. That's why they traded for Jimmy Graham to shake things up. It was a worthwhile attempt even though not likely to pay full dividends.
Switzer did a tremendous job revitalizing that team and overcoming the negative trend. He said he spent the entire offseason looking at film from the two title years and detecting what had changed. He noted that many players had literally become fat cats, that they were much heavier than during the two championship seasons. That trend was pointed out to the players involved and reversed. Dallas was a much fitter and energetic team in 1995 than 1994. We were noting that on the Las Vegas radio handicapping shows early that season.
Simplistic fans had already made up their mind on Switzer so nothing was going to intervene.
The only other two times a team regained the NFL championship one season after being dethroned was a George Halas Bears team in the early '40s and the Belichick Patriots in 2003. That's it. That team is always laughably overrated in the betting odds and public perception entering the season, including Seattle this year. Somehow there's greater scrutiny on the defending champion, which historically owns a much better record the following year than the dethroned champ.
Switzer was also 5-0 combined in bowl games against Tom Osborne, Joe Paterno and Bobby Bowden. On Canes sites it's hilarious that Switzer is somehow defined by those 3 losses to Miami from 1985 to 1987, despite the fact Oklahoma won exactly as many national titles in those years as the Canes did -- one.
And BTW, Saturday was a perfect example of why you always want third down screen passes to fail. Virginia popped one on its first series for roughly 30 yards. Here comes the danger. I've seen it unfold dozens and dozens of times over the years. The offensive coordinator gets a little pea brained idea that it was good strategy. So he calls it again...and again...and again. I was in a seizure of laughter in the stands. Virginia threw away three subsequent series via failed third down screens. All were blown up. Keep in mind how many series you get in a game. The Cavaliers tossed away a huge percentage of their opportunities with those ignorant calls. The Canes got into the act also. Coley called one middle screen on third and manageable. It was wiped out at the line of scrimmage. And yesterday the Dolphins threw away their game at Buffalo courtesy of a stupid third down screen. They trailed only 19-14 and were moving at ease until Bill Lazor brainstormed a third down tight end screen. Buffalo collapsed the pocket, blanketed the tight end, forced Tannehill to think and then knocked the ball from his hands for a decisive turnover. The Bills scored on the subsequent possession to reestablish control of the game.
