There are NFL head coaches, and there are college head coaches. VERY few can move back and forth and be successful. For every Jimmy Johnson, there's 100 Steve Spurriers and Nick Sabans.
The reason has nothing to do with their knowledge of football.
It's the nature of the athlete and the expectations as the respective levels. In the NFL, a coach has almost unlimited demands on the player's time, (subject to any minimal CBA restrictions), and ZERO interest, control, or responsibility for what happens to a player once they leave the building. As long as it doesn't violate the law or the player's contract, the coach has nothing to do with it.
Contrast that with college. The head coach needs to create a disciplinary and operating structure that not only accounts for limited hours he and his staff can be with the player, but also one that accommodates both the non-football obligations of the player, and the coach's responsibility to ensure compliance. Not all coaches are cut out for managing their teams that way, or managing a bunch of 19 year olds who are amateur athletes, but professional knuckleheads. That's where NFL coaches fail. Not on the X's and O's, and it's why the idea that a successful NFL coach will also kill it in college, is a myth.
The reason has nothing to do with their knowledge of football.
It's the nature of the athlete and the expectations as the respective levels. In the NFL, a coach has almost unlimited demands on the player's time, (subject to any minimal CBA restrictions), and ZERO interest, control, or responsibility for what happens to a player once they leave the building. As long as it doesn't violate the law or the player's contract, the coach has nothing to do with it.
Contrast that with college. The head coach needs to create a disciplinary and operating structure that not only accounts for limited hours he and his staff can be with the player, but also one that accommodates both the non-football obligations of the player, and the coach's responsibility to ensure compliance. Not all coaches are cut out for managing their teams that way, or managing a bunch of 19 year olds who are amateur athletes, but professional knuckleheads. That's where NFL coaches fail. Not on the X's and O's, and it's why the idea that a successful NFL coach will also kill it in college, is a myth.