Defensive coordinators who have gone on to big time success in college football

GulfCoastTider

Hall of Fame
I had an interesting discussion yesterday regarding coaching booms and busts. The question was: How many college football defensive coordinators have gone on to big time success as a head coach?

We could only come up with a handful from recent memory. Bob Stoops has won conference titles, a BCS title and been to BCS bowl games. Charlie Strong will go to the Orange Bowl. Will Muschamp still has a lot to prove but looks promising. Bo Pelini has struggled somewhat.

The most successful--Nick Saban--was a DC in the NFL but never coordinated a college defense.

Ellis Johnson was a failure. Gene Chizik crashed and burned. Mike Dubose... well.

What's your sense? Are DC's more likely to be busts as head coaches?
 

TIDE-HSV

Senior Administrator
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Oct 13, 1999
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It's worth noting that Dubose only served as DC for a year or two. Until then, he'd only coached DL. He basically leapfrogged from DL to HC. One interesting parallel between Dubose and Chizik is that both started meddling with the offense as their plights grew more desperate. In Dubose's case, they would practice one gameplan all week long and he would stay up all Friday night tearing it up and drawing a new one up, which he would spring on the assistants and players on Saturday AM. It showed in the games...
 

tidefan26

1st Team
Dec 5, 2005
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And we still had a nice '99 season. Makes you wonder how good that team really was to be able to adjust to that and still execute and win at a high level. La Tech excluded.

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Ole Man Dan

Hall of Fame
Apr 21, 2008
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Ellis Johnson, Eugene Chizik, Michael Dubose are all great examples of 'The Peter Principal'.
OR
As Clint Eastwood put it... ' A mans just got to know his limitations '... ;)
 

TIDE-HSV

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Oct 13, 1999
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And we still had a nice '99 season. Makes you wonder how good that team really was to be able to adjust to that and still execute and win at a high level. La Tech excluded.

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He didn't really start to do that until his last year, just like Chizik. Both of them were crazy, each in his own way, to think they could improve the offense...
 

tmv85

All-SEC
And we still had a nice '99 season. Makes you wonder how good that team really was to be able to adjust to that and still execute and win at a high level. La Tech excluded.

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We had players like Shaun Alexander and Chris Samuels who seemed to be the glue that held the teams together. Had we not had them, I wonder if we'd have had the success we did. Much like Chizik's success with scam and fairley. Not that they were "glue" in terms of being team leaders, but they were the reason for the success barnie had in 2010.
 

Crimson_Knight

Scout Team
Jun 8, 2006
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Would any one agree that Tubs and Cheez sunk the ship by meddling with the O to get out of the Barn. Looked like it to me.
 

bamabryan

Hall of Fame
Jan 1, 2006
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I think Gary Patterson has done an outstanding job at TCU. He does not have any national championship trophies in the trophy case, but we are talking about TCU. I think he's done a great job.
 

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