The Lost Art of Competent Coaching

This article is not going to be like anything I’ve ever written before because, quite simply, I’m jealous. And it shows.

Because I’m smarter than almost every head football coach, at least in terms of something as simple as clock management. And while I’m watching people with bigger contracts than the economy of Tuvalu make juvenile errors without anyone pointing out their errors, it makes me sick.

If you’re going to make $2 million a year to stand on the sidelines, eat cheeseburgers, and invent facial expressions that would embarrass even Wade Phillips, then maybe, just maybe you should be able to control the clock.

With the only exclusions of Bill Belichick and, for some reason, Dave Wannstedt, coaches just can’t seem to get it right. Over my decade carefully studying late-game clock management, those two reign above everyone else, calling plays and doling timeouts that used the clock to their advantage, regardless of how good (or in Wannstedt’s case, bad), they were outside of the proverbial final two minutes.

So for the rest of this article, let’s exclude those two coaches from this discussion.

But Week 5, oh man, that might have been the worst. No fewer than four NFL coaches, and I only saw four games, screwed up, royally. They flat-out screwed up.

First, there was Marvin Lewis of the Cincinnati Bengals.

With six seconds left in the first half, Lewis called timeout to get his punt return team onto the field. His opponent, the Baltimore Ravens, were facing fourth down from around midfield. Sadly, this was not Lewis’s only mistake in a ten second period.

Lewis should have called timeout with 15 seconds left in the half, after Ray Rice was tackled in bounds two yards shy of a first down. This would have forced the Ravens to punt.

But Baltimore was content, being out of time outs, to let the time run out.

So Lewis, being nothing shy of incompetent at clock management, called a time out. With six seconds to go. Also known as enough to time to run one play that will run out the clock.

Now, instead of punting, John Harbaugh sent Joe Flacco and the offense back onto the field to attempt to throw a hail mary.

Two major mistakes in ten seconds that could have cost his team a game. And Lewis is a leading candidate for coach of the year?

But that’s not enough. How about we have the exact same situation. In another game. Being played almost simultaneously.

Wade Phillips of the Dallas Cowboys was faced with the same situation. And let the clock run. Until he called time out. With seven seconds left.

But, somehow, Phillips was made to look like a genius, because Kansas City head coach Todd Haley still chose to punt instead of throwing a hail mary.

In case you were wondering what Belichick would do in the same situation, I’d bet you anything that he  would have called timeout with, say, 22 seconds left.

How do I know? Because he did so! That same day! With the game on the line!

After Kyle Orton was sacked at midfield, Belichick immediately called a timeout, leaving 22 seconds on the clock and the Broncos stuck with a 4th and 15 situation.

Had Belichick let the clock run, the Broncos could have lined up and snapped the ball with a second left, giving them a chance at a hail mary that would have won the game. I had already seen Baltimore attempt it and Kansas City mindlessly turn away the opportunity.

But Belichick took that option away, leaving too much time on the clock for Josh McDaniels to try a hail mary.

Brilliant, or just not stupid, either way, Belichick, unlike Lewis, Phillips, and Haley, did his job.

But the icing on the cake occurred on Monday night.

To say that Rex Ryan was incompetent would be like saying Walt Disney was a chain smoker, or Mickey Mouse is a popular children’s cartoon.

Ryan, the rookie head coach of the New York Jets, instead of finding a way to conserve some time for his offense as the Miami Dolphins marched down the field in the final five minutes of the game, let the Dolphins run the clock to only six seconds before they scored.

If Ryan were competent, if for just a second of his seven-figure salary he knew how to use the clock to give his team a chance to win, Ryan would have called a timeout when the Dolphins had first and goal inside the five with about 50 seconds to play. Instead, the Dolphins ran off half a minute before their next play.

I run three awards that pertain to this lack of clock management skills, each named for a proponent of this movement in football coaching towards not understanding how to use the clock.

In college football, I give out the Tommy West Award to the coach who shows the worst late game clock management. It is named for Memphis coach Tommy West, who epitomizes this skill.

In 2007, the Tommy was awarded to Rich Brooks of Kentucky, who made the exact same mistake as Marvin Lewis and Wade Phillips. Instead of calling timeout with thirty seconds to go against Louisiana State, the Tigers ran the clock down to five seconds before they called a timeout.

The game was tied, but now instead of punting, Les Miles sent out the field goal unit to attempt a 57-yard field goal to win the game.

Had Brooks called a timeout, Miles could not have sent out the field goal team, as had the kicker missed, and he did miss, Kentucky would be only 15-20 yards from field goal range itself. Moreover, even if he had attempted a field goal and made it, Kentucky would still have time left to try to match the result.

Brooks, in plainer words, chose the one thing that a competent coach would never have chosen to do.

But I digress.

The professional version of the Tommy is the Andy, named for Philadelphia Eagles coach Andy Reid.

I also give out the Randy, named for Randy Shannon of the University of Miami. That award goes to the worst clock management in a Bowl Game.

Maybe I’m just bitter, or maybe it is jealousy. Either way, something is wrong if I can sit back on a sofa in Pflugerville, Texas and wonder how a coach can just not understand clock management. It’s really not that difficult.

With all the strategy that goes into football, clock management has become the lost art.

Except, of course, if you’re Belichick.

Those three rings make a lot more sense now, don’t they?