Hot Seat Cooling
Published: Oct 28, 2007
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TAMPA - Sooner or later, they all end up in the same place - even if just for a little while. It's the nature of the business.
Bucs coach Jon Gruden and Jaguars coach Jack Del Rio started the season there - on the hot seat, their backs against a wall. This just in: Both appear to be winning the fight.
As they prepared to face one another today at Raymond James Stadium, Gruden and Del Rio were both coaching comeback teams, teams seemingly on the rise.
After a 4-12 record a year ago, Gruden's Bucs are 4-3 and a half-game out of first place in the NFC South. Del Rio's Jaguars, meanwhile, are 4-2, well in the thick of the AFC playoff race and seemingly beyond last year's 8-8 slip.
Few are surprised by the comebacks. Though they come from different backgrounds, a similar fire burns inside both men.
It's a necessary fire, especially necessary in their profession. Without it, they probably don't propel themselves off that wall. Without it, they probably don't light a similar fire under their players. And make no mistake, one of the things Gruden and Del Rio do best is light fires under players.
Del Rio did it even when he was a player during a career that spanned 11 seasons as a linebacker for four teams.
"I remember Jack as a player," said former Dolphins coach and Pro Football Hall of Fame member Don Shula. "What sticks out in my mind was that he was such a fiery guy, an intense guy. Jon Gruden is the same way. He's very energetic, very emotional, and it shows. He's been very good over the years at firing up his players."
Gruden doesn't have a playing career to fall back on like Del Rio - not unless you count his days as a backup quarterback at the University of Dayton, which no one does.
What does count were the years he spent paying his dues, running errands and working as an assistant for George Seifert, Paul Hackett and Mike Holmgren, all of them direct descendants of Bill Walsh, the father of the West Coast offense. More than anything, those experiences have molded Gruden into the coach he is today.
"He's one of the best offensive minds in the NFL," said ESPN reporter and author Sal Paolantonio, whose latest work is "The Paolantonio Report: The Most Overrated & Underrated Players, Teams, Coaches & Moments in NFL History."
"He's taken what he learned from Bill Walsh through Mike Holmgren and he's put his own stamp on it. I think that's what separates him from Jack Del Rio," Paolantonio said. "Jack Del Rio doesn't have a signature scheme. He runs the Cover 2 and does a lot of what Bud Carson did and what Monte Kiffin does. But he hasn't put his own stamp on it the way Jon Gruden has with the West Coast offense."
Gruden also has won a Super Bowl. Del Rio can't lay claim to having done that either. Beyond that, though, there may not be much that does separate the two. Not, at least, according to The Sporting News.
In a recent evaluation of the NFL's 32 head coaches, Gruden placed 13th. Del Rio, for his passion, motivational skills and knowledge of defensive schemes, placed 15th, with Carolina's John Fox stuck between them.
That Del Rio placed at all is due in large part to former Bucs coach Tony Dungy. When he was defensive coordinator at Minnesota, Dungy put the coaching bug in Del Rio's ear.
Several years later, Mike Ditka, then the coach of the New Orleans Saints, gave Del Rio his first coaching job. He started as a strength and conditioning coach. Then, after one year, Ditka made him the linebackers coach.
From there, Del Rio moved quickly through the ranks. After brief stints as an assistant with the Ravens and Panthers, he became head coach of the Jaguars following the 2002 season.
"It doesn't surprise me at all that he's a head coach," said Kiffin, who coached Del Rio as a player during his time as a linebackers coach at Minnesota. "I mean, sometimes you have that feeling about guys, and he was one of those coach-on-the-field types.
"He was really smart, and he could run the whole team out there. I knew he didn't want to be a high school coach. But he made the commitment here, and I'm not sure I've seen a guy go through the system so fast."
Gruden can't lay claim to such a rapid rise. Though he was only 35 years old when he got his first NFL head coaching gig, he spent 10 years doing the grunt work of an assistant before getting his shot.
Paolantonio says those were years well spent. He says Gruden learned during his formative years as a coach how to make a system work even when you don't have players who ideally fit it.
"When he was a coordinator in Philadelphia, his offense was built around Ricky Watters, a dominant running back," Paolantonio said. "When he got to Oakland, he had [quarterback] Rich Gannon, and when he got to Tampa he adjusted again."
The adjustment he made in Tampa might have been the most difficult. He didn't have a mobile quarterback like Gannon or a dominant running back like Watters. Still, he won - a Super Bowl.
He has yet to win consistently, though. Gruden's record as Bucs coach stands at 46-45 including playoffs, which he's reached just twice in his five seasons as the Bucs coach.
Del Rio, meanwhile, has reached the playoffs once in four seasons as the Jaguars coach. His 38-33 record aside, that's why he started this season sitting on the hot seat. Next to Gruden.
They're still there. All of a sudden, though, that seat seems a little cooler. A few victories will do that.
Injuries to key players threaten to derail both teams, however. The Jaguars come into today's game without their best quarterback, the Bucs without their best running back or fullback.
Ask them about those injuries and both coaches just shrug.
It's like the heat they feel on occasion. It's all part of the game.
Reporter Roy Cummings can be reached at (813) 259-7979 or rcummings@tampatrib.com.
