How bad was he? Rich Kotite was so bad that the Jets literally went 23 YEARS without hiring an Offensive-Minded Head Coach after firing Kotite. Including hiring 6 different Defensive-Minded Coaches during the stretch. That is an impressive kind of bad! And he truly was. (4-28) in 2 seasons. Funny, since I was a kid, I actually have fond memories of the 1995 and 1996 seasons. If I was an adult then, I am sure I would look back on that very differently. Hopefully Adam Gase is more like Bill Parcells and less like Rich Kotite! Anyway, Happy 50th Anniversary to the Super Bowl III team, but unfortunately the Jets have been closer to Kotite than they have been to Ewbank the last 50 years. To the older fans who remember 1995 and 1996, did it feel like the Bowles Era (which was brutal) or actually even worse? Also, what did it feel like when Parcells was hired after? Must have been amazing. Again, as a kid, I was happy no matter what. I just loved my Jets.
It's very hard to compare things now from back then. There is such an echo chamber now, between social media, sports talk radio, and sports television. Back then the first didn't exist, and the second and third had a vastly lower profile. Back then was far worse for me, in the sense that I was completely disengaged with the team during those years, and I'm obviously not now.
Honestly I think our hiring of defensive head coaches since Kotite has been merely coincidental. It wasn't that a bad offensive coach failed and gave us some kind of phobia because all other offensive coaches could end up like Kotite But yea he was so so bad. And a lazy coach too. Lost all his passion for football To be fair...he was a pretty good offensive coordinator. But being a head coach he was out of his dept Leon Hess was a garbage owner too. Much worse than the Johnsons
Sorry IMHO J & J are just as bad as Hess was & I sincerely hope whereever Hess is his feet are being held to the fire & my hope is when J & J join Hess there feet are held to the fire as well
That is true. I remember at that time, since I did not live in New York, I got to see 1-3 Jets games a year. I waited each week for highlights on NFL Primetime. Things have definitely changed from that aspect.
heres the thing to even have to think about IF Bowles was as bad as Kotite is scary and its worth thinking about . I think Kotite was the worst but Bowles was the next WORST thing
Give the man credit! Yeah there are 2 ways to look at that: Bowles went (10-6) in 2015, so he must be better than Kotite. OR Kotite only wasted 2 years of the Jets time, where as Bowles wasted 4 including 3 brutal ones. It's a toss up in the worst way. Haha.
Watching during the Bowles era, I always felt the Jets would find a way to give the game away, during the Kotite era, it was like every single play could turn into a catastrophe. Bowles lost games because he was too conservative, didn't make in-game adjustments, and couldn't manage challenges or timeouts. Kotitie lost games because his teams weren't prepared to consistently execute things like snapping the ball, handing off the ball, completing passes, blocking, or tackling. That's how I remember it, anyway.
Kotite was worse than Todd Bowles, period. Especially since Bowles was actually 10-5 with Fitzpatrick. Everything AFTER that was close to Kotite bad, but not quite. The Kotite team actually had good players and still went 4-28. Parcells got rid of a lot of the role player chaff and upped the special teams but didn't really off too many of the key guys in the first year who left later on (Douglas, Murrell) and they went 9-7.
I think Kotite was worse than Bowles (not by much), but my Dad swears Lou Holtz was worse than both combined.
Start this video at 0:58. "They were just bad in almost every phase of the game"-- yup, that's how I remember it.
Kotite was worse then Bowles although there was a lot of similarities. Lack of preparation , lack of adjustments, stupid penalties , late blown leads, lack of overall talent .... Holtz was a complete misfit . Never belonged in the pros - he actually tried to have a crippled Joe Namath run a college type offense . He at least was smart enough to step down .... to this day nobody knows whether Kotite resigned or was fired .
Bowles has/had no concept/understanding of BEING a head coach. Could not make a decision, stood there mindlessly/wordlessly game after game, season after season and then weakly mumble something about watching tape loss after loss. Give Hess credit that he axed Kotite after year two. I am still shocked the lucky sperm brothers gave Bowles and Mac 2 year extensions after back to back 5-11. They are as stupid as Bowles!