WORST COACHES IN JETS HISTORY BY NEIL BEST | neil.best@newsday.com December 30, 2008 Eric Mangini's term as the Jets' coach ended in frustration and failure, but no matter how exasperated fans were with him, he is far from the least successful to hold the job in the team's history. The nine worst (not counting interim coaches): 1) Rich Kotite (1995-96, 4-28) The infamous "dese and dose" guy from Staten Island turned into a "lose and lose" guy quickly enough, bottoming out at 1-15 in '96. Calling Bill Parcells! 2) Lou Holtz (1976, 3-10) After a good run at North Carolina State, it took Holtz 13 games to figure out he was not cut out for the pros. Alas, there were 14 games on the schedule. So he quit. 3) Clyde "Bulldog" Turner (1962, 5-9) The Titans suffered their first losing season as owner Harry Wismer failed to meet his payroll, and the biggest home crowd of the season was 7,175. 4) Bill Belichick (2000, 0-0) The future genius was to be introduced as Parcells' successor. But before his news conference, he scrawled a resignation note: "I resign as HC of the NYJ." 5) Charley Winner (1974-75, 9-14) Weeb Ewbanks' son-in-law had a great name for a coach but did not translate it to the field. After rallying from 1-7 in '74, he was canned at 2-7 in '75. 6) Bruce Coslet (1990-93, 26-38) He made the playoffs once but never had a winning record. His prickly relationship with the local media included an infamous news conference via phone. 7) Pete Carroll (1994, 6-10) His lone season ended on a five-game losing streak that began with a loss to Miami on Dan Marino's fake spike. Played basketball with staff in parking lot. 8) Al Groh (2000, 9-7) One of only two Jets coaches with a winning overall record, but he lasted only one year, ending on a three-game losing streak, before heading to alma mater Virginia. 9) Eric Mangini (2006-08, 23-25) "Mangenius" after one season, then 4-12 in Year 2, seemed headed for big things at 8-3 in November, then collapsed along with his aging quarterback. http://www.newsday.com/sports/football/jets/ny-bestby305981948dec30,0,2944664.story ********** Making this list is pretty bad considering how sad the Jets have been over the last 40 years. I wonder if Edwards would be number 10? On a side note I don't believe Pete Carroll should be on this list. He was given the team in bad shape and was told he would have time to change it. If he would have known it was a win or your out year, it would have been very different for the Jets.
I find it funny that our longest tenured "Worst Head Coach" is Eric Mangini, topping out a whopping 3 Seasons. You can tell this organization definitley sticks to their guns when hiring a Head Coach.
Just because he jumped ship after blowing the playoffs by losing the last three games does not mean he should be on the list. The Jets always lose in December! Groh and Carroll should not be in the worst nine.
That list sucks. He didn't even explain why he ranked them where he did. It looks an awful lot like he put them in order of record. Hell I can do that.
If he ranked the nine by winning record Al Groh would have been #9 since he was the only one with a winning record Also Bill Belichick should be #8 since he at least didn't have a losing record.
Well, atleast we're all in agreement that Kotite is the worst of them all. No? I think this is one thing that makes coaching here so appealing, is the fact that a HC has the opportunity to establish himself as one of the greats of this team. Considering it's not all that hard with the coaches of the past. Parcells is probably the most prominant in recent history. Unfortunatley, we're always going to be a "Project Team" until we get a HC in here that sticks around. It's not easy once these guys come here and see how the Front Office is run.
Yeah I mean generally... obviously you can't judge Belichick and Groh based on record as they both flaked out.
Yeah how is the nosepicker not on this list? He took over a loaded team and had arguably two of the greatest at least in succession seasons in Jets history only to fail.
Mangini was as bad as any coach the Jets have ever had. Anyone who doesn't believe it might want to check out the NYC newspapers from the last few days... There's been some very revealing things about Mangini & his relationships with the players and other coaches published.
I fucking hate Lou Holtz. i hate his face. I hate his daffy duck speech. I hate how he fucked the Jets. I hate how he thinks he knows all. I hate Lou Holtz.
He belongs on this list when you consider that the entire team hated him so much that they were about to revolt if he wasn't fired or didn't leave. A lot of people close to the team thought the Jets actually THREW the last three games of the season just so upper management would dump his sorry ass. With that in mind, why wouldn't he belong on the list? Because he went 9-7 after he took the team over from Parcells? Statistics rarely tell the whole story...
You underestimate how bad Jet coaches were, as bad as Mangini was I don't know if he belongs on this list
Mangini sucked! Read all about it!!! PLEASE!!! DUDE!!!! Obviously you--and anyone else who still supports Mangini or refuses to understand what a truly bad head coach he was--has not been reading the local papers... I have to make a rather elitist observation here but... You know... Reading is fundamental. Literacy is the foundation for a democracy. Only a well-educated public will lead to a stable republic. And all that stuff we heard in grammar school. BUT IT'S TRUE!!! So if you want to have an educated opinion about the Jets, you should read the NY Daily News and the New York Post every day. Their writers dig up a lot of information that you just can't read anywhere else. For instance: "One veteran player said he glanced at the Dolphins' sideline during Sunday's game and saw coach Tony Sparano making animated gestures, interacting with his players after good and bad plays. The Jets player said he wondered why Mangini didn't act that way. 'It's okay to show emotion,' said the player, describing Mangini's lack of emotion as his greatest flaw. 'Football isn't all about X's and O's. There's a human elemant involved. We're not all robots. Sometimes a coach needs to show some passion. I think Eric has that in him, but he never showed it.'" --Rich Cimini, New York Daily News, 12-30-08 That single observation about Mangini goes to the heart of why the man was such a bad coach, why he was fired so quickly (and dramatically), why he had no player support and why we are suddenly looking for ANYONE BUT MANGINI to become the next coach of the New York Jets. Add that to one of the worst collapses in Jet history, and if anyone still does not understand why Mangini was fired? Then they need a brain scan.
I don't support Mangini at all, what I said was more of an indictment of how terrible our coaching has been in the history of this franchise than the lack of coaching that we received with Mangini, he had more winning seasons than losing seasons, that is a rarity for a Jet coach in his tenure
Groh doesn't belong on the list. Losing Keyshawn caused huge problems for Vinny that year but we almost made the playoffs anyway. Groh was tough but would have been very successful if the players bought into it. If Groh had Parcells reputation I doubt players would have whined so much. Mawae and Cherbet were the problem, not Groh.
