ESPN Analyst Delivers Harsh Message on What Makes a Coach a Failure
Over the last year ESPN Analyst Dan Orlovsky has quickly become one of my favorites. Today, as I was listening to one of his commentaries critiquing Chicago Bears’ Head Coach Matt Nagy, I was reminded why.
Orlovsky delivers a harsh message to Nagy, flat out calling him a failure. His scathing critique trashing Nagy is not necessarily my style, but the message is one that I firmly believe and have previously written about.
The critical quote about coaching from Orlovsky that stands out most to me is one all coaches must accept.
A coach that cannot teach is a failure… A coach that cannot adapt or change their scheme to the type of talent they have is a failure.
The way I see it is that a coach who cannot teach and cannot adapt lacks knowledge. Furthermore, a coach who lacks knowledge only has one way to do things. Coaches like this only have a hammer and therefore must treat everything as a nail. Unfortunately, in sports there are very few nails that stay nails over multiple seasons.
Competitors change, norms change, and environments change. When coaches fail to adjust to this change, as Orlovsky points out, coaches fail.