NFL: Bill Walsh

[AUTiger7222]

For Christmas I was given a book called 'Bill Walsh The Score Takes Care Of Itself: My Philosophy of Leadership'. So I've read a few pages of it. Then took a break and wanted to look of Bill Walsh's coaching tree and discovered that Mike Smith can be traced all the way back to Bill Walsh. Smith is a product of Brian Billick who's a product of Dennis Green who was a product of Bill Walsh.

32 current or former head coaches can trace their roots all the way back to Walsh.

[ggp]

(12-24-2012 09:10 PM)AUTiger7222 Wrote:  For Christmas I was given a book called 'Bill Walsh The Score Takes Care Of Itself: My Philosophy of Leadership'. So I've read a few pages of it. Then took a break and wanted to look of Bill Walsh's coaching tree and discovered that Mike Smith can be traced all the way back to Bill Walsh. Smith is a product of Brian Billick who's a product of Dennis Green who was a product of Bill Walsh.

32 current or former head coaches can trace their roots all the way back to Walsh.

Mike Mularkey is a perfect example of how these coaching trees can get a little out of hand.

Walsh was the smartest HC of his time. As a result, his teams were consistent winners. Owners poached Walsh's assistants, in hopes that they would catch some of his magic. It becomes an exponential progression, but a lot of the coaches do not carry on Walsh's philosophies.

Smith, Mularkey, Del Rio, Tomlin, and a few others, do not coach the same schemes as Walsh did.

[phocis850]

I don't think the tree represented how they coach, but where they come from and who is linked.

That is a pretty impressive list.

[AUTiger7222]

I just read a great part in the book. Bill Walsh came up with the West Coast offense when he was QB's coach with the Bengals. The QB the Bengals had at the time, Virgil Carter, couldn't hit the broad side of a barn more than 20 yards down the field.

So Walsh had to come up with a way to for the Bengals offense to have success with Carter at QB. So he came with the West Coast offense with was a complex mix of running backs, wide receivers and tight ends running routes all over the field in a 10-15 yard range. He stretched the field horizontal instead of going vertical.

This new offense called for the QB to make fast quick decisions and get rid of the ball in a position to allow the receiver to make plays after they caught the ball.

By the time he got to the 49ers he had perfected his offense and then he found the perfect QB to run his offense, in a 3rd round pick in 1979 from Notre Dame, named Joe Montana. And the rest is history as they say.

[AUTiger7222]

Bill Walsh was also the genius behind the drafting of Ken Anderson for the Bengals.