Coaching staff roles

Coaching staffs need to have several personality components to manage the players. Usually one or some are the motivators, some are the supporters, and some are the detail oriented tacticians. My take on the Pats is obviously Belecheat is the master of details and tactician, and probably his assistants are the supports/motivators. This may reflect how poorly his assistants have done as head coaches elsewhere - they just don't have the same detail oriented approach as Belecheat does.

Steelers are the opposite, and probable ave been since Noll. Noll was not chummy with the players and very detail oriented from what I heard. Cowher and Tomlin are the motivators, and probably supporters. Players supposedly love to play for them. That means the assistants and position coaches need to be the detail oriented tacticians. Lebeau may have been one of those, though his players also adored him, and he didn't have much success as a head coach. He was also blessed with some exceptionally talented folks on his squad, which may have made his job easier.

In the current staffing, it sure appears that NO ONE is the detail oriented tactician, and that is clearly where the Steelers are struggling. So either (a) they need to replace the motivator head coach with a tactician, or (b) they need assistants that are better tacticians.

My personal preference is for the assistants to be the tacticians, as the head coach seems to be in a better position to set the tone for the whole team, but the long-term success of the Patriots sure support the other arrangement.

 

I agree with the play designs this season. Some of the execution is off (position coaches?) and the timing of some calls has been questionable (run/pass distribution and timing of choices seems odd sometimes). Overall, I think Fichtner is OK. Special teams and defense on the other hand . . .

 

Personally I like what Fichtner is doing with the exception of throwing it more often then need be.. They seem to be abandoning the run game pretty quickly.

 

Oh trust me Bellichick is quite the motivator. It's his way or the highway. If you screw up there a pretty good chance you are unemployed by Monday. If that's not motivation I don't know what is....

 

Good point. There are certainly multiple ways to motivate. I even sometimes question the need, as these are professionals who should be highly motivated. Perhaps motivation is not quite the right concept. Focused? Ability to bounce back from adversity? Create a team atmosphere of success? Teamwork? There is a lot to consider above tactics, and that probably is up to the head coach.