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What impact coaches?
Coaches matter, as long as they're entertaining

Michael Grange
Globe and Mail Blog
Posted on Wednesday, January 12, 2011

How much difference does coaching make?

It’s one of the endless debates in sports. Fire that guy; hire this guy.

So-and-so coach gets his guys to play hard; so-and-so coach can’t get his guys to execute, and on-and on.

It wasn’t long ago that firing Ron Wilson was the obvious solution to whatever was ailing the Toronto Maple Leafs and Rex Ryan was promising the New York Jets were headed to Super Bowl.

With the Jets facing New England in the Divisional playoffs Sunday and prohibitive underdogs, it's looking like Wilson will last longer than Ryan's pledge, but stranger things have happened.

Why fire Wilson? The reasons were varied: his club had quit playing for him; the Leafs' special teams – particularly penalty killing, considered one area where coaching matters most – remained near the bottom of the NHL; he was growing short with the media; and ultimately he’s heading for his third straight year out of the playoffs.

And then last night he puts a bunch of money on the wall as a bonus if his team can beat the San Jose Sharks – this while playing on the road on the second night of back-to-back – and his club goes out and rallies to win 4-2.

Was it coaching? Maybe, in theory he's a good one. The win gave Wilson 600 for his career. The only men who’ve won more?

Scotty Bowman (1244), Al Arbour (782), Dick Irvin (692) Pat Quinn (684), Mike Keenan (672) and Bryan Murray (620).

But if you’re looking for the so-called money quote; the line where there’s clear connection between Wilson putting his money down and the players lifting their level of play, it’s not quite there; bemusement would be my interpretation:

“He had some money up on the board there for his 600th win, so it was nice to take that from him,” said Clarke MacArthur, who scored two goals and established a new career-high in points with 36.

“I just said ‘Congratulations’, that’s about it” laughed Colby Armstrong when asked what he said to the coach after the game. “It’s pretty good though, 600 wins. It’s a tremendous feat as a coach.”

It’s been an interesting week for coaches. The other day Ryan seemed to go out of his way to break every rule in the unwritten rule book in advance of the Jets-Patriots matchup.

He questioned the preparation and dedication of Tom Brady and took the risk of alienating his own players by suggesting that he would be the difference if the Jets somehow upset the might Patriots machine.

As former New York Jet lineman Joe Klecko put it: Ryan’s thunder was his George Patton moment, in reference to the famed WWII leaders nickname: old blood and guts, his soldiers called him, as in his guts, our blood.

I suppose there’s no downside when you’re the underdog to rattling the big dog’s cage.

And make no mistake, his words were heard: “When he talks about and insults the preparation of Tom Brady … there’s one guy I know that takes that personally and that’s Tom,” former Patriot lineback Ted Bruschi said on Tuesday evening during at interview on The Michael Kay Show on ESPN 1050. “I think it just intensifies his focus to where you’ve added a little bit more motivation.”

But if the best quarterback in the game comes out and strafes the Jets and Ryan’s club once again gets blown out by Bill Belichick’s Patriots it will be hard to argue that Ryan’s transparent attempt to set the tone for the week was a waste of hot air of which, fortunately, his has plenty to spare.

There are those that have tried to measure the impact of coaches and managers in major sports, and for the most part the results are inconclusive, though their does seem to be some evidence that a really, really bad coach can hurt his team.

But for the most part the measures say the same thing: coaching doesn’t really matter. Even in cases where coaches are fired mid-season and teams seem to bounce back is usually just a regression to the mean, which is to say: teams can't lose forever. Did Wilson's money make a difference in his team getting their fourth straight win and his 600th? Maybe, if goalie James Reimer was short on cash.

But more likely not. Do coaches matter? It doesn't matter to me; my only expectation for coaches is that they entertain me in some fashion.

In this regard, Ron Wilson and Rex Ryan are doing pretty well

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."