Mutt

I don't think any coach who had the best talent at the time should be considered among the greatest, unless they showed very good results with some teams that had less than the best talent. That takes out Phil Jackson, Red Auerbach, John Wooden, Scotty Bowman for me. I don't know enough about Vince Lombardi's Green Bay Packers to know whether he had the best talent. Coaching a team of great talent isn't as easy as just filling out a lineup card, and most of the coaches who coached dynasty teams got themselves those jobs by being very good in lower leagues/colleges so it's a bit unfair that I exclude them.

Parcells and Belichick were/are great coaches, could make ordinary players good and good players great as part of their team concept. College football is so much about recruiting and breaking rules as far as eligibility of players goes, makes for a very uneven playing field.

There is no sport that comes close to being a 'coach's game' as American football is.

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