Walsh the Greatest Coach Ever?

As the SB comes up, we're hearing a lot of talk about how if Bellicheck (sp?) wins he'll be the greatest coach ever. So I got to thinking about the topic, and it's gotta be Walsh no matter what happens Sunday.

3 Super Bowls
Revolutionized offenses
The vaunted Walsh Coaching tree

To me, the coaching tree is where the debate ends. Bellicheck's highly touted assistants have gone on to suck in the NFL--Mangini, Crennel, McDaniels, Weis (NCAA but you get the picture. Walsh, on the other hand, saw seemingly his entire assistant coaching staff go on to win multiple Super Bowls using the WCO system he invented:

Seifer won 1
Holmgren won 1, made another
Shanahan won 2
Gruden won 1

Guys like Denny Green and Ray Rhodes had their teams in the playoffs most years, too. Hell, the Walsh coaching tree pretty much accounted for half of the Super Bowls won in the 90s.

So, no bias here, it's gotta be Walsh, right? I'm looking to here back from people who were lucky enough to watch those teams.

Seifert won 2.

Walsh is the best
Lombardi is second.....Walsh did it against better competition and not just mainly sweeps and run plays like the packers in the 60's

Originally posted by elguapo:
Walsh is the best
Lombardi is second.....Walsh did it against better competition and not just mainly sweeps and run plays like the packers in the 60's

Lombardi was before the era of Super Bowls. It was way at the end of his career they even had Super Bowls. If they had them the whole time he may have 10 Super Bowl wins.

Of the modern guys it is Belicheck. 5 Super Bowls. 3 win, 1 loss, 1 undecided as of yet.

Originally posted by Niners99:
Seifert won 2.

Derp. I guess I subconsciously counted that as Walsh's team...though I suspect almost anyone could have won the SB with that group

With Bill Walsh, I consider him the greatest, not only for the reasons you mentioned... but because of his ability to bring in talent. We've seen the great Bill Walsh draft classes of the 1980s, but remember that he helped rebuild us in the late 90s for our playoff runs in the early 2000s?

Bill Belichick, I hate the guy, but he's a great coach, and probably deserves to go to the Hall of Fame one day... but I honestly believe that Bill Walsh is the superior coach.

Harbaugh > Walsh

Tolzien > Montana+Young

Had Walsh not retired, we may have won 7 or 8 Super Bowls under him. Anyone who doesn't think Walsh could do a better job than Seifert when he took over is delusional - and Seifert won 2.

Walsh's coaching tree is downright epic.

He was also an offensive innovator who changed the game entirely.

There's no question Walsh was better then Bellichek no matter how many Super Bowls Bellicheat ends up with.

Walsh is the greatest and I say that with utmost respect to 'Check.

Belicheat had to resort to cheating........

hes on the short list and thats all that matters, people get too caught up on these lists like they mean something, its like pound for pound lists in boxing or mma

Originally posted by SanDiego49er:

Originally posted by elguapo:
Walsh is the best
Lombardi is second.....Walsh did it against better competition and not just mainly sweeps and run plays like the packers in the 60's

Lombardi was before the era of Super Bowls. It was way at the end of his career they even had Super Bowls. If they had them the whole time he may have 10 Super Bowl wins.

Of the modern guys it is Belicheck. 5 Super Bowls. 3 win, 1 loss, 1 undecided as of yet.

Maybe, but if he loses, He will be 0-2 against Coughlin (sp) so I would say in that case he wouldn't even be the best coaching right now, and the 3 he won, well as Amani Toomer said this week (Jim Rome radio show) their should be an asterick next to all 3 of those wins

Belicheat got to this SB with no defense to speak of. Weak schedule was on his side, but that is still pretty amazing.

I vote a big YES!! Walsh revolutionized not only the Xs and Os but the coaching profession and team management. Walsh brought in to the forefront not only how to coach your players but how to coach your coaches. Many of his disciples moved on to become head coaches. Yet, his teams never seemed to miss the former coordinators. Why? Because Walsh was coaching/developing the position coaches, under the coordinators, to become coordinators themselves.

Ok. We all know (or should know) about Walsh's offense. And many (most) of us can't see past Jerry Rice and John Taylor. Just remember that Rice and Taylor were only on ONE Walsh superbowl team. Walsh won Superbowl with guys named Bill Ring, Freddy Solomon (who was ok, not great), Dwight Clark (an 11th round pick), John Francis (another ok player) and a third rounder, bird legged, 185 pounder named Joe Montana. Also don't forget his light, mobile linemen. I am hard pressed to see any of these guys that won the first two SBs starting on NFL teams back in the 1970s and 1980s. They became champions because their coach exploited their strengths and minimized their shortcomings. That is what the greatest coach does.

To be the greatest coach you have to be a great innovator and a winner. Paul Brown was in 6 straight NFL Championships from 1950-55. He computerized the game before there was a computer. Vince Lombardi was a great coach, his record of 5 Championships speaks for itself. Coach Bill Walsh is in the category of the other two. His cerebral approach is still studied in today's game. There are others but these 3 standout for their eras.