New UFL head coach Jerry Glanville. Image via Wikipedia
As the NFL lockout persists, we’re scouring the internet for football news. Today, the news came from the upstart UFL, which announced that ex-Oilers and Falcons head coach Jerry Glanville would be the head coach of its Hartford team. Rumors indicate that Marty Schottenheimer and Jim Bates may soon make the leap to head coaching spots as well. That news gave us an idea to compare the former NFL coaches who have moved to the UFL to continue their careers.
10 – Marty Schottenheimer, Virginia Destroyers 2011 – Schottenheimer, a highly successful coach with the Browns, Chiefs, Redskins, and Chargers, moves to the UFL this season. His MartyBall style – strong defense and running games – never allowed for enough of a margin for error in the playoffs, but it piles up wins, and it should be a nice fit for the UFL given the fact that he can find a running back who is a bit small or slow but still talented. So Marty goes to the top of the charts of ex-NFLers in the upstart league.
9 – Jim Fassel, Las Vegas Locomotives 2009-present – Fassel spent seven years as the Giants’ head coach, but since then he’s had just one other NFL coaching spot, an offensive coordinator gig with the Ravens. So when the UFL was hiring, Fassel jumped on board. He’s won league championships in both seasons thus far, and he also serves as the team’s general manager and president. He is perhaps the standard bearer for the UFL at this point, and that makes for a good closing act to his coaching career now that he’s in his 60s.
8 – Dennis Green, Sacramento Mountain Lions 2009-present – Green, who has had head-coaching gigs in Minnesota and Arizona, is like Fassel an original UFL head coach. His team – called the California Redwoods the first year when it played in San Francisco and now known as the Sacramento Mountain Lions, ties him back to the Bay Area, where he was a Bill Walsh assistant with the 49ers and also Stanford’s head coach. At age 61, Green is unlikely to get another NFL shot, but he could remain in the UFL for years given his name recognition and national profile.
7 – none
6 – Jim Haslett, Florida Tuskers 2009 – Haslett, one of the UFL’s first four head coaches after head-coaching shots in New Orleans and St. Louis, went 6-0 in his single season before losing the league championship game. He translated that job into a gig as Mike Shanahan’s defensive coordinator in Washington. As basically the head coach of the defense, Haslett has a plum coordinator job, and if he is successful he’s still young enough at 55 to get one more head-coaching shot. It looks like the UFL was a good career move for Haslett.
5 – Jay Gruden, Florida Tuskers 2010 – Gruden, who spent time as an assistant to his more famous brother Jon in Tampa Bay, spent nine years as a head coach in the Arena Football League with the Orlando Predators. (That tenure was interrupted when the four-time AFL championship quarterback came out of retirement to play two more seasons.) He took over Haslett’s head-coaching job in Florida, and after one year at the reins got his best NFL job to date by becoming the Bengals’ offensive coordinator. Gruden’s UFL time definitely opened an NFL door for him, and at age 44 he should have plenty of chances to continue to move up the ladder.
4 – Chris Palmer, Hartford Colonials 2010 – Palmer coached in the UFL’s second year, and the former Cleveland Browns head coach used that job as a springboard to become the Tennessee Titans’ new offensive coordinator. He had retired from the Giants QB coach position before taking the Hartford job, but apparently his time there reminded him that he still wants to coach. At age 61, Palmer isn’t going to get a new head-coaching job, but the Colonials job helped him move back up the ladder in the NFL.
3 – none
2 – Jeff Jagodzinski, Omaha Nighthawks 2010 – Jagodzinski, best known as a former Boston College head coach, had been an offensive coordinator for the Packers and then for the Buccaneers before spending the 2010 season in the UFL. Jagodzinksi’s resume is strange – he was fired by Boston College for interviewing for other jobs, and his tenure in Tampa ended during training camp. He was fired in Omaha after one year, and now we’ll have to see if he can rebound. He’s a talented coach, but his career arc is headed the wrong way, and the UFL didn’t turn it as it did others.
1 – Ted Cottrell, New York Sentinels 2009 – Cottrell, a long-time NFL assistant who served as a coordinator in Buffalo, San Diego, Minnesota and with the Jets, never got a head-coaching job in the NFL. So when the UFL began, he took advantage of the chance to be the head coach of the New York team. But after one year, Cottrell gave up his job, and was replaced by Palmer as the team moved to Hartford.
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