Is Don Shula Florida's Greatest Football Coach? | FinHeaven - Miami Dolphins Forums

Is Don Shula Florida's Greatest Football Coach?

Daytona Fin

Daytona Fin

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The Orlando Sentinel currently has a bracket for Florida's greatest football coach ongoing. You can cast your vote each round. I think Bowden will be the one to give him a run for his money. Of course The Don will be getting my votes :)

http://interactive.orlandosentinel.com/bracket/florida-greatest-football-coach/index.html

We want you to pick the greatest football coach in state of Florida history. Our 32 pro, college and high school contenders have been narrowed down to 16 after the first round, which had more than 18,000 votes. Second round of voting runs until noon on July 31. Check back often to see if your favorite coaches advanced and to weigh in on the next round.
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He's the greatest coach ever. Let alone against Dungy, Coughlin and Gruden. I mean against everyone on there. He's the greatest by miles....
 
Is Florida hot and humid?

Don's the greatest coach in all the game of football, let alone Florida. Honorable mention shout out to Howard Schnellenberger.
 
Yeah I don't really know who would be close to him in Florida .
 
It is a toss up between Bowden and Shula...again I am bias in these assessments, but what Bobby did at FSU; building that program from nothing to a National Power is every bit as impressive as Shula's tenure with the Phins. Urban Meyers and Jimmy Johnson would be a close 3rd and 4th...(again order undetermined).
 
FSU Truth said:
It is a toss up between Bowden and Shula...again I am bias in these assessments, but what Bobby did at FSU; building that program from nothing to a National Power is every bit as impressive as Shula's tenure with the Phins. Urban Meyers and Jimmy Johnson would be a close 3rd and 4th...(again order undetermined).
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I love Shula one can legitimately argue him in the top 2 nfl coaches of all time. I personally despise Florida State but I think Bowden is the greatest college coach ever. I always lied to myself because of my dislike of the Seminole's. I had the pleasure of meeting Coach Bowden at a football clinic in Southern Illinois he was a keynote speaker, an amazing coach and man he is. Him and Coach Shula for sure are the greatest coach combo of any state from any sport of all time.
 
FSU Truth said:
It is a toss up between Bowden and Shula...again I am bias in these assessments, but what Bobby did at FSU; building that program from nothing to a National Power is every bit as impressive as Shula's tenure with the Phins. Urban Meyers and Jimmy Johnson would be a close 3rd and 4th...(again order undetermined).
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Build from nothing to a National power is what Schnellenberger did with the Hurricanes. The football program was almost dropped by the university just a few years prior. And not only did Howard bring the program from that dire situation to a national championship, but he also propped South Florida in the process by almost exclusively recruiting from the high schools in that area and showing the nation the superior talent that resided there, (which also resulted in many more NC's to be had). The '83 Canes defeated Tom Osborne and the "Scoring Explosion" in what some erroneously claim is the best college team ever (that title belongs to the 12-0, 2001 Hurricanes). And we all know the Canes should have also been in the '00 national championship after beating FSU head-to-head, but we can thank the BCS for that crappy pairing in the NC and the atrocious 2 pts FSU mustered but that's a story for another day.

Anyways, no college coaches and very few NFL coaches even belong in the same upper echelon as Shula.
 
Shula's only competitors are George Halas, and Vince Lombardi.
The whole concept of that bracket, with those coaches, is silly.
 
What a dumb contest. Of course he is. The should name the brackets after him and find out who is second. That would be fun.
 
There are some really phenomenal coaches on that list. All I'm gonna say.
 
I'm trying to see what makes Shula so well regarded around here.

He's a good coach yes, but to say very few coaches are as good as him is a slap in the face of all the legendary coaches this sport has seen.
 
Is this a rhetorical question? Of course he is the best...best ever IMO...
 
Outside of the obvious jokes why is Spurrier in the pro region of the bracket? I know he coached professionally briefly but his performance at that level shouldn't even have him on the list.
 
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The Don at his best would beat the competition consistently as long as the teams were relatively equal (or of course if Shula had the superior talent).

Shula's failure (to recapture greatness), in the end, came from his inability to identify and develop talent coupled with his weakness exposed post Arnsparger.

Having douche bags like Tom Olivadotti and Chuck Studley guaranteed his demise.

Those were very poor decisions from a great great HC -- but by then Don was not the force he was when younger.

That said, Shula's total body of work exceeds all others and he's worthy of inclusion on the top 2-3 greatest football coaches ever.

In no particular order:

Shula, Lombardi and Walsh.

Tho I still believe JJ put together the greatest talent ever collected with UofM and then Dallas.

Once you're at that level comparisons are kind of silly...

BNF.
 
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