Succeeding an icon isn’t always so easy
Jay Bilas weighs in on how the Tar Heels lost their 16-point lead in the second half, inevitably costing them a national championship. (0:56)
What a first season for Hubert Davis as North Carolina Tar Heels head coach. Roy Williams’ successor brought his squad on an epic run through the NCAA tournament, culminating in a trip to the national championship game. It’s good news for the Tar Heels’ faithful that Davis has hit the ground running. It’s never easy for “the guy after the guy” — the coach who has the unenviable task of following someone who has come to define a program through years of winning records and championships. Even if you perform well, you’re constantly suffering comparisons to an actual icon.
UNC’s Tobacco Road rivals, the Duke Blue Devils, might be hoping for similar success next season. After a 47-year coaching career and five national titles, Mike Krzyzewski is retiring and Jon Scheyer will take over with some huge shoes to fill.
Here’s how other coaches have fared in succeeding some of the best in the game.
This is extremely unfair to Floyd — not only did he have to follow up Jackson’s 545-193 record and six NBA titles, he had to do it without Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman or Steve Kerr. Floyd went 49-190 during his time with the Bulls and resigned in December 2001.
Not easy to replace the guy for whom they named the championship trophy. And no wonder — Lombardi won five titles, two of which were Super Bowls, to go along with an 89-29-4 record. Bengtson succeeded him after the 1967 season but managed only a 20-21-1 mark with a single winning season. He resigned before the 1971 season.
Few other people in history represent women’s college basketball like Pat Summitt. She coached Tennessee from 1974 to her retirement in 2012, racking up a 1,098-208 record with eight NCAA tournament titles. Warlick coached the team until 2019, and while she didn’t win a title, she was no slouch — Tennessee went 172-67 with three Sweet 16 and two Elite Eight appearances during her tenure.
Imagine following a college basketball icon who won 10 NCAA championships, seven of them consecutively. That was the task facing Gene Bartow when he succeeded John Wooden after the latter won his final title during the 1974-75 season. Oddly enough, Bartow actually had an overall better winning percentage (.836 compared to Wooden’s .808) with UCLA, but was there for only two seasons and made the Final Four once.
Tom Landry didn’t have a winning record until his seventh season as Cowboys head coach — which makes his final record of 250-162 with two Super Bowl titles all the more impressive. Johnson, formerly the coach of the Miami Hurricanes, started his Cowboys tenure in similar fashion, going 8-24 in his first two seasons, before turning it around and winning a pair of Super Bowls with America’s team. Speaking of following an icon …
Shula remains the NFL’s winningest head coach with 328 regular season victories. He had a .659 winning percentage with the Dolphins and led them to two Super Bowl championships, including the league’s only undefeated season. The Dolphins hired Johnson as Shula’s successor for the 1996-97 season. Despite not having coached since 1993-94, Johnson kept the Dolphins respectable, leading them to a 36-28 record with two playoff wins in four seasons.
Few managers have had a better run in baseball than Joe Torre with the Yankees. In 12 seasons managing the team, he had a .605 winning percentage and won four World Series titles, three of them consecutively. The team fell to third place in the AL East in Girardi’s first season, but came roaring back in his sophomore effort to win the 2009 World Series. New York would have a .562 winning percentage during Girardi’s tenure and he left when his contract expired after the 2017 season.
McGraw’s Fighting Irish made the NCAA tournament every year from 1995 to 2019 and won it all twice, in 2001 and 2018. She went 848-251 for a .772 winning percentage during her time at Notre Dame. Ivey’s first season as her successor was cut short because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but she made the Sweet 16 in her second and has a 34-20 record overall.
Bowden won 21 bowl games with Florida State, including two national championships, for an overall record of 304-97-4. Jimbo Fisher picked up right where he left off, winning a title in his fourth season with the team and compiling an 83-23 record for a winning percentage of .783 — a higher mark than Bowden’s. Fisher would stay with the team from 2010 to 2017 before leaving to coach Texas A&M.
Switzer won three national titles and put up a 157-29-4 record as Oklahoma’s head coach, but resigned amid several scandals in 1989. Gibbs faced the challenge of several NCAA sanctions on the Sooners’ program, but still managed a 44-23-2 record with two bowl wins during his time as head coach.