CEO Coach Meaning

I believe what they are saying is that he delegates much of the coaching responsibility to the assistant coaches.  The head coach is an overseer in this type of system.  Some coaches are into every detail, but the CEO coach isn't.

When I call a coach a CEO type, I mean someone that doesn't know Xs or Os on other side of the ball very well, and is a delegator and a recruiter. 

Les Miles, Brady Hoke, James Franklin IMO, I called Bob Stoops a CEO type in another thread but he was a DC before he was the OU coach.

Guys that wouldn't be good coordinators on either side of the ball, generally, is what I mean when I say it. They're not there to call plays, they are there to manage the people who call plays, manage hiring of personnel and recruiting, and make sure that the program is running smoothly.

CEO coach is pretty much just code for guys that aren't a play caller on either side of the ball.

For you as a person in a leadership position, why wouldn't you try to surround yourself with great talent? Do you purposefully hire bad people to make yourself look good? I don't understand business I guess.

I view CEO Coach as one that sets strategy, does university/donor stuff, etc. and gets out of the way of execution, which is handled almost exclusively by high performing staff with a lot of autonomy.

Basically what we hoped Brady Hoke could be. Which is why I think it's a joke.

Delegator not a doer.   Here in Cleveland Hue, the village idiot, Jackson was an alleged CEO HC for the Browns.  Gregg Williams ran all the defense and up to his well-deserved firing, Todd Haley ran the entire offense.

Hue's "job" so-to-speak was to make in-game decisions on challenges (always fucked it up), time management (bewildered him beyond measure) and 4th down calls.

Did I mention I was glad he was gone?   Oh...and the Bengals are now 0-3 since they hired that human turd.  It was also pointed out to me he lost his last 5 games as a Raider HC so Hue, the village idiot, Jackson is now 3-46-1 in his last 50 games.   That's a level of incompetence you just dont see everyday.

Hue was a CEO HC.  Not a great advert for the concept IMO.

There are a certain type of CEOs that 'sell'. Which is to say they are constantly in front of customers/prospects. I happen to despise this sort of CEO.

I like 'product' CEOs, such as the late Sergio Macrionne or Bill Gates (https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2006/06/16/my-first-billg-review/). People that obsess over details.

I first heard it over a decade ago when some media outlet was talking about Bobby Bowden at FSU.  Made the point that he is a figure-head coach that delegates .... but then they showed him at practice yelling out to “Hey number 56, you have to get low on that block!”   (Or something close to this.... so save your research and “I gotcha” moment)

Then they made the point that number 56 was his star lineman and it was common knowledge that Bowden didn’t take the time or attention to get to know his players, let alone their names.  

No idea if old school coaches were more “CEO” than new coaches; or if it’s just a new definition for a certain type of coach.  

It's the difference between a CEO and COO in a company. The COO typically knows how the sausage is made, while the CEO says what types of sausage they want made.

In football, I'd say a CEO coach

• Focuses on recruiting, fundraising, positive media coverage
• Has coordinators that do the daily stuff (call plays, teach the technicals, draw up plays...) while the CEO Coach gives the philosophy of the O & D (e.g. I want an ultra aggressive, blitzing D knowing that we will give up more big plays)
• Networks like a monster, so always has a next coordinator to hire, since his get poached.

I think the most successful ones were Mack Brown and Les Miles (which is why it's not crazy that they are HCs, even though they are old). While the most successful hands-on coaches are masters at one side of the ball Saban (D) and Urban (O).

The main issue is making sure you can constantly replace coordinators and don't become too dependent on one. 

If everyone else is doing all the work . . . why do I need you?

I think of it as limited to really big programs like Michigan and roughly the top third of P5 schools.  Big in terms of constituencies -- fan base, alum base, former players, the students, the press -- and also, of course big money involved.

Rich Rodriguez was not a "CEO" type of coach and it hurt him.  He didn't get buy-in from all of those constituencies.  Hoke was better at the off-field parts of that, but wasn't a good manager of his own program internally.

Harbaugh's idiosyncrasies make him more of a "maverick" type of CEO, which doesn't work everywhere, but sometimes works wonderfully.

Bear Bryant was a CEO type in his later years at Alabama. He'd manage practice from up in his tower.

Has there been anybody given the title of CEO coach that's actually been good besides Mack Brown?

Bill Frieder was a CEO coach while Steve Fisher was his COO. At least that’s what I took from going to Frieder’s summer basketball camp in 1985. Frieder sat around glad-handing all the top players while Fisher ran the drills and explained the techniques. I bet they ran practice differently, but Frieder never struck me as being a cerebral coach (he was the opposite of Beilein) which is odd because he was an infamous card-counter in Vegas. He was smart, I just didn’t get that from his basketball coaching.

I would say a CEO coach, more than anything else, sets the culture. And a major part of that includes putting the right people in the right position. It also means getting the right talent at all levels, giving the resources and support when/where needed, understanding what the short/long term goals should be and who would be best at driving the goals, holding those accountable who need to be held accountable, building leaders that are team-driven, etc.

I've been praising Beilein for years b/c along with being such a great offensive coach, he is a tremendous CEO about creating the image of this program and getting all the players and staff to have complete buy-in.

(also, I'm an executive coach)

means they get paid big bucks for poor to middling results, especially against their biggest rivals. And then get a golden parachute bonus when they get fired. 

Wayne Fontes was a CEO Coach. Coke Every Offday.

The row the boat guy in Minnesota, PJ Fleck, is a CEO coach.  He can barely spell football and totally relies on his coordinators.  He's all motivation, that guy!

I thought Wayne fontes when I read this

delegator who could never do anything on his own

When people criticize Harbaugh’s offense, and call for Pep to be fired ( or Drevno last year )  I’ve seen people make the comment that the offense for better or worse, is harbaugh’s baby, and he’ll never bring in a “true” OC because Jim is not a CEO type coach. But then Urban has always been known has an offensive “mastermind”, yet he’s had guys like Tom Herman, Dan Mullen, Ryan Day, and Kevin Wilson as his OC’s. And all of them have brought different approaches to the offense with them. So how much of urban’s offense has been his own “genius” and how much has it been him hiring top notch people to run the offense for him? 

John Moglia, CEO of TD Ameritrade and head coach of Coastal Carolina. 

I heard an interview with him and it was interesting to say the least. He said Yale or some Ivy did a study and found CEO personality types made the most successful HC in football. Regardless, he has done well at Coastal and eems to have a passion for the game.

See: Fleck, PJ; Row the Boat Enterprises, Inc.

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