Ever since Norm Chow helped bring USC back to the pinnacle of the college football world, he has been a hot commodity. He almost single handily turned Carson Palmer from a going-nowhere bust into a Heisman trophy winner overnight and he has coached a lot of guys who went on to successful NFL careers . It is a well documented fact that Chow wants a head coaching spot and I'm sure his resume will find it's way onto Guerrero's desk during a coaching search.Background
Norm Chow is 61 years old and is currently the offensive coordinator for the Tennessee Titans. In his younger days, Chow played at the University of Utah as an offensive lineman. He spent a brief stint in the Canadian football league before he suffered a career ending leg injury.
Chow received a masters degree and PHD at BYU and he ended up as an assistant coach at Brigham Young in 1977. Chow spent 27 years as an assistant in that system and he coached pretty much every single offensive position during that time. It was here that Chow developed his offensive philosophy and he blossomed as a quarterback coach and offensive coordinator. In 1999 he went to North Carolina State and then was hired as the offensive coordinator at USC in 2001. He helped lead the Trojans to their 2005 national championship.
Norm has coached 6 of the NCAA's top 16 career passing efficiency leaders and was involved with squads that hold 11 of the top 30 single season passing yardage totals in NCAA history. Some of the players he has coached include Matt Leinart, Carson Palmer, Steve Young, Jim McMahon, Marc Wilson, Gifford Nielsen, Ty Detmer and Robbie Bosco. He also received the assistant coach of the year award in 1993, 1996, and 1999 by a few publications.
College Head Coaching Record
None.
Positives
Norm Chow has an incredibly impressive track record as an offensive coordinator. His history of developing successful NFL quarterbacks would likely draw top high school prospects from across the country to Westwood. He has also overseen some of the most potent offenses in the history of college football and it is easy to see UCLA becoming a power house under Chow's oversight. That is very important in the PAC-10 where offensive prowess is paramount.
Chow could also groom and mentor a replacement for himself. A young assistant with good potential could learn from Chow's decades of offensive coordinator experience. The flip-side of that is that he could just be the offensive coordinator himself. That way he could free up some money to pay for a top-notch defensive staff.
Negatives
For someone who has had amazing coaching success for over 30 years, you have to wonder why he hasn't been given a head coaching position? Many have speculated that Chow hasn't gotten a gig because he has an abrasive, take-it-or-leave-it personality. He had a very well documented fall-out with the USC coaching staff that lead to him eventually leaving the school in 2005. He is also said to be a very bad interviewee and was passed over for the head coaching position at Stanford because he rubbed the AD the wrong way.
As a head coach, there comes other commitments outside of the football field. Chow may not be up for socializing with boosters and athletic department personnel. He may not be interested in sticking with a college head coaching job and jump back to the NFL where he can focus entirely on just the on-field coaching.
The other downside is that Chow is getting up there in years. He is definitely set in his ways and he didn't spend much, if any time, on the recruiting trail while at USC. As the head coach you have to be involved in recruiting whether you like it or not.
Verdict
Chow is a bit of an enigma for me. You got to love the offensive coordinator background and his cerebral approach to the game. If we could just harness that mind for good rather than evil, it would be awesome. Some of the personality issues could really be a problem. You would hate to have a dysfunctional staff trying to lead this team where Norm is pissing off all of his assistants and the administration.
Maybe I'm making to much of it but obviously no other school as thought it worthwhile to offer Chow a head coaching job. There has got to be something wrong with him. I'm not sure if UCLA wants to roll the dice and be the first to give him a shot. If Guerrero does take Norm and it works out, he'll be a genius. If it doesn't work out... well he might think about preparing his own resume as well.
8 comments:
Personality is much more important in the college game - if it's as antisocial as he seems to be, good luck with our recruiting. As a coordinator, maybe, as a head coach - no. There's a reason why he has never gotten an offer.
There's a "reason" that he hasn't been given a head coaching position? Yeah it's same "reason" many many talented minds were and still are denied head coaching/management positions in all of the major sports who happen to be black. It's called "racism", people! Norm Chow is more than qualified to be given the head coaching position at almost any Division I school. The fact that he has hit an "invisible ceiling" is a sad testament to the state of affairs. Any number of white assistant coaches with his resume, regardless of any of the "problems" cited by the original poster, would have been handed the head coaching reigns to a program A LONG TIME AGO.
Norm, you deserve a head coaching position SOON and I hope that you will be leading our Bruins next season and for many years to come!
I think NC received an offer from Kentucky, but turned that down. As for recruiting, heck a lot of coaches don't care to do it. He just has to do it on occasion. It's not as if Dorrell were known as a great recruiter; his assistants did the dirty work. UCLA with Chow on offense and Walker on defense would be a fairly potent coaching tandem.
Norm Chow is qualified to coach any pro team, let alone college teams.
Racism is right. This is guy is deserving to be a head coach. Even his students are now head coaches.
Ask pete carroll, jeff fisher, they all think he should be a head coach.
The kentucky offer and he would have the stanford positon this past year but refuse to go for it after they turned him down two years earlier.
Lets put it this way, if Norm Chow was white, 61 y.o., had an abrasive personality but had the offense knowledge and record he has, he would have been a HC job 20 years ago. For chrissake...there's what 3 African American HC in all of D1 football? 'nuff said.
Norm Chow can't afford to be abrasive and come off dour because he IS Asian. That's the unfortunate reality for him. Chow knows it but probably doesn't want to sell himself out and feel like he sold his soul to the white devil to become the HC. He probably harbors animosity inside because his credentials blare out that he is qualified to be a HC but 28 year old idiots like Lane Kiffin get the nod over Chow because of their percieved energetic, charasmatic, if not naive over-enthusiam for the game. Maybe you do need to have that personality to get 18 year olds to smash the opponent, maybe not. But Chow needs to get over the Asian block and his percieved lack of personality by putting on a bubbly personality during interviews even if that's not what he feels he needs to do. For a 61 year old man, that's tough...
Yeah, no of the status quo want to give Norm Chow "A Chinaman's Chance" to quote a distance discrimatory phrase from the days of the railroads. It is pretty obvious from all events and facts. I really feel for Norm, because like him, I am Asian American and like him, I've experienced this type of glass ceiling discrimination throughout my life. Unlike the african americans, Asians in the US is such a small minority, no one speaks out for us. Too bad, the college football programs are the ones to miss out because of their perception of Norm Chow having a abrasive personality. Look at all the other coaches in the NFL, some of them are so overtly abrasive. But when an Asian or African speaks out, watch out!!! Someone will hang out a "Noose" for a lynching. Too Bad. Too Bad. Such wasted talent and experience. Too Bad. Just Too Damn Bad. Shameful, isn't it?
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