Hot NFL Coaches

The path to the top of the NFL coaching ranks is somewhat well-defined: serve an apprenticeship as a position coach; become a coordinator for a successful playoff or Super Bowl team; then teams seeking to reverse their woebegone fortunes come calling like school boys looking for a prom date. Although 2000 was an aberration with two new head coaches not serving as coordinators in 1999, Al Groh was the LB coach for the Jets before his promotion, and Dave Wannstedt was the assistant head coach of the Dolphins prior to his elevation to the top spot. So it should come as no great surprise that 11 of the 13 NFL assistants making this year\'s list of \"hot\" coaching candidates currently serve as an OC or DC (the other two serve in supervisory roles as an assistant head coach and the other a passing game coordinator). The one factor not mentioned in the above equation is the boost it gives an