On the Monday Night Football pregame show, Ron Jaworski just asserted that "Norv Turner is a terrific football coach." That doesn't pass the smell test, but let's look a little deeper.
Stat #1: Norv Turner is the longest-tenured coach in NFL history with a career losing record. He's 103-112-1 in 14 seasons. He's 4-4 in the playoffs.
Stat #2: In those 14 seasons, he's made the playoffs four times. In one of those playoff seasons (2008), his team finished 8-8.
Stat #3: This one indicates to me that even his talents as an offensive coordinator are overrated and that his success at Dallas was a result of having overwhelming talent at his disposal, rather than his genius as a coach. In his three years as Dallas's OC, they finished in the top ten in points and yards every season. In his four years as OC at San Diego, Miami, and San Francisco, his teams never finished in the top ten. Only three times in his tenure as a head coach have his teams finished in the top ten in yards.
Stat #4: In 2010, his Chargers pulled off the incredibly impressive feat of finishing first in the NFL in total offense and defense and still finishing 9-7 (and missing the playoffs).
Stat #5: Turner doesn't even produce good head coaches. Of the five eventual head coaches who worked for him as an assistant, only Mike Martz (53-32) had a winning record. The other four (Cam Cameron, Mike Nolan, Ray Rhodes, and Ron Rivera) had a combined record of 59-102-1.
Jaws is a smart guy, and I'm sure he knows most of these things. I understand the need to try to make a game pitting the 4-7 Chargers against the 4-7 Jaguars more appealing, but I hope they don't strain credulity quite so much next time.
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