A Preview of the "Finalists"

According to numerous sources (namely here and here) the finalists for the Head Coaching position are Jim Fassel and Gregg Williams.  There is a nice post over at Riggo's Rag about the news of Fassel being the now infamous "mystery candidate" (by the way, good stuff over there... if you don't read it, you should) so I'll try to stay away from anything of that type.  What follows is meant only as a quick over view of each coach, sort of a how-ya-do post if you will:

First up, the Mystery Man himself:

Jim Fassel

Looking good in leather. (Image from here.)

For starters, there's always Wikipedia but you never get the really good stuff there.  Between Wiki and Pro Football Reference we find that he was a career 58-53-1 head coach in his 7 season in New York.  We know he went to the Super Bowl once, losing to Baltimore in 2000.  We know he won the NFC East twice and came in second once.  He has a 2-3 playoff record.  Other than the Super Bowl year, his teams either missed the playoffs or were bounced in the first game they played.  Most recently, he was the OC in Baltimore.

Prior to being the head coach for the Giants, he is credited with tutoring young QBs such as John Elway and Phil Simms.  In 1991, he was the Giants's QB coach and in 1992, he was the offensive coordinator before moving on as OC/Assistant Head Coach in Denver for 1993-1994.  The, he moved on to Oakland as QB coach (1995) before findind his way to Arizona to be the QB coach and OC (1996).

In Fassel's only other head coaching credit, he was head coach for the University of Utah from 1985-1989, going 25-33 in that span.  He never finished higher than 3rd in the WAC.  His coaching career began as an assistant for Utah State University and Stanford (when Elway was there) after a short playing career in the NFL (drafted by the Bears) and WFL.

He played QB in college at (apparently) both USC and Cal State University, Long Beach.

And, for only $20,000-$30,000, he's available to speak at birthday parties and bar mitzvahs.

And now, the Incumbant:

Gregg Williams

What football game?  There's a football game? (Image from here.)

Again, I go to the Wiki and Pre Football Reference.  But before I go into all of this, I would be remiss if I didn't point you to Ben's post over at the Squiggly Letter between Q and S.  He did an excellent and extensive job covering Williams's past NFL experience.  Go there, read up, get knowledge.

Anyway, GW was 17-31 in 3 years (2001-2003) as Head Coach in Buffalo.  He never went to the playoffs.  His best year was 2002, when his team was 8-8.  

According to the Wiki, he broke into football with the University of Houston under former Redskins Head Coach Jack Pardee before becoming the Oilers Special Teams Coordinator (following Pardee to the NFL) in 1990.  

He moved on to LB Coach in 1994 under the notorious Buddy Ryan, where he remained until he was promoted to DC of the newly renamed Tennessee Titans in 1997.  He stayed until Buffalo came calling and, in an interesting twist to the recent head coaching search, was replaced as Titans's DC by the recently interviewed Jim Schwartz.  

He apparently played QB at Northeast Missouri State before going on to get his Master's in education from Central Missouri State University (now Central Missouri University).  He also was the head coach at Belton (MO) High School from 1984-1987.

The rest is, as they say, history.

The Comparison

I'll let you make the decision.  And to help, I present... a table!  (Huge hat tip to Redskinette who brought the semblance of HTML professionalism to this site.)

I know the table was unnecessary... but I wanted to give it a go.  And for the record... I'm not sure I like either one as Head Coach.  Of the two, I'll take GW.  But I agree with Ben over at Curly R and Riggo's Rag in endorsing an interview (at least) with Russ Grimm.

Anyway, let me know what you think of the candidates.  Like 'em?  Hate 'em?  Got a new one (a better one) in mind?