History of coaches turning the corner
Steve King, Staff Writer
01.29.2008
The fact it took Romeo Crennel, who got a two-year contract extension on Tuesday, three seasons to put the team back on track, falls right in line with the performances of some other head coaches in Browns history.
Sam Rutigliano, the architect of the Kardiac Kids, went 8-8 and then 9-7 in his first two seasons before the Browns turned the corner in 1980 and posted an 11-5 record to win the AFC Central crown for the first time in nine years.
The club Rutigliano inherited in 1978 was vastly superior to the one Crennel had in his first season of 2005. Although the 1977 Browns went 6-8, they were 5-2 at one point and in first place in the division before experiencing a free fall.
Plus, in 1976, they had gone 9-5 and just missed the playoffs.
That was head coach Forrest Gregg's second year on the job. Like Crennel, who took over a team that had gone 9-23 the previous two seasons, Gregg in 1975 got a club that had gone just 4-10 -- then a franchise-worst -- the prior year. His 1975 team bottomed out at 3-11 before recovering.
Getting back to Rutigliano, he went into his final season of 1984 with a team that was picked to win the division after going 9-7 and being squeezed out of the playoffs the previous year. But the club lost quarterback Brian Sipe from that 1983 team -- and a lot of close games (five by three points or less) -- and he was fired at mid-season with a 1-7 record.
Defensive coordinator Marty Schottenheimer was promoted to head coach and guided the team to a 4-4 mark the rest of the year. He was still at .500 -- 8-8 -- in 1985, his first full season on the job, but the Browns took advantage of a weak field to capture the Central title.
It wasn't until Schottenheimer's third year that the Browns really turned the corner, going 12-4, winning the division and making it to the AFC Championship Game.
Bill Belichick is now winning Super Bowl titles in bunches since becoming head coach of the New England Patriots, but it was a different story when he was in Cleveland. He got the Browns job in 1991, inheriting a team that, after its big run through the last half of the 1980s, had gotten old all at once and plummeted to a 3-13 mark in '90.
His first two years were nothing extraordinary. The Browns, fading down the stretch both times, finished 6-10 and then 7-9. The 1993 team was 5-3 and in first place at the halfway point before Belichick cut popular quarterback Bernie Kosar and caused such an uproar that the Browns went into a tailspin and limped home at 7-9 again.
It took until the fourth season before the tide turned for good. The 1994 Browns went 11-5 and made the playoffs as a wild card.
So, as history indicates, it takes time for a new coach to come in and establish himself, particularly when he inherits a fixer-upper.
In that respect, then, Crennel is right on course after this year's 10-6 finish, which is why the Browns extended his contract.
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