Don Banks on the 4 Coaches left standing

[PntherPryd]

Great insight on Rivera in this article

http://www.si.com/nfl/2016/01/19/nfl-playoffs-coaches-bill-belichick-ron-rivera

Banks got tidbits from Harbaugh and Billick about each of the 4 coaches left standing.

Quote

 

Harbaugh’s tie to Carolina’s well-respected Rivera goes back the furthest. They first met when Rivera was a linebacker on the Bears team quarterbacked by John’s brother, Jim Harbaugh. The two were teammates for six seasons, from 1987 to ’92. By ’99, John Harbaugh and Rivera were coaching together in Philadelphia.

“Ron’s a player’s coach, almost a guy who coaches like a player in a lot of ways,” John Harbaugh says. “He’s always looked at things a little differently. He’s always been a guy who’s been unique and always willing to be himself. He’s just a real genuine guy, a real honest guy. He’s the kind of guy who always respects everybody around him. You know it says in the Bible, look at others as being better than yourself, and I kind of think that’s how Ron feels. And yet he’s got this amazing humble confident way about him.”

Rivera’s players revere him for his steady, even-keeled ways and his ability to treat them like men, letting them be themselves while still expecting self-accountability. And after waiting so long for an NFL head coaching opportunity—interviewed nine different times for openings just while he was the Bears’ defensive coordinator—Rivera has obviously grown in the Panthers job, twice rallying to save his job when it was perceived he was in jeopardy of being fired (at the end of the 2012 season and again with Carolina sitting 3-8-1 in late 2014). His Panthers have won 21 of their past 23 games since that low point last season.

“He doesn’t seem like he ever gets too uptight, he kind of goes with the flow,” Harbaugh says. “We were playing Chicago in a playoff game, a divisional game, one year, and all us coaches, we were all sitting in the locker room before the game kind of tapping our toes with our heads down. And we look over and Ron is reading a novel, like just before we go on the field. It was that Dan Brown novel,The Da Vinci Code, just ripping the Catholic church. And Ron’s kind of a devout Catholic, and he’s like, ‘You cannot believe this. This is crazy.’

“[Then Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Johnson] and I looked at each other like, are we about to play a game here?’ Ron’s going to be fine no matter what. He respects his players, he respects his coaches, and he lets them do their thing. And they really respond to him.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Billick remembers doing an early-season Panthers game for FOX in 2012, when there was already widespread speculation that Rivera and his staff were in trouble in just their second year on the job. How Rivera responded to that pressure-cooker situation was telling, Billick said. Carolina started that season 1–6, but rallied to go 6–3 from there, including four wins in a row to finish 7–9 and save his job. The next year, the Panthers went 12–4 and won the NFC South.

“It’s amazing, because they were gone,” Billick recalls. “They were gone, no question about it, and they even thought that. Then they went on a run. And up to that point, Ron had been criticized for not taking chances, so that’s where he really began his Riverboat Ron reputation. He said, ‘O.K., if I’m going down, I’m going to go down with my boots on.

 

 

[Khyber53]

Rivera certainly earned his spot in the final four this year, and we got lucky when they hired him. Good guy, hope he can give us a good decade or more.

[Mr. Scot]

Retelling the story in context reminds me just how stupid and petty Lovie Smith was when he let Rivera go.

[GRWatcher]

44 minutes ago, PntherPryd said:

He’s always looked at things a little differently. He’s always been a guy who’s been unique and always willing to be himself.

This is what I like so much about Coach Rivera. He's also very smart & open to new ideas & approaches. Shoot, just the way he's out in the community almost as much as his players is amazing. Can you ever imagine Fox or Capers or, heaven forbid, Seifert! in public just being themselves? XD

[tiger7_88]

31 minutes ago, Khyber53 said:

Rivera certainly earned his spot in the final four this year, and we got lucky when they hired him. Good guy, hope he can give us a good decade or more.

I wish the same.

I also wish he'd stop forgetting where he put his boots.

[frash.exe]

It's true that you need to have a certain personality to be an effective head coach. You're not going to hack it if you're just a great Xs and Os guy.

[L-TownCat]

27 minutes ago, Mr. Scot said:

Retelling the story in context reminds me just how stupid and petty a lot of us were when we wanted Rivera gone.

That's more how I remember it.

Impatience has long been a flaw of mine.

[Mr. Scot]

8 minutes ago, L-TownCat said:

That's more how I remember it.

Impatience has long been a flaw of mine.

Valid.

[Growl]

I think maybe Ron should be the man who bangs the drum Sunday.

[usmcpanthers]

I wont lie, I was critical of Rivera in the beginning. I loved the players played hard for him but Ron had no head coaching exp and was just horrible at first. Im so glad I was wrong and i loved the improvement Ron has had in his time here!

[Sam Mills Fan]

Rivera has improved SO much from 2011. Anybody remember how he moronically called a timeout near the end of the first half of a Saints game which let the Saints have enough time to kick a field goal? He gifted them 3 free points, something even I would have known not to have done just by playing Madden. He's improved in close games, he's improved on his challenges, he's improved on his overall strategy. He has the respect of his players and the love of the community. I hope he doesn't leave for a long time.

[panthers55]

 

 

 

Yeah I remember all the grief I got when I told folks that Rivera was growing and learning and folks had to give him a break given this was his first head  coaching  job and he was improving. Glad I was right.

[Yaboychris28]

Great article. Im glad to have Rivera as the Panthers head coach

[Snake]

The growing pains were great but both Cam and Rivera turned out really good.