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Who had a more successful 9 years with the Panthers: John Fox or Ron Rivera?


Sam Mills Fan

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John Fox: 3 winning seasons out of 9, 3 playoff berths, 5-3 playoff record, 1 Super Bowl appearance, .513 regular season/playoff win percentage, .537 regular season/playoff win percentage vs. NFC South, .572 regular season/playoff win percentage in games decided by a touchdown or less

Ron Rivera: 3 winning seasons out of 9, 4 playoff berths, 3-4 playoff record, 1 Super Bowl appearance, .544 regular season/playoff win percentage, .490 regular season/playoff win percentage vs. NFC South, .477 regular season/playoff win percentage in games decided by a touchdown or less

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I’m not saying either belong in Canton, but I’m definitely more of a John Fox guy. I liked his attitude. Always brought a positive energy to the sideline. And I don’t hate Ron, but I’ve always preferred a more interactive style of coaching. 

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One other thing to keep in mind when you think about how the two of them did: John Fox did this with Jake Delhomme as his QB for the equivalent of about 6 of those 9 seasons and also had Rodney Peete, Chris Weinke, Jimmy Clausen, David Carr, Matt Moore, and Vinny Testaverde thrown in the mix too. Up until this year, Ron Rivera has been mediocre despite having an MVP at QB.

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Fox was a good coach during his time with us, but his time ran out. I think the same is happening to ole Ron. 

The main difference between the two is that Ron seems to be much more well-liked within the building. You will not find one person in the organization that has a bad thing to say about him.

Fox, on the other hand, could be pretty arrogant at times.

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2 minutes ago, TNPanther said:

Fox was a good coach during his time with us, but his time ran out. I think the same is happening to ole Ron. 

The main difference between the two is that Ron seems to be much more well-liked within the building. You will not find one person in the organization that has a bad thing to say about him.

Fox, on the other hand, could be pretty arrogant at times.

Isn't it amazing how often this comes up as a positive for him? Not that I'm doubting it or saying you're wrong for listing it, I'm sure Ron is a super nice guy. But nice, well-liked guys get fired for poor job performance everyday in this country from minimum wage jobs all the way to the very top. How nice someone is shouldn't be a factor in deciding who your NFL head coach is.

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5 minutes ago, Kinographer said:

Fox came closer to actually winning the bowl. 

Fox was better at developing talent. 

Fox usually had his team prepared. Most of his poor seasons were due to injury. 

Rivera seems like a nicer guy.

Rivera's biggest attribute is seemingly survival since we've been having the same conversation about him for years now.

Owed a lot of the Super Bowl performance to Dan Henning.

(for whatever you thought of Henning, he was better than Mike Shula)

As far as the nice guy thing, I have heard that Fox was a total a--hole in private. Was said to have dragged Marty Hurney to a strip club during Super Bowl week.

Was also said that around the time he was jockeying for a new contract, his wife made a huge scene in the Panthers offices.

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4 minutes ago, Sam Mills Fan said:

Isn't it amazing how often this comes up as a positive for him? Not that I'm doubting it or saying you're wrong for listing it, I'm sure Ron is a super nice guy. But nice, well-liked guys get fired for poor job performance everyday in this country from minimum wage jobs all the way to the very top. How nice someone is shouldn't be a factor in deciding who your NFL head coach is.

Oh I totally agree. But I think Ron has been much easier to work with than Fox ever was. That could be a factor in why Tepper decided to keep him and Marty around another year.

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