I was recently disappointed to hear of the firing of former USC offensive coordinator Norm Chow by the Tennessee Titans. Personally without any knowledge of exact events I think he got an unfair shake and it had more to do with internal politics and management decisions than just his coaching ability. Despite this setback Chow has had an impressive career and set of accomplishments. I could not find a good summary of his body of work on-line so I decided to compile a simple one on my own. This is not an inclusive file of all his achievements however it lists some of the overall high points, developments, and some critical observations. I'll break it down in terms of chronology and location. At the end I'll compile it in a table for review.
1. BYU Period
Background
Norm Chow was a college football player at the University of Utah where he was a 2 year starter at offensive guard. He was a three year letterman and named to the Utah All Century Team for his accomplishments. Following a brief stint with the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Canadian Football League for 2 years he entered Brigham Young University for graduate studies. In 1973 Chow also became a graduate assistant on the football team under Head Coach Lavelle Edwards. By 1978 Chow had received his Ed.D., from BYU in "Special education teaching competencies: an investigation of the differences of perceived importance of teaching competencies among teachers of categorical areas of special education". Additionally he became WR coach and recruiting coordinator and served in these positions of increased responsibility until 1982. During the 1970's BYU became noted for its famed passing attack under Head Coach Lavelle Edwards and Offensive Coordinator Doug Scovil. The team generated passing records and numerous leading QB's such as Virgil Carter, Gary Sheide, Gifford Nielsen, Marc Wilson, and Jim McMahon during the 1970's. (Note: These initial set of players were not directly coached by Chow in the 70's although he was involved with wide receivers in the passing game).
In 1982 after the departure of members of the BYU staff Norm Chow was promoted to both co-offensive coordinator and co-QB coach under Lavelle Edwards. After 1995 he was finally named sole offensive coordinator and QB coach. In his role he worked closely with noted QB's such as Robbie Bosco, Steve Young Ty Detmer, Steve Sarkisian, Brandon Doman, among others. To say that Norm Chow invented the BYU passing offense is an awful stretch of the truth and disrespectful to Chow's predecessors. Norm Chow points out in different speeches and interviews that the BYU offense was developed by Lavelle Edwards with in put from Doug Scovil, Dewey Warren, Dwain Painter, Wally English, J.D. Helm, Garth Hall, Dave Kragthorpe (among many others) in the 1970's. At that time Norm Chow was a GA and then WR's coach. An account of the period exists in different books. One is Winning Football with the Forward Pass from 1985 which is now out of print although I have a copy in my library. Many other coaches played prominent roles in the 1980's at well as Norm Chow. Brian Billick, Andy Reid, Mike Holmgren, and other current NFL coaches spent time there learning and working on the passing game under LaVelle Edwards and staff. Mike Leach the current coach at Texas Tech was a young assistant as well. However Norm Chow played an extremely prominent role in the 1980's and 90's honing the BYU passing attack to a high level of accomplishment. His teaching ability is unquestioned and highly valued.
In different presentations Chow has noted that less than a dozen basic pass plays (samples here) and perhaps four or five run plays were all you needed to form the foundation of his base offense. Some of the key points in any effective scheme that he consistently espoused are overall simplicity, ease in comprehension, and multiple repetitions in practice to create excellence. Complexity can be added as needed and deception can be created by using the same plays (or with slight adjustments) from different personnel groups, alignment, and or man in motion techniques.
Record & Accomplishments
During his time as offensive coordinator at BYU Norm Chow developed the reputation as a master developer of QB's with the ability to simplify the game and develop skills. As noted above several of the NCAA passing efficiency leaders (Bosco, Young, Sarkisian, etc.) were developed under his supervision and leadership. At one point in time it was reported that 6 of the top 16 leaders in NCAA passing efficiency had either attended BYU or worked with Norm Chow for some short period of time.
During Chow's time as offensive coordinator BYU went 244-91-3 for an overall winning margin of roughly 72%. Most of these wins were achieved versus weaker conference opponents in the Western Athletic Conference from 1973 to 1998 and the Mountain West Conference from 1998 onward. During most of these years BYU fielded the superior team in the conference especially in terms of offensive personnel. Despite their success in the regular season the Cougars had a tougher time in post season play winning about 41% of their bowl game with 7 Wins and 10 Losses in their 17 appearances when Chow was coaching. Wins included victories over (SMU, WSU, Michigan, Missouri, Colorado, Kansas State, and Minnesota.) Usually these came in the Holiday Bowl where the WAC champion played a 3rd or 4th place team from a larger conference. Sample losses were some of the following games (click here) and included an embarrassing loss against fellow non-BCS conference team Marshall where the BYU offense could only score 3 points.
The most noted accomplishment of the BYU program during the Chow period was undoubtedly the achievement of the somewhat controversial national title in 1984 in Chow's third full year as offensive coordinator. BYU was voted #1 at the end of the season as it finished as the only undefeated team in the nation that season coming out the old Western Athletic Conference. The Cougars that year never played a team that was ranked in the AP Top 20 at the end of the season and their opponents won a mere 44% of their games. BYU defeated a 6-6 Michigan team in the Holiday bowl game that year to finish undefeated with a dramatic 4th quarter come from behind 24-17 victory. Despite criticism regarding their soft record BYU was voted number #1 in the final AP poll by the national sportswriters. BYU's accomplishment however appears to have created a "glass ceiling" for subsequent non-BCS conference teams that followed after them. Despite finishing undefeated in the past 20 years teams like Boise State, Fresno State, Utah, etc. rarely rise to beyond the #5 or #6 team in the nation as sports writers and coaches are reluctant to anoint team #1 again for playing such a light schedule.
Accomplishments, Criticisms, Departure, and Hindsight
The most remarkable accomplishment of the BYU program under Lavelle Edwards was the establishment of a consistent winning program at a school with no previous success in football at all. Edwards, Scovil, Chow, and others rejected the conventional wisdom of the time and adopted a pass first strategy since they could not field rush dominant teams. This made the Cougars difficult to prepare for since they were a highly unconventional offense at the time. Many elements of the BYU passing attack were common to the over used term "West Coast Offense" developed by Bill Walsh and others in the NFL around the same time. Short passes with precisely timed routes were employed, passes to running backs as well as the tight ends were frequent, and all areas of the field (horizontal as well as vertical) were stressed for utilization. (Click here for sample BYU plays from the 1990's).
BYU had several one and two loss seasons during the 1980's and 1990's. However the Cougars were never able to duplicate their 1984 undefeated season despite playing in a conference where they usually had the best skill players among the competition. The 2 year Mormon missions that players went on also gave them a healthy number of mature 22-23 year old players on the squad as well as numerous players from the Pacific Islands. Chow's tenure as OC featured an impressive 72% overall winning margin but it was not enough to escape inevitable fan or local media criticism in down years when BYU had 6W-6L's, 6W-5L's, and 7W-4L type seasons for example.
Especially painful to BYU fans was the increasing inability to defeat in state rival Utah in the 1990's as the Cougars finished 2 wins and 5 losses versus the Ute's in the programs last seven seasons under Norm Chow as offensive coordinator. Utah compounded their mastery over Chow's offense in 2001 when he moved onto USC by defeating the Trojans 10-6 in the Las Vegas Bowl where USC could only muster 151 yards of total offense.
BYU quarterbacks while impressive in college never quite lived up to the same level of accomplishment in the NFL. In some cases they were given the tag of system QB's that only flourished in college due to the scheme in which they played. Only Jim McMahon (not directly coached by Chow) and Steve Young managed significant careers as multiple year starters or played on championship teams in the NFL. Robbie Bosco, Ty Detmer, Steve Sarkisian and others had lesser amounts of success. Steve Young was the biggest success story by far. However in somewhat of an embarrassment Steve Young was deemed a "reclamation project" in the harsh words of Bill Walsh who traded 2nd and 4th round draft picks to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for his services after Young could not win a starting position at that franchise and was relegated to the bench. Tampa at the time was contemplating switching Young to either a running back or perhaps defensive back. Steve Young sat on the sideline in San Francisco for several years and was tutored in the background by noted QB coaches such as Paul Hackett, Mike Holmgren, etc. and others on NFL play. Mechanical problems were addressed as well as his proclivity for scrambling too soon out of the pocket. Eventually Young improved however and replaced Joe Montana as the starting QB in San Francisco and had an excellent NFL and Hall of Fame worth career.
In 2000 Lavelle Edwards announced his retirement before the upcoming season. The University made it known behind the scenes that none of the current staff were deemed suitable for succeeding Edwards as head coach and they would look outside for a replacement. Most of the BYU staff stayed for the final season with Edwards, Norm Chow elected to leave sooner and accepted a position with North Carolina State as offensive coordinator.
2. North Carolina State 2000
Norm Chow only coached one year at North Carolina State as offensive coordinator. During this time he worked with the young but talented QB Phillip Rivers. During his one season at NC State the Wolfpack went 8 wins and 4 losses for a .667 winning margin. Rivers in 2000 completed just 53% of his passes but threw for 269 yards per game. Rivers ranked 38th in passing efficiency in the NCAA that season. Following this brief stop over Chow moved onto USC to become offensive coordinator.
3. USC Record
From 2001 to 2004 for four seasons Norm Chow was offensive coordinator for the USC Trojans. Since this era is the most recent and interest to USC fans it is worth reviewing season by season in some detail.
2001 USC
In his first year at USC the Trojans finished with 6 wins and 6 losses for a .500 winning margin. The losses included the aforementioned 10-6 defeat to Chow's former rival Utah in the Las Vegas Bowl to end the season. In that game USC finished with a total of 151 yards including only one net yard rushing. Other losses during the year included 10-6 loss to Kansas State, a 24-22 loss to Oregon, a 21-16 loss to Stanford, a 27-24 loss to Washington, as well a 27-16 loss to Note Dame which is the worst loss in terms of point differential of the Pete Carroll era.
In 2001 Norm Chow was offensive coordinator of the new staff that head coach Pete Carroll created as he took over USC head coaching responsibilities. At the completion of the first year under the staff the Trojans averaged 26.5 points per game and just 329 yards of offense ranking 61st and 94th respectively. This is roughly the same and slightly worse in some cases than the previous 3 years under former USC coach Paul Hackett. Injuries at the running back spot in particular were problematic for USC in 2000 and by the end of the year a converted FB Sunny Byrd was playing in place of Sultan McCullough and others. The rush offense wound up with a final ranking 109th in the country averaging just 95 rush yards per game, and ranked 49th in passing yards with 233 per game, as well as finishing 61st in scoring at 26.5 points per game.
In comparison the defense however was much improved that season for USC ranking 29th in the country allowing 331 yards per game, and 11th in the country at 17.9 points allowed. In addition it improved from next to last in the NCAA to 5th place in the turnover margin category.
Following the dismal loss in the Las Vegas Bowl in 2001 Head Coach Pete Carroll decided to make several changes according to the authors of "Fight On - The Colorful Story of USC Football".
"Although there was little talk by the staff about a change in offensive strategy after the 2001 Las Vegas Bowl loss (USC lost 10-6 to Utah to finish the season with 6 wins and 6 losses), Carroll told the authors of this book the Trojans were "so awful, disgraceful," that he "decided that we were going to change the offense."
A former member of the staff said Carroll, in effect, "junked the BYU offense" Norm Chow brought with him to USC in 2001. Carroll turned to two professional coaches for assistance -- Alex Gibbs of the Denver Broncos and Jon Gruden, who was then at Oakland but moved to Tampa Bay. Denver had been known for possessing the best running attack in the NFL, and Gibbs was generally accorded most of the credit for developing it. Gruden was young, but he was known for his passing schemes and offensive brilliance. Each summer, Lane Kiffin has spent time with Gruden, who is head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. His defensive coordinator is Monte Kiffin, Lane's father.
"I had decided we were going to do the whole offense over again," says Carroll. "I had gotten real frustrated with our offense, and I always wanted to be more involved to see if the things and concepts I liked would work. But I always gave in to the coordinators I had. This time, I decided this might be my last shot at being a head coach, and I'm not going to go down that way. I'm not going to leave it all on somebody else's shoulders. So, I spent the off-season working with the offense, and we recreated everything--philosophy-wise, rhythm, and principles--and the results have been phenomenal. The first game against Auburn, Carson Palmer was poppin' that ball around, and we were running the ball better. I even told the guys, 'I don't care if we're the best running team in the conference, just get it to average.' That was how high I set my goals then."
When Chow was later praised for what "his" offense was doing, the offensive coordinator would make a point of saying, "It isn't *my* offense, it's Pete Carroll's offense." But most USC followers assumed Chow was just being modest, when, in fact, he was telling it like it was. (End of passage).
Thus the tone was set it appears for some controversy inside the staff and later who was to receive credit for what as the Trojans improved in the future.
2002 USC
The offensive playbook changed significantly for USC in 2002 as noted above, however of course Norm Chow continued as offensive coordinator, Steve Sarkisian as QB Coach, and Lane Kiffin as WR Coach. Reportedly at least Steve Sarkisian was tasked with weekly game planning responsibilities and Norm Chow with main game day play call responsibilities. WR coach Lane Kiffin joined Chow in the press box on game days charting the opponents defense versus USC formations, confirming tendencies, and suggesting in game adjustments. With whatever new schematic changes were now in place on offense the USC Trojans began to improve significantly in 2002 on the offensive side of the ball. The erratic and interception prone QB Carson Palmer finally achieved the potential that had been expected of him as a highly touted recruit out of high school. That season Palmer set a USC QB record throwing for 3,988 yards and 306.8 yards per game. Palmer also completed 63% of his passes and threw for 33 TD's. This achievement earned him the Heismann Trophy at the end of the season.
USC finished the 2002 year 11-2 overall with one loss in Pac-10 play 30-27 to Washington State and one loss to Kansas State 27-20. USC rallied nicely versus Cal in another Pac 10 game coming back from being down 21-3 at one point in that game to win 30-28. For the first half of the season USC was highly dependent upon the arm of Carson Palmer as the running attack was still sub-standard. In the second half of the season however the combination of Sultan McCullough and Justin Fargas at tailback and Malaefou MacKenzie at fullback kicked into high gear and the Trojans gained momentum. In the season ending Orange Bowl Game USC defeated #3 ranked Iowa 38-17 to finish ranked #4 in the nation in the final AP Poll. The team was viewed as a leading contender for the national title in 2003 with question marks at quarterback.
Overall USC finished 2002 with 449 yards of offense, 5.8 yards per play and 35.7 points per game. The 35.7 points per game it should be noted consisted of approximately 24.1 long field points per game (when USC started on their own side of the 50 yard line) and 10.0 short field points (starting inside the opponents 50 after big kick returns and turnovers, etc.) and 1.6 points per game scored by either the defense or special teams.
The defense for USC that year also improved finishing #6 in the nation allowing 4.4 yards per play and 285 yards overall. It was also #5 in the nation in turnover margin providing the offense with 38 drives that averaged starting position inside the opponents 40 yard line for easy short field opportunities.
2003 USC
The 2003 campaign opened for USC with a new QB in sophomore Matt Leinart and rapidly developing young running backs Reggie Bush and LenDale White in addition to Herschel Dennis. WR's were lead by star Mike Williams, dependable Keary Colbert, and a young Steve Smith.
The overall record for USC wound up at 12-1 in 2003 with one major disappointment. The season opened with an impressive win over Auburn 23-0 on the strength of the team's defense. The offense struggled early on in the season with a new sophomore QB in Matt Leinart and could only generate 315 yards in the opening contest and then 306 yards versus BYU the following week. Unfortunately the squad lost the 4th game of the year against Cal 34-31 when a late goal line fumble by RB Hershel Dennis contributed to an eventually loss in overtime. In the contest the Trojans put up 376 yards in the contest with about 60 of those yards coming in the 3 OT periods. Three Matt Leinart interceptions during the game contributed to offensive woes as well. Eventually however in the 5th game of the season the offense got rolling under the new QB and finished on a tear the rest of the season. With a 28-14 win in the Rose Bowl USC finished 12-1 and was voted a controversial part of a split national championship with LSU who won in the actual BCS championship game versus Oklahoma.
In terms of final offense the Trojan squad produced 447 yards per game, 6.5 yards per play and an amazing 41.08 points per game after the slow start. The points figure is mis-leading however as the Trojan defense and special teams that season finished with an amazing 11 direct scores for TD's and safeties where the offense never even took the field. After removing these points from the equation the USC offense again averaged 35.5 points per game or right where the previous 2002 team had finished as well. The 35.5 points further broke down as 22.9 long field (starting inside own 50) points per game and 12.6 short field points per game. The Trojan schedule this season in the end was not as tough as the previous year and was estimated as the 19th most difficult in the nation by Jeff Sagarin.
The Trojans defense fell to #30 in the country at 336 yards allowed per game as the secondary allowed a porous 276 yards per game to rank just 110th in the nation. The run defense however was #1 in the country at 60 yards per game forcing the opposition to pass in many contests. The Trojans importantly finished #2 in the country in turnover margin forcing 42 turnovers. Importantly those helped created 42 drives for the offense that on average started inside the opponents side of the field for easy (short field) scoring opportunities. The direct scores by the defense as well as the short field position was a major factor for increased points production in this season. In addition the development and emergence of future Trojan stars on offense such as Matt Leinart, Reggie Bush, and LenDale White figured prominently as well.
2004 USC
Expectations for USC were sky high in 2004 with most of the offense and defense returning in tact. The coaching staff on offense changed slightly with the addition of Carl Smith as QB coach to replace Steve Sarkisian who moved onto a similar position with the Oakland Raiders. WR coach Lane Kiffin returned and Norm Chow remained as main offensive coordinator. The WR corps lost Mike Williams the week right before the season began when he was denied reinstatement by the NCAA after declaring for the draft as a sophomore. This left the WR corps young and unproven with Steve Smith, Dwayne Jarrett, and several others. As a result the TE position with Dominique Byrd and Alex Holmes caught more passes that season to pick up the slack.
For the first time since 1972 USC finished with an undefeated national championship season going 13-0 to win the BCS title. The season was not without its challenges however which is often lost in hindsight. For example to open the season USC defeated Virginia Tech 24-13 for an eleven point differential after trailing in the 3rd quarter. In addition during the course of the season four closer calls were experienced against Stanford 31-28, Cal 23-17, Oregon State 28-20, and UCLA 29-24. Pac-10 wins were tough for the Trojans even during this year. Easier wins were racked up versus Arizona, Notre Dame, Washington State, Washington, Arizona State, BYU, Colorado State and the final resounding 55-19 route over Oklahoma to win the BCS game.
For the year the USC offense averaged 449 yards per game overall. Lesser outputs came against Va Tech (373 total yards), Stanford (383 total yards) and Cal (a shockingly low 205 total yards of offense). Despite these glitches the team averaged an impressive 6.3 yards per play and 38.15 points per game overall. The defense and special teams were no where near as prolific as the 2003 squad had somehow been in comparison. This time of the 38.15 points per game only 1.6 on average were scored by either the defense or special teams. The remaining 36.5 was scored on offense with 23.2 of that coming on long field drives and 13.3 coming on short field drives.
The defense finished #6 in the nation allowing 4.27 yards per play and 279 yards of total offense per game. In addition the team finished #1 in the country in turnover margin this time generating 38 opportunities for the offense with the average field position close to the opponents 40 yard line.
2004 was the final season at USC for Norm Chow on offense as well as Ed Orgeron on the defensive side of the ball. Both coaches left on a high note at the the pinnacle of success. Amid some reported staff friction over roles and responsibilities and offered the opportunity to leave for twice as much pay Norm Chow elected to join former USC player Jeff Fischer at the Tennessee Titans in the position of offensive coordinator.
2005 Norm Chow at Tennessee Titans
In his first season in the NFL the Tennessee Titans finished with an fairly unimpressive total 4 Wins and 12 Losses. In fairness however the Titans were coming off some severe salary cap problems and had to purge the team of several high priced players. Long time veteran QB Steve McNair was still in place however and the Titans actually ranked 17th in the NFL on offense at 320 total yards per game. The passing attack was a respectable 224.8 yards per game and ranked 9th overall. In terms of points however the offense struggled somewhat and only generated 18.7 points per game to rank 21st in the NFL.
2006 Norm Chow at Tennessee Titans
In the following season Tennessee Titans eventually jettisoned Steve McNair as QB and installed inexperienced rookie QB Vince at the head of the offense. This was the beginning of troubles for the Titans on offense and in hindsight probably sealed the fate of Norm Chow. For the 2006 season with Vince Young as starter the majority of the time the Titans finished 27th in the NFL in offense managing just 300.6 yards per game. The passing game in particular was anemic and generated only 162.2 yards per game to rank 30th in the NFL. Point wise the team did manage to score 20.2 points per game. For the season thanks to a couple of late season wins and an improved defense the Titans managed to finish a respectable 8 wins and 8 losses.
2007 Norm Chow at Tennessee Titans
In 2007 Norm Chow completed his 3rd and final season as Tennessee Titans offensive coordinator. During the 3rd season the Titans did finally improve to a winning record of 10 wins and 6 losses due to a winning streak at the end of the season to make the AFC play offs. The running game was strong all year and finished 5th in the NFL behind LenDale White and Chris Brown. The offense overall however continued to struggle in most categories. The team averaged just 18.8 points and only 311 yards per game overall. The passing game averaged a mere 179 yards per game to rank 27th. Many commentators and fans viewed Vince Young as regressing rather than progressing as he threw only 9 TD's versus 17 Interceptions. The offense was last in red-zone efficiency in the NFL.
Superficial fan and media criticism of the offense was aimed at either the QB and WR situation or of course increasingly the offensive coordinator (click here for examples). Chow initially seemed secure in his job for at least one more year at the end of the 2007 season. In the first round of the playoffs however San Diego dispatched the Titans 17 to 6 and limited the team to just 248 total yards and two field goals in the game.
After the loss an off season meeting was apparently held where Titans Head Coach Jeff Fischer, GM Mike Reinfeldt and owner Bud Adams met privately to discuss the future. Secure about the run game, and a much improved defense (#8 in the NFL), a decision was reached to fire Norm Chow on a rather abrupt basis and go a different way on offense. Chow was deemed not the right person to develop QB Vince Young and the Titans offense of the future. The decision caught Chow off guard according to this press interview. At the time of this writing Norm Chow was contemplating options for the future. Rumors included sudden interest from Alabama, UCLA, and Hawaii at the college level. Speculation also arose regarding Chow looking for another QB or OC position in the NFL as he is two years short of qualifying for his NFL pension. As mentioned in the article with two years salary still coming Chow might just take some time off. One can only wonder how the tenure of Norm Chow at Tennessee might have turned out differently had Tennessee selected QB Matt Leinart or Jay Cutler instead of Vince Young. In perfect 20/20 hindsight the marriage of Chow, Tennessee Titan management, and Vince Young was probably incompatible from the start.
Summary
Despite being fired in the NFL by the Titans Chow leaves behind a summary of excellent work in developing QB's and offensive prowess especially at the college level. In comparison to most of the BYU QB's mentioned previously his latter QB's including Phillip Rivers at NC State (only one year of development), Carson Palmer, and Matt Leinart of USC have in general faired better in the NFL despite still being relatively early in their NFL pro careers.
For some fans in college Norm Chow remains a mystical figure who is responsible for immediate wins, high levels of offense, and development of QB's over night. The reality is of course more complex and his success has greatly depended upon the talent of the players on the field, the strength of opposition, as well as the field position afforded by the defense and special teams. On tape and in interview Chow is typically humble and gives credit to his many mentors and colleagues in the past. There is no doubt that the man has a knack for developing excellent drop back passers despite the Vince Young set back at Tennessee.
Somehow at 61 years old I doubt he is quite ready to retire and he'll either reappear at the college level again or at the pro level as a QB coach and offensive coordinator. A wise move might be to sit out a year and find the best possible opportunity available instead of jumping into an uncertain situation like he did with the Titans. For the next two years he is guaranteed nearly $1 million in salary from the Titans and should be in no rush. With two more years in the NFL Chow would also be eligible for pension benefits as well. Best of luck to him where ever he may wind up.
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BYU
1973-1999 |
NC
State 2000 |
USC
2001-2004 |
Titans
2005-2007 |
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Edit Note: After the posting of this article Norm Chow agreed to become offensive coordinator of the UCLA Bruins. Should make for an even greater cross-town rivalry game!