Underappreciated? Seifert can relate to Caldwell's situation

MIAMI -- He had a losing record in college. He was a pro assistant for years before making the jump to head coach. And when he finally took the plunge he did it the hard way -- staying with his team, following a legend with Super Bowl credentials.

Jim Caldwell? Nope, George Seifert.

It's definitely easier to coach when Peyton Manning is your quarterback. (US Presswire)

Only it might as well be Caldwell because the Colts head coach is this decade's George Seifert. Maybe that seems like a stretch to you, but it doesn't to Caldwell -- one reason he telephoned the former San Francisco coach twice in the past year for advice on what he was about to encounter.

"Before I took over," Caldwell said, "I'd been doing a little research to try to find a guy who had gone through something similar to me. [Seifert] coached at Cornell, and his record [3-15] was similar to my record [26-63 at Wake Forest], and it wasn't sterling. Then he went into the NFL and, obviously, followed a guy who had an unbelievable track record in Bill Walsh. So he was a lot like me.

"Besides, he won it all in his first year. So I called him and said, 'Tell me what you did in your first year.' I got to ask him different questions -- like did you change much and so forth and so on and down the line -- and I used that information to balance what I was thinking."

The message must have gotten through. Caldwell not only became the fifth rookie head coach to reach the Super Bowl, he became the first to do it by winning his first 14 games. Moreover, he didn't lose when he didn't pull his starters, and it's his name -- along with that of his predecessor, Tony Dungy -- that is attached to the Colts' NFL-record 23-game regular-season winning streak.

After he won his 14th game, Caldwell again called Seifert (also 14-2 in his first regular season) to seek advice for the playoff run, and so far, so good. Caldwell is as successful now as Seifert was then, with one very important hurdle to clear.

"I thought it was smart of him," Seifert said of Caldwell's phone calls, "because he was going through the same kind of thing [as me]."

He has that right. Caldwell's résumé as a head coach mirrors Seifert's to the tee. He lost at Wake Forest; Seifert lost at Cornell. He served as an assistant with Indianapolis for seven years; Seifert served as an assistant with San Francisco for nine. Caldwell followed Dungy; Seifert followed Walsh. Caldwell assumed command of a perennial playoff team; Seifert not only assumed command of a perennial playoff team, he assumed command of a defending Super Bowl champion.

Now the clincher: Caldwell reached the Super Bowl in his rookie season; Seifert not only reached it, he won it.

But there's one more thing that links the two, and it's this: Neither Caldwell nor Seifert gets the credit he deserves. Both accomplished the improbable by reaching Super Bowls in their first seasons as head coaches, yet both are perceived as chauffeurs for clubs that others assembled. Some people will tell you it's not necessarily what they did that is responsible for their team's success as much as it is what they didn't do -- namely, screw it up.

You think I'm kidding? Tell me how many people outside the 317 area code even know who Caldwell is. They know who Dungy is. In fact, they may think he's still coaching the team. But Caldwell has put his stamp on the Colts, just as Seifert put his on the 49ers -- only neither gets the attention he should.

The proof: No coach this season was more successful than Caldwell, yet it was Cincinnati's Marvin Lewis who won Coach of the Year. I have no problem with that. I voted for him, too. What I do have a problem with is this: Caldwell received only seven of the 50 Associated Press votes.

"Basically, you don't get [the attention]," Seifert said. "I've heard some people say that my first Super Bowl [Super Bowl XXIV] was won by Bill Walsh. So Bill won four of them, and I won one. You can't be consumed by that. You have to know what you did."

Seifert does, and what he did was win two Super Bowls in eight years with the 49ers and reach the conference championship game in five. He never won fewer than 10 games in any season, and he won with two different quarterbacks -- Joe Montana and Steve Young.

"We won with two different quarterbacks and two different teams," Seifert said, "but even [when the 49ers won Super Bowl XXIX] everyone said it was [then-offensive coordinator] Mike Shanahan's team."

Get used to it. The problem with following someone like a Walsh or Dungy is that the act is tough -- damn near impossible -- to follow, and even when you do produce as Caldwell and Seifert did you generally don't get credit for what you accomplished.

It's what is known as an occupational hazard -- or the George Seifert syndrome. If there's a difference with Caldwell it's only that nobody is saying that, like Seifert, he won with someone else's players ... but you know they're thinking it.

"That's exactly what's happening," said former Baltimore coach Brian Billick, now a TV analyst, "and that's OK. I'm not sure Jim will fully get credit for what he's done, just like George Seifert never did, until he goes with another team or until Peyton Manning leaves.

"You hear this all the time: How good would [New England coach Bill] Belichick be without Tom Brady? Well, how good would Tony [Dungy] have been without Peyton all those years? When Bill [Walsh] left [the 49ers], as much as the players liked him and [respected] the brilliance of Bill Walsh, they reveled in getting to the championship the next year because -- and no disrespect to Bill -- they're going, 'You know what? We're not too bad.'

"That's what, for my money, makes Joe Gibbs so brilliant. He won with different quarterbacks. Taking nothing away from Bill Walsh or Jimmy Johnson with Troy Aikman or Bill Belichick with Tom Brady. It's probably not fair for a coach, but when you win it with somebody else you're validating that ability to win with your input as a coach."

Caldwell doesn't need to validate anything to anyone. He won all the games he wanted to win, he put his team in the playoffs and now he has his team in the Super Bowl. Seifert may not have won all the games he wanted to win, but he won the most important one of all -- destroying Denver in the last game of the 1989 season. And though he didn't get the credit he deserved, he got Walsh's players -- and tell me which you would rather have.

"You just have to deal with it," Seifert said. "You're not going to say, 'I don't want these good players.' There's definitely more upside than downside.

"Basically, it was a great experience. You have good players, and you get it done. If I were so concerned about [the respect], I would've gone in and said, 'Why don't we change the offense?' But that doesn't make a lot of sense does it?

"Trust me, the only thing [Caldwell] is considering is winning the game. That's what drives him and what motivates him. People think about all the considerations that you have in mind, but it doesn't make a difference. You have to have blinders on. He's concerned about just winning the game. That's what anyone who's in that position does, and that's what I did."

It worked well for Seifert. It has worked well for Caldwell. And no more phone calls, please. Caldwell is ready to make a name for himself, and if it's as the latest George Seifert that can only be good for him and the Indianapolis Colts.

"What Jim Caldwell has done is incredible," Indianapolis owner Jim Irsay said. "He has a tough job that is a thankless job and a pressure job in some ways because if you go 11-5, make the playoffs but lose in the first round you're basically viewed as a failure for the Indianapolis Colts.

"No question, it's tough following Tony Dungy, but he's done a tremendous job. Jim Caldwell literally hasn't played a wrong hand in this journey."