Smiting Irish

Chait normally writes on politics and economics, but occasionally knocks out some wise collegiate football pieces. This is from last year, but still applies. What struck me was near the end where he describes the trouble some NFL assistants have had coaching in college. You don't hear that point too often. People will say that college coaches usually struggle at the pro-level, which is an observation based on selective evidence or insufficient data (many don't coach very long, so if, say, Belichick were held to a similar standard, he would have been declared a failure since he had a losing record until his 9th! season as a head coach). And then you will maybe hear that it's just a different coaching experience at each level, meaning they require different strengths. But the emphasis is usually on college coaches struggling at the pro-level.