I honestly like them both. Cowher was such a hard ass, and i loved his constant yelling and spitting in players faces. Tomlin seems to install discipline but has a certain calm swagger about him. Tomlin has to win a title before i can put him up there with Cowher.

Is this serious? A Hall of Fame coach fails to evolve, can’t motivate players? Coach Cowher did go to two Super Bowls and won one. Do you really think the loss was on him? Are we suffering from the halo effect here by granting Coach Tomlin the cool under fire mantle thereby great [after only 1.5 seasons], while blanketly stating Coach Cowher was always yelling and screaming [which just isn’t true]. NFL players are like old Soldiers [at least I hope they are] and aren’t easily affected by yelling and screaming. Coach Tomlin does have greater potential right now as he is coaching and Coach Cowher is not, but there is more than one team that would like to tease Coach Cowher back into the fold; there must be a reason for that. Coach Tomlin appears to be doing a good job under difficult circumstances and I think Coach Cowher would be doing the same [been there, done that, know we can do it, etc]. Coach Tomlin did inherit a good football team and he hasn’t ruined it. Great coaching? I wouldn’t say yes as it is too early to tell.

As to the players performance, they are performing because they are good players. Coaching helps to be sure, but they’ve got skills and given the opportunity to show them off, come through as expected. Matt Spaeth, for example, was playing well beforehand, but with the injury has had greater opportunities to show off. Improvement? Not really, just more air time.

Tomlin has done nothing yet! His team faded down the stretch last year. We will see how they play down the stretch this year. A true mark of a good coach is his record in the 2nd half of a season. Check the numbers; Cowher, Belichick, Parcells, Walsh, Noll…. all had great records late in the year. It is a true mark of a well coached team. I hope Tomlin can get to that level. So far he is 0 for 1. I fear his (and Ariens) desire for a finess offense will do them in. I hope I am wrong. Cowher’s offense was always build on power.

As far as gamesmanship, that was Cowher’s weak point. We don’t know about Tomlin yet. Have to give him a chance.

One thing Tomlin deserves credit for is how the secondary has improved their fundamentals in both man and zone coverage. Combined with LeBeau’s scheme he really has taken the D to another level because they can now cover without depending on the blitz.

Only record that will matter is playoff wins. Jury is still out.

by far will exceed Cowher’s numbers maily due to the fact Tomlin knows hoe to relate to players of these days and times. Tomlin age gove him credence also in rhe locker room. Cowher is more of a dictatorship-stle of coaching which these modern day players will blow off in a minute.

I also think Tomlin has the ability to recognize talent much bettter than Cowher. Just remember all those weak ass receivers that were drafted under Cowher besides Ward and Holmes. Come on people take a look back. He was clueless. And I know it was also the fault of the GM but still.

Tomlin his the face of the Steelers and will be a HOF coach if FO gives him full autonomy. Your thoughts? Go Steelers.

Tomlin has one full season to judge and he faded down the stretch, as previously pointed out. But Cowher is the one who really did more with less. He went to a Super Bowl with O’Donnell at QB, Bam Morris at RB, and Yancey Thigpen as the #1 wideout (good, but no HOFer like HInes). Granted, he had a sick LB corps that year, but his D line, outside of Steed, was unimpressive. Let’s not forget the AFC Championship with Kordell at the helm with a subpar supporting parts.

Cowher was consistent over years with subpar talent. If I remember correctly, he went to the playoffs even with Tomczak at QB. I don’t remember major injuries, but they had to happen over such a long career, which tells you Cowher was able to overcome injuries as well. Plus, the front office has a lot of say in personnel, so Cowher can not be completely blamed for the subpar talent. Maybe Tomlin will be great, but, as of now, he is not even close to Cowher.

During his entire term, Cowher coached three or four HOFers, which is not a lot considering the length of time he coached and the winning pct of his tenure. Another thing to look at: how many players left the Steelers under Cowher and their play fell drastically. This tells us either Cowher is a better schemer then we give him credit for or he was such a great motivator that it compensated for any strategic shortfalls.

     We can divide this debate into over 30 and under 30 (yrs old). Personally, being over, I think the debate ought to be Cowher or Noll?

The head coach sets the tone for the team. He is the chief motivator and makes the big decisions. He decides who the asst. coaches are based on his philosphy.

I disagree with the mentality that the defense is better with Tomlin. I think the FO has a lot to do with talent eval and draft. The head coach has some input, but the FO makes the call and the D-coordinator puts together the game plan. Now, Tomlin kept Lebeau from Cowher’s staff, so I would say that if Cowher had this talent and the same D-cood, the D would be just as good. This is a wash.

Now, on the offense. I think Cowher would have us playing a ton better. Do you think he would have promoted BA to OC? How about doing away with a fullback and going with spead formations on 3rd and 1. What about zone blocking when the O line has a bunch of maulers and not finesse players? Here is where Tomlin fails. He made a poor decision to let BA take over the offense. He has allowed an offensive philosophy that does not match the personell. Will he get better? Yes, but with a few more years of mistakes.

I was at the Chargers game and I could not tell you how many times I was screaming for them to run the ball when they had short yardage. I was totally sickened to see 5 recievers on 3rd and short. That is not Steelers football. No one fears our running game anymore. The reason people are playing cover-2 is cause they are daring us to run the ball and covering the deep receivers. The O-line is totally confused on stunts cause they are not quick enough (mentally and physically) to deal with the zone assignments. Last year people were still expecting us to run the ball, so they played straight up. This year, no one thinks we can run, so they just drop everyone and wait for the rushers to stunt and get to Ben. In the past (Cowher), we would set up the pass with the run. They play cover-2, we just run the ball down their throats till they bring the safety up, then we kill them deep with the play action pass. You think Bill Cowher would let this shame of an offense go on?

And remember, Cowher NEVER had a franchise QB. Actually, he did for 3 years and he won the Superbowl in 1 of those years.

I loved every second of watching that angry chin strut up and down the sideline, just as I loved every second of Knoll in his everyman-yet-professorial role, but the fact of the matter is that Ben would never be given the leadership role a franchise QB needs to develop to his full potential with Cowher, Whis, or Grimm calling the shots, or with Faneca in charge of protection schemes on the field.

Though Cowher left on his own accord, and the others via different business aspects of the game, it was all set up within a certain time period in order for Ben to take the on-field lead. Is he where he needs to be? Well, not yet, but these things require enough time to grow into the role, and he’s coming along nicely.

Tomlin as well has come along very nicely. They’ve struggled to find an offensive identity, but they almost always have … despite the perception of the Steelers as a team that will always run, there have been countless variations on how that offensive voice would manifest itself, and it has never really been consistent for more than a handful of years at a time. But by relying on a dominant defense, they can keep themselves in any discussion while allowing the offense to work itself out over the course of the season. No one would consider this ideal, but it’s much better than how a lot of teams operate.

As far as coordinators (offensive), if you’ve been a fan of the Steelers for some time now, well then you’ve already talked shit on plenty of coordinators … especially Chan and Mularkey and Whis … folks wanted Whis outta here until he became a HC candidate.

If Cowher ends up anywhere it’ll be at Carolina. I don’t know if he really wants to get back into coaching, though; he took a job, made Dan Rooney a promise, fulfilled it, stuck around for a tough transition year, then moved on. And when it comes right down to it, the number of Super Bowl winning coaches to move on and win a Super Bowl with another team: 0.

My comments always tend to grow too long. The best approach would be to look at Cowher at 1.5 seasons into his career for a good comparison. I think the two are pretty even, but at the same time I think Tomlin has been given a much better roster, and much better tools in general, and I expect the same amount of success from him as we grew accustomed to with Cowher.

Honestly, I really liked Cowher. I think he had a good approach to his game. I think he really knew his players and knew how to use them. We didnt have issues with people like Maxamillion starks in the days of the Chin.

At first I kinda thought Tomlin was too laid black. Er laid back. He just seemed calm relaxed and like regardless of the outcome he was going to sleep at night.

But this season I think he has gotten more intense in a good focused way. He has such a no nonsense attitude in press conferences and I like the way he presents himself. I think this has helped motivate some of these role players and backups. He helps bring them to the front and make them play.

I think Cowher was a model of consistency though and he knew what he wanted to accomplish. I have yet to see that identity with Mike yet, but I hope soon.

I do have to say I felt Cowher played a little too conservatively at times, yet when you had a power run game that worked so well you could afford to play mormon-ball.

Anyway its nice to have such good management and pulling in GOOD head coaches who actually know something about their game instead of guys like Crennel.

There really isn’t much to judge Tomlin on.

The team is only saved from total disaster this season by the defense, and by Tomlin’s own admission, he “wasn’t going to meddle with Dick LeBeau’s schemes at all.”.

On the other hand the first two guys he hired, Zierlein and Arians, are about two steps away from having to enter the witness protection program in Pittsburgh.

I think one of the most interesting discussions here is that hypothetical of who would have been offensive coordinator had Cowher stayed.

My vote would go to a man who, in my opinion, has never gotten NEARLY the amount of credit he deserved in his time here. I’m talking about former QB coach Mark Whipple. I think he was instrumental to Ben’s confidence during the tough times, and from what I know, the two still keep in touch. I’d have been interested to see what he would have done with our offense.

He wont Sexiest head coach by the victoria’s secret girls.

Thats some tough cookies right there. When you got guys like Romeo Crennel, Bill Belicheck, Andy Reid…

All im saying, our new head coach is apparently much sexier. I guess women dont like being spat on, and that chin probably makes some things difficult.