Bills turn to Gailey as next head coach
by Mark Gaughan
News Sports Reporter
Updated: January 19, 2010, 3:15 PM / 240 comments
Chan Gailey is not the sexiest name in NFL coaching ranks. He wasn't on the hot lists of head-coaching candidates this year.
But his football teams have a long track record of winning. They also have a track record of gaining yards and scoring points.
The Bills' franchise is in desperate need of of those things: wins, yards and points. So the Bills have turned to Gailey as their next head coach.
Gailey, who just turned 58, has extensive experience as both a head coach and as an offensive coordinator.
He was head coach of the Dallas Cowboys in 1998 and '99 and directed Dallas to the playoffs both seasons. He was head coach at Georgia Tech from 2002 through 2007, compiling a record of 44-33.
The Associated Press reported that when Gailey was asked Tuesday at a press conference if he wondered if he'd ever get another chance to be an NFL head coach, he said, "If you sit there and say you lose confidence in yourself, no you don't. But then you see opportunities go by. And you hope that your body of work will speak for itself."
He fits a profile Bills General Manager Buddy Nix was seeking in that he has head-coaching experience, and he's an offensive-minded coach. The Bills' offense has ranked among the bottom eight in the NFL seven straight years.
"This guy met more of the criteria than I thought we could find," said Nix Tuesday, according to the Associated Press. "And this guy's won everywhere he's been. ... He'll get us back to winning and get to where we want to go."
The hiring comes after the Bills were rebuffed in their pursuit of some "A List" head-coaching candidates, including Mike Shanahan, Bill Cowher and Jon Gruden. They also were turned down by the New York Jets' 36-year-old assistant Brian Schottenheimer and by Stanford head coach Jim Harbaugh.
Gailey, however, was on their initial list of candidates all along. It was presumed by some within the organization the team's braintrust was thinking of Gailey as an offensive coordinator candidate.
Gailey has 17 years of NFL experience and has been an offensive coordinator in Denver (1989-90), Pittsburgh (1996-97), Miami (2000-01) and Kansas City (2008). He also was his own offensive coordinator in Dallas.
The Bills' focus on Gailey means Minnesota defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier, who interviewed with the Bills 10 days ago, is not going to be the choice for the job, team and league sources said.
Gailey's previous NFL head-coaching gig was short lived. He turned around a Dallas team that went 6-10 in 1997 and led them to a 10-6 mark and a division title in 1998. The next season Dallas went 8-8 but earned a wild-card berth. Both seasons they lost in the first round of the playoffs.
Dallas owner Jerry Jones earlier this month lamented the firing of Gailey.
"The most unfair that I've ever been in anything in sports and maybe in other parts was dismissing Chan after two years," Jones said. "That wasn't right. . . . That is one thing I look at today in my mirror and say you just weren't as fair as you needed to be there to the team, the fans and certainly to Chan to make that change after two years."
Gailey interviewed for the Pittsburgh Steelers' head coaching job after Bill Cowher stepped down in 2007, and he was Cowher's choice as his successor. Pittsburgh instead hired Mike Tomlin.
Gailey has worked with some talented teams. He coached Hall-of-Fame quarterbacks John Elway (in Denver) and Troy Aikman (in Dallas). He also had a top in Pittsburgh, which won a division title each of his four seasons there.
He also has gotten fair to good production out of less talented offenses. He took over in Miami the year after Dan Marino retired and helped the Dolphins to two 11-win seasons. Miami ranked eighth in the NFL in scoring in 2001 with Jay Fiedler at quarterback.
The Chiefs' team was miserable in 2008, going 2-14, but Gailey got generally good reviews. Kansas City started that season as a power-running offense. But after running back Larry Johnson was suspended at midseason, Gailey changed the offensive plan 180 degrees, going to a spread offense, and the attack got better with quarterback Tyler Thigpen passing more often.
The Chiefs changed coaching staffs after the 2008 season and Gailey was retained. But he was fired as coordinator by new coach Todd Haley just two weeks before the start of the regular season. Haley, an offensive coach, apparently had philosophical differences with Gailey and decided he wanted to call the plays himself.
Gailey left the Dolphins in 2001 to take the Georgia Tech job. He took the school to bowl appearances each of his six seasons there. However, Georgia Tech also lost to rival Georgia six straight years under Gailey
