Marvin Lewis has learned from some of the game's best coaches, past and present. He's part Bill Walsh, part Bill Cowher. Seemingly connected to the top minds in college and pro football, Lewis is the Bengals' first head coach since Forrest Gregg in 1980 with no previous ties to the organization. After stumbling through 12 dark, non-winning seasons, the moribund franchise is looking for Lewis to lead it to a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.miurage

By Mark Curnutte
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Paul Brown struck gold the last time the Bengals hired a head coach with no previous ties to the organization.

Marvin Lewis | ZOOM |

Within two years of his 1980 appointment, Forrest Gregg - a former offensive lineman for Vince Lombardi in Green Bay and one-time coach of the Cleveland Browns - had the Bengals in the Super Bowl.

Though Sam Wyche would return the Bengals to the Super Bowl seven years after Gregg, Wyche was the first of four consecutive Bengals insiders to preside over the on-field demise of the franchise.

Earlier this year, on Jan. 14 in Mobile, Ala., Mike Brown - Paul's son - made the most dramatic move of his reign and hired an outsider, Marvin Lewis, as the Bengals' ninth coach.

Though Lewis has no previous head coaching experience on any level, he brings to Cincinnati 11 years as an accomplished NFL defensive coach - including a Super Bowl ring as Baltimore's defensive coordinator - and 11 previous years of college experience.

Lewis is a former Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Washington assistant. He has learned from some of the best minds in the game - San Francisco's Bill Walsh, Pittsburgh's Bill Cowher, Baltimore's Brian Billick. All three coached their teams to Super Bowls. Walsh's 49ers won three titles in the 1980s, and Billick's Ravens won Super Bowl XXXV. Cowher's Steelers lost to the Dallas Cowboys in Super Bowl XXX.

"You learn from everybody, what to do and what not to do," said Lewis, whose first taste of NFL coaching came as a minority-coaching intern for Walsh in 1988.

Walsh, a former Bengals assistant to Paul Brown, even called Mike Brown to recommend Lewis during the team's January coaching search.

Lewis is taking over a franchise that has gone 55-137 over the last 12 years with a postseason futility stretch unmatched in the free-agent era of NFL parity.

He has paid attention to everything and everyone with whom he has worked. Brown noticed that right away during the interview process.

"We knew Marvin had outstanding football credentials," the Bengals president said upon hiring Lewis, "but what impressed us most was the tremendous grasp he displayed for the overall operation of an NFL franchise. He has the awareness that you would expect only in someone who had been a head coach before."

Paul Brown made Wyche his last hire in 1984. Wyche was a Bengals quarterback from 1968-70.

Wyche's tenure as Bengals coach ended after a strange Christmas Eve meeting with Mike Brown, after which Brown claimed Wyche quit and Wyche maintained he was fired.

Next came Dave Shula, son of Don Shula, a former player for Paul Brown in Cleveland.

Dave Shula spent one year as Wyche's wide receivers coach. Shula's hiring was Mike Brown's first major decision after his father's death, and Shula strung together a pair of 3-13 seasons. He was criticized on many fronts, including not being tough enough on players.

Brown fired Shula after his 1996 team started 1-6 and replaced him with offensive coordinator Bruce Coslet, who had coached the Jets to a playoff appearance and was expected to instill much-needed discipline to the club. Coslet was a former Bengals tight end under Paul Brown and offensive coordinator under Wyche.

After a 14-11 start, Coslet's teams were 7-28, and he resigned three games into the 2000 season.

Again, Mike Brown stayed in the family, promoting longtime defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau - a 16-year Bengals assistant - to head coach. Despite a promising beginning in which LeBeau was lauded for reinvigorating the players, his teams won just four of his final 25 games and finished with the lowest winning percentage in franchise history, .267.

The Coslet and LeBeau eras started with a get-tough mentalities, but both coaches softened and in the end had lost control of their locker rooms.

Mike Brown's first three coaching hires - all promoted from within - were a combined 52-124.

Now comes Lewis, an outsider. Given unprecedented authority to select his own staff, Lewis brought in nine new assistants.

Perhaps even more important, he was allowed to cut loose former Bengals defensive line coach Tim Krumrie, quarterbacks coach Ken Anderson and strength coach Kim Wood - all Mike Brown favorites and all of whom had never coached anywhere but with the Bengals. Wood, hired by Paul Brown in 1975, retired.

Asked for a common denominator to describe his staff, Lewis said: "They all want to be head coaches. These guys all understand the importance and urgency to be the very best at your job and go to a higher level.

"That's the No. 1 thing, their ability to relate to the players. But No. 2 was having a group of people that are constantly pushing each other to get better as coaches."

E-mail mcurnutte@enquirer.com

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