Guy Amongst All-Time Greats
Andy Lopusnak
Monday August 12, 2013
This week, Arizona Rattlers Head Coach Kevin Guy is back in the ArenaBowl for the third straight season and is attempting to be just the second head coach to win back-to-back titles, joining AFL Hall of Famer Tim Marcum (1987-89 and 1995-96). If he does get to hoist the Foster Trophy again, it would put Guy in very elite company as just the sixth head coach to win multiple AFL titles (Tim Marcum, 7; Darren Arbet, 3; Jay Gruden, 2; Mike Dailey, 2 and Danny White, 2).
No coach has had a better run in the last four years since the league re-emerge from the 2009 blackout. Guy is 54-16 in regular season in that timeframe and in the last three seasons since the AFL went to an 18-game season is 44-10 (81.5%). Yes, Guy’s had more games in the last three seasons, but his win percentage with the higher number of games coached still put him among the all-time greats in any three-year span (don’t forget more games always can equate to more losses).
|
COACH, TEAM(S) |
YEARS |
REG SEASON WIN PCT |
AB TITLES |
|
1. Tim Marcum, DET |
1991-93 |
90.3 (28-3) |
1 |
|
2. Perry Moss, ORL |
1992-94 |
88.2 (30-4) |
0 |
|
3. Tim Marcum, DET/TB |
1993, 95-96 |
86.8 (33-5) |
2 |
|
4. Darren Arbet, SJ |
2000-02 |
83.3 (35-7) |
1 |
|
5. Kevin Guy, AZ |
2011-13 |
81.5 (44-10) |
1 (2 if win this wk) |
|
6. Danny White, AZ |
1996-98 |
80.5 (33-9) |
1 |
During this three-year stretch, Guy has posted two seasons with at least 15 wins becoming the first AFL head coach to ever do that. Only four teams in league history have posted 15 or more wins in a regular season and Guy has two of them. Also within these three seasons, he is 7-1 in the playoffs with his lone loss being in ArenaBowl XXIV against Jacksonville.
Last week’s 65-57 win over Spokane in the National Conference Championship Game was Guy’s 100th overall game as an AFL head coach (and 70th win). His career win percentage (70%) is the second best in league history behind HOFer Perry Moss (70.9%) among coaches with at least 25 games coached.
|
COACH, TEAM(S) |
WIN PCT |
RECORD |
AB TITLES |
|
Perry Moss, CHI/DET/ORL* |
70.9 |
86-35-1 |
1 |
|
Kevin Guy, AZ |
70.0 |
70-30 |
1 (2 if win this wk) |
|
Tim Marcum, DEN/DET/TB* |
68.0 |
211-99 |
7 |
|
Les Moss, JAX |
67.9 |
53-25 |
1 |
|
Darren Arbet, SJ* |
67.4 |
153-74 |
3 |
* denotes AFL Hall of Famer
Guy’s certainly on his way to joining the AFL’s Hall of Fame. Without question, he already has a better resume than John Gregory, who was among the 10 finalists for this year’s AFL HOF induction. Gregory never won an ArenaBowl and was barely better than .500 as an AFL head coach (82-73 – 52.9%). Thankfully, the AFL didn’t induct Gregory last week because it would tarnish the HOF since Gregory won just 27% of his games in his final 48 AFL games coached.
If in the future Guy does get into the AFL HOF, he’d be the first head coach to be inducted into the AFL HOF as well as the arenafootball2 HOF. Guy went 52-19 in four season in the deuce with the Tennessee Valley (2002-04) and the Rio Grande Dorados (2005). His 73.2 win percentage was the highest in af2 history.
Right now, there are six head coaches in the AFL Hall of Fame. Here’s a look at here Guy stands up to those six. I continue to contend that Mike Hohensee has no place in the HOF (as his 19-34 record the last three seasons and eight seasons with non-winning records prove).
|
COACH |
WIN PCT |
RECORD |
AB TITLES |
|
Perry Moss, CHI/DET/ORL |
70.9 |
86-35-1 |
1 |
|
Kevin Guy, AZ |
70.0 |
70-30 |
1 (2 if win this wk) |
|
Tim Marcum, DEN/DET/TB |
68.0 |
211-99 |
7 |
|
Darren Arbet, SJ |
67.4 |
153-74 |
3 |
|
Danny White, AZ/UT |
63.0 |
162-95 |
2 |
|
Mike Dailey, ALB/IND/COL |
58.1 |
115-83 |
2 |
|
Mike Hohensee, 7 teams |
52.0 |
159-147 |
1 |
NOTE: There’s only one head coach with at least two ArenaBowl titles that isn’t in the HOF. That would be Jay Gruden (93-61 record; 60.4% with four ArenaBowl appearances, two wins and never a losing season). Gruden was the first QB inducted into the HOF back in 1999, but has proven he’s just as worthy as a head coach. Perry Moss and Mike Hohensee are the only head coaches in the HOF with fewer than two ArenaBowl titles.
This Saturday is a rematch of last year’s ArenaBowl and marks the first time in AFL history the same two teams played each other in back-to-back ArenaBowls. However, it’s the fourth time that there’s been an ArenaBowl rematch. The previous three rematches involved perhaps the three greatest rivalries in league history (Tampa Bay-Detroit; Tampa Bay-Orlando; and San Jose-Arizona).
|
TEAMS |
1ST ARENABOWL |
2ND ARENABOWL |
|
Tampa Bay-Detroit |
AB V - (TB 48-42 in 1991) |
AB VII (TB 51-31 in 1993) |
|
Tampa Bay-Orlando |
AB IV (TB 48-35 in 1995) |
AB XII (ORL 62-31 in 1998) |
|
San Jose-Arizona |
AB XVI (SJ 52-14 in 2002) |
AB XVIII (SJ 69-62 in 2004) |
|
Arizona-Philadelphia |
AB XXV (AZ 72-54 in 2012) |
AB XXVI (?) |
Guy has never lost to Philadelphia (4-0) and swept the regular-season series this year. ArenaBowl XXVI is slated for this Saturday at 1:00 PM ET and can be seen on CBS. It marks the first ArenaBowl since 2008 that will be on broadcast television. Additionally, it will be the third different broadcast network to show the game joining ABC (1998-2002, 2007-08) and NBC (2003-06).
Make sure to follow ArenaFan on Facebook (Facebook.com/ArenaFan) and Twitter (@ArenaFan) for the most comprehensive coverage of ArenaBowl XXVI this week by any media outlet for the 15th straight season.
