Joel Dale Collier (born June 7, 1932)
is an American former
football coach who was the head coach of the
Buffalo Bills of the
American Football League (AFL) from
1966 through part of
1968
The year was highlighted by protests and other unrests that occurred worldwide.
Events January–February
* January 5 – " Prague Spring": Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia.
* Janu ...
, compiling a 13–16–1 record.
College career
Collier attended
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world.
Charte ...
, where he played on the
Northwestern Wildcats football
The Northwestern Wildcats football team represents Northwestern University as an NCAA Division I college football team and member of the Big Ten Conference based near Chicago in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern began playi ...
team. In
1952
Events January–February
* January 26 – Black Saturday in Egypt: Rioters burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses.
* February 6
** Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh, becomes m ...
, his junior season, he broke
Big Ten Conference
The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...
records by catching seven
touchdown
A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchdown by advancing the ball into the opponent's end zone. In Amer ...
passes and accumulating 650 receiving yards.
He was named to the
1952 College Football All-America Team
The 1952 College Football All-America team is composed of college football players who were selected as All-Americans by various organizations and writers that chose College Football All-America Teams in 1952. The eight selectors recognized by the ...
.
Following the
1953 college football season
The 1953 college football season finished with the Maryland Terrapins capturing the AP, INS, and UPI national championship after Notre Dame held the top spot for the first nine weeks. The No. 4 Oklahoma Sooners defeated Maryland in the Orange ...
, in which he captained the Wildcats, Collier was selected by the
New York Giants in the 22nd round of the
1954 NFL Draft
The 1954 National Football League Draft was held on January 28, 1954, at The Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia.
This was the eighth year that the first overall pick was a bonus pick determined by lottery. With the previous seven winners i ...
.
However, Collier decided not to play professional football, instead becoming an
assistant coach
A sports coach is a person coaching in sport, involved in the direction, instruction and training of a sports team or athlete.
History
The original sense of the word ''coach'' is that of a horse-drawn carriage, deriving ultimately from the Hun ...
at
Western Illinois University
Western Illinois University (WIU) is a public university in Macomb, Illinois. It was founded in 1899 as Western Illinois State Normal School. As the normal school grew, it became Western Illinois State Teachers College.
History
Western Illin ...
after a three-year stint in the
U.S. Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...
.
Collier spent three season as a Western Illinois assistant, from 1957 to 1959.
Buffalo Bills (1962–1968)
After spending two seasons as an assistant coach with the
Boston Patriots of the brand new
AFL,
Collier joined the Buffalo Bills in 1962 as a defensive coach. The team won the
1965 AFL Championship Game over the
San Diego Chargers with help from defensive alignments that Collier designed. One idea he came up with was similar to the modern
zone blitz
In American football, a zone blitz is a defensive tactic that sends additional players to rush the opposing team's quarterback, whilst also unexpectedly redirecting a supposed pass rushing player into pass coverage instead. This tactic also likel ...
; Collier's defense featured defensive line players moving back to cover pass attempts.
Collier was promoted to head coach in 1966,
after previous coach
Lou Saban
Louis Henry Saban (October 13, 1921 – March 29, 2009) was an American football player and coach. He played for Indiana University in college and as a professional for the Cleveland Browns of the All-America Football Conference between 1946 a ...
resigned.
The Bills' best season under Collier came in his first year, when they won the Eastern Division with a 9–4–1 record, eventually losing to the
Kansas City Chiefs
The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Chiefs compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division.
The ...
in the
AFL Championship Game
For its first nine seasons, 1960 through 1968, the American Football League determined its champion via a single playoff game between the winners of its two divisions (although ties in the standings in 1963 (Eastern) and 1968 (Western) necessitat ...
. After coming within one game of an AFL championship, the team slumped to 4–10 in
1967
Events
January
* January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair.
* January 5
** Spain and Romania sign an agreement in Paris, establishing full consular and ...
. After a poor performance by the Bills in a 1968 pre-season game, Collier set up a scrimmage for his team. During the practice session,
quarterback
The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...
Jack Kemp broke his right leg, an injury that forced him to undergo season-ending surgery. The Bills fired Collier after a 48–6 loss to the
Oakland Raiders in the second week of the regular season. ''
Sports Illustrated
''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twi ...
'' opined that "Collier's fate undoubtedly was decided..." by Kemp's injury.
Denver Broncos (1969–1988)
Following his time as head coach of the Bills, Collier became a
Denver Broncos
The Denver Broncos are a professional American football franchise based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The team is headquar ...
coach in
1969
This year is notable for Apollo 11's first landing on the moon.
Events January
* January 4 – The Government of Spain hands over Ifni to Morocco.
* January 5
**Ariana Afghan Airlines Flight 701 crashes into a house on its approach to ...
and spent 20 years with the team, who reached three
Super Bowls with him as
defensive coordinator. Collier was the architect of the Broncos'
3–4 defense
In American football, the 3–4 defense is a common defensive alignment consisting of three down linemen and four linebackers. It is a called a "base defense" because it is the default defensive alignment used on "base downs" (1st and 2nd downs ...
in the late 1970s, a scheme that was known as the
Orange Crush Defense
The Orange Crush Defense was the 3–4 defense of the Denver Broncos during the late 1970s and early 1980s. The National Football League (NFL) team adopted the 3–4 defense during the 1976 season, and the nickname "Orange Crush" for the team's ...
.
Although he preferred to set up the Broncos' defense with four linemen, Collier occasionally organized a 3–4 defense experimentally. After an injury to
Lyle Alzado
Lyle Martin Alzado (April 3, 1949 – May 14, 1992) was an American professional All Pro football defensive end of the National Football League (NFL), famous for his intense and intimidating style of play.
Alzado played 15 seasons, splitting hi ...
early in the 1976 season, Collier used the system more regularly and improved upon it: author Terry Frei called him "the scientist in the laboratory, coming up with ways to make the defense even better." After being hired by Saban, he remained the defensive coordinator for four subsequent Broncos head coaches.
Dan Reeves fired Collier after the
1988 NFL season.
New England Patriots (1991–1992)
From
1991
File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phi ...
to
1992, he was defensive coordinator for the New England Patriots.
Collier took over a Patriots defense that had given up the second-most points in the league during
a 1–15 season in 1990.
However, Collier's first year saw the Patriots defense improve from second-worst in the league (out of 28 teams) to the middle of the pack (15th). Helping the Patriots' improved rankings was the fact that their run defense, which was last in the league in 1990, improved to 9th in the league in 1991.
The Patriots failed to build on their 1991 defensive performance, as the unit finished 23rd overall during the
1992 season. New England ended up 2–14, winning four fewer games than they had in 1991. After his stint with the Patriots ended, Collier retired from the NFL.
Family
He was married to Shirley Ann Ketelaar from 1957 until her death in 2006. They had three children:
Joel Joel or Yoel is a name meaning "Yahweh Is God" and may refer to:
* Joel (given name), origin of the name including a list of people with the first name.
* Joel (surname), a surname
* Joel (footballer, born 1904), Joel de Oliveira Monteiro, Brazili ...
, Julie, and Lisa.
Joel was hired in February 2009 by Kansas City Chiefs general manager
Scott Pioli
Scott Pioli (born March 31, 1965) is an American football executive who most recently worked as the Assistant General Manager for the Atlanta Falcons. He was an NFL analyst for NBC Sports' '' Football Night in America'', NBC Sports Network's Pro ...
, a former executive for the Patriots, as a defensive backs coach for Chiefs head coach
Todd Haley
Richard Todd Haley (born February 28, 1967) is an American football coach who is the current head coach and general manager for the Memphis Showboats of the United States Football League (USFL). From 1997 to 2006, he had stints as the wide rec ...
.
By 2010, he was the team's assistant
general manager
A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...
.
Prior to 2009, Collier was the secondary coach of the New England Patriots. Before his stint with the Patriots, he spent 11 years as an assistant for the
Miami Dolphins
The Miami Dolphins are a professional American football team based in the Miami metropolitan area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member team of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The team p ...
.
Head coaching record
References
External links
Joe Collier NFL Coaching Record
{{DEFAULTSORT:Collier, Joe
1932 births
Boston Patriots (AFL) coaches
Buffalo Bills coaches
Buffalo Bills head coaches
Denver Broncos coaches
Living people
National Football League defensive coordinators
New England Patriots coaches
Northwestern Wildcats football players
Players of American football from Illinois
Sportspeople from Rock Island, Illinois
Western Illinois Leathernecks football coaches