[Mick]

All very true Goose and hard to disagree.
Well except Bill Walsh comes to mind

There are a few parallels, but also massive differences. Pritchard spent lots of years as a David Shaw protegee and assistant. How much independence he had was unclear, but was assumed to be minimal. Even when he was OC, Shaw still called the plays. Walsh OTOH spent 5 years as a very active OC in the NFL for Paul Brown. He was clearly viewed already by his peers as definite head coaching material and other teams were actively looking at him. I am sure you already know about it, but https://davidharriswriter.com/home/sampl...l-dynasty/ is a good read anyway.
 
Pritchard has a ways to go before he could be considered a HC candidate. OTOH he is probably already an OC candidate and there is no reason that he can't be a "Bill Walsh" type story in like 5 or 6 years. That is why IMO he wouldn't accept a Stanford HC offer today. He knows he isn't prepared and failing would derail what is a pretty good career path ahead of him. Walsh had paid his dues. Pritchard has not yet, but he is on the way.

I was in Cincinnati when Walsh left, many were surprised he was passed over for head coach when Brown retired.  Most chalked it up to Brown wanting a head coach he could push around....

Why did Brown pass on Walsh? Promoting Tiger Johnson to head coach was odd. He'd only ever been a position coach, he reported to Bill Walsh, the OC who had been there for eight years; and Walsh's offense was the top-rated offense in the league.

Brown not only passed on Walsh, but he gave Walsh mediocre reviews to teams that might hire him. And in prior years, other NFL teams called Paul Brown to ask to interview Walsh, and Brown either declined or didn't pass the message along. And when Walsh went to San Diego as OC, Brown was furious...but he hadn't renewed Walsh's contract, so Walsh was a free agent. Stanford's gain, so believe me, no complaint here.

Walsh finished 5-0 against Cincinnati, including the two Super Bowl victories.

[Mick]

All very true Goose and hard to disagree.
Well except Bill Walsh comes to mind

There are a few parallels, but also massive differences. Pritchard spent lots of years as a David Shaw protegee and assistant. How much independence he had was unclear, but was assumed to be minimal. Even when he was OC, Shaw still called the plays. Walsh OTOH spent 5 years as a very active OC in the NFL for Paul Brown. He was clearly viewed already by his peers as definite head coaching material and other teams were actively looking at him. I am sure you already know about it, but https://davidharriswriter.com/home/sampl...l-dynasty/ is a good read anyway.
 
Pritchard has a ways to go before he could be considered a HC candidate. OTOH he is probably already an OC candidate and there is no reason that he can't be a "Bill Walsh" type story in like 5 or 6 years. That is why IMO he wouldn't accept a Stanford HC offer today. He knows he isn't prepared and failing would derail what is a pretty good career path ahead of him. Walsh had paid his dues. Pritchard has not yet, but he is on the way.

I was in Cincinnati when Walsh left, many were surprised he was passed over for head coach when Brown retired.  Most chalked it up to Brown wanting a head coach he could push around....

Why did Brown pass on Walsh? Promoting Tiger Johnson to head coach was odd. He'd only ever been a position coach, he reported to Bill Walsh, the OC who had been there for eight years; and Walsh's offense was the top-rated offense in the league.

Brown not only passed on Walsh, but he gave Walsh mediocre reviews to teams that might hire him. And in prior years, other NFL teams called Paul Brown to ask to interview Walsh, and Brown either declined or didn't pass the message along. And when Walsh went to San Diego as OC, Brown was furious...but he hadn't renewed Walsh's contract, so Walsh was a free agent. Stanford's gain, so believe me, no complaint here.

Walsh finished 5-0 against Cincinnati, including the two Super Bowl victories.