Template talk:College coach infobox

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This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Template:College coach infobox page.
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Contents

[edit] Overlay

  • Great work, User:Nmajdan - thanks for creating this. My only problem is that the example does not display correctly for me - the example is overlayed on top of itself. I am using Firefox on a 1024 x 768 disply. (Off topic - nice picture of Stoops - I'm glad we have one where he is not wearing that God-awful golf visor.) Johntex\talk 17:03, 23 June 2006 (UTC)
    • Hmmm, I too am using Firefox with the same resolution and I see no problem. What do you mean overlayed on top of itself? (Off topic - I'd like to see a pic of Mack without that God-awful hook'em sign.)--NMajdan•talk 17:46, 23 June 2006 (UTC)
      • Ha! Right back at me. touché. I will upload a screenshot of what I am seeing to the commons. Johntex\talk 17:54, 23 June 2006 (UTC)
        • Ok. Any issue on the Bob Stoops page? Maybe its just an issue on this page with the <pre></pre> right next to it.--NMajdan•talk 17:58, 23 June 2006 (UTC)
      • Here is the screenshot: Image:Wikipedia template screenshot.JPG. I think the problem is that my Task Bar is on the left-hand side of the screen, thereby reducing the browser width slightly. I find this very efficient because the names of the running programs have more room to be written in this format than when they are competing for a single line at the bottom of the screen. I don't know how common my configuration is. You will see the same effect if you take your browser window off maximum size. I guess it would be fixable here by placing the example below rather than beside the other text, or we could just not worry about it. Johntex\talk 18:01, 23 June 2006 (UTC)
        • I assume this problem would be worse at 800x600, even if the browser is maximized. Johntex\talk 18:03, 23 June 2006 (UTC)
        • Saw the screenshot. I have that too. Its normal. I have style="background: transparent;" in the code of the example. I copied this discussion page layout from {{Infobox University}} so that is where that came from. That line of code is not in the actual template (its actually in the <pre> section and not the template) and thus doesn't affect the actual pages.--NMajdan•talk 18:04, 23 June 2006 (UTC)
          • Hmm, actually, it has nothing to do with that line of code. I removed it and get the same thing. Maybe there is an issue with Wikipedia on have a <pre> box next to an infobox. The infobox is fine when surrounded by text, like in most articles.--NMajdan•talk 18:06, 23 June 2006 (UTC)
            • Yes, there is no problem at all with it when it is in the article. Johntex\talk 19:05, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Coaching Positions

I think we should only have head coaching positions listed under the coach's resume in the box. Comments? What about if there is a break in the years? It might look funny, but is listing the entire resume part of the point of this box? If someone wants the entire details, they can read the article which should list it. Mecu 15:47, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

Since there is no field in the infobox for coaching position, I think that the assumption when it was created was that only head coaching jobs would be listed. However, I think an important part of each coach's philosophy and attitude toward the game comes from what positions they held as assitant coaches (i.e. all the Stoops brothers were defensive coaches/coordinators so have a defence-first mentality). Maybe head coaching and coordinator positions? Of course, that would require some adjustment to the infobox and the use of abbreviations (HC = head coach, OC = offensive coordinator, DC = defensive coordinator are the standards, I think). Z4ns4tsu 19:49, 17 July 2006 (UTC)
I think only having head coaching positions in the resume box is smart. Otherwise, the box could get pretty long. However, there is a field for coaching positions. Its Title. If you look on some filled in examples of the template, you'll see | title=Head coach. I intended this field to be used if someone was entering in an OC or DC. Unless you were meaning there was no field in the coaching history part for coaching position, in which case, that is true. I based this infobox on the NFL infobox and they only include head coaching positions so I think we should be consistent with that.--NMajdan•talk 20:47, 17 July 2006 (UTC)
What about head coaching positions at high schools? Should they be included in the infobox? BlueAg09 (Talk) 04:28, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Cleaning up optional parameters

I have cleaned this template up by replacing the nasty HiddenStructure with nice ParserFunctions. In the process I have hopefully made it simpler to use, because you won't need to use the Player and Coach parameters to "trigger" the display of the relevant sections: just filling in one of the parameters used in that section will cause it to display. Slightly surprisingly, I found that Coach was being treated as "optional" despite the instructions above, so I have preserved this. There is further simplification which can be done which I can do which would enable those parameters to be removed entirely. If anybody objects to this, please drop me a message. Otherwise I'll get to it as soon as my next shipment of round tuits arrives. HTH HAND —Phil | Talk 13:33, 5 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Improve CHOF field on this template suggestion

Over at Talk:College Football Hall of Fame it was discovered that there isn't the same number of entries on Wikipedia's list of College HOF numbers as the HOF reports. We decided to add a link to each entry into the table to discover the errors and also make the tables more useful, but also add the link to the infoboxes on the article pages. However, this template does not allow linking to the CHOF bio article like the {{NFL player}} infobox does. I believe this link would be more useful than the current setup of linking to Wikipedia's CHOF page and the {YEAR} in sports page. Does anyone have a problem with this, or some other suggestions? Thanks. --MECU≈talk 19:03, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

Ok, a good idea. What field are you wanting to replace? The wikilink to College Football Hall of Fame or to the [[{YEAR} in sports|{YEAR}]]? Or should we insert a special character such as a cross (†) or double cross (‡) that links to the CHOF bio?--NMajdan•talk 19:30, 15 December 2006 (UTC)
I added a link to the actual College Football HOF site. The link is just a space ( ) and the external link arrow. I've altered the Barry Switzer article to reflect the change. I'm going to add the new field to the template instructions above now. Let me know what you think.--NMajdan•talk 14:41, 18 December 2006 (UTC)
I think having some type of symbol, so it stands out more would be better. But even still, it's not clear what this link is. Perhaps make the field double sized using a
and have "Official College Hall of Fame Bio" be linked to the bio? --MECU≈talk 15:50, 18 December 2006 (UTC)
Personally, I'd like to avoid a 2nd line. I've changed it again. What do you think?--NMajdan•talk 16:04, 18 December 2006 (UTC)
Perfect! You're awesome dude, I don't care what Johntex says about you. (I'm kidding about the Johntex part) --MECU≈talk 17:47, 20 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] College coach who was well-known as pro player

This template doesn't have any way to indicate a successful pro career for the coach. Jim Harbaugh is probably best-known as a Chicago Bears quarterback, but he is now also the coach of Stanford. Can we expand the template to incorporate some info from the NFL player infobox, such as pro teams, years, HOF info, etc? For now, I am just using two infoboxes for Harbaugh, but it seems like this may apply to others. Thoughts? Sprkee 00:49, 20 December 2006 (UTC)

I think adding those additional fields would be a lot of work and coding for only a very small number of cases. I think for now, using two separate infoboxes for a notable college coaching career and a notable NFL playing career is acceptable. I would put the most notable on top, though.--NMajdan•talk 16:27, 20 December 2006 (UTC)
I think it's a good idea to combine them so the template used has the same style instead of the two on there now that look different and awkward, but the problem then becomes we have to cover so many possibilities it becomes difficult to do so. Incorporating all the information from NFLplayer infobox or college player infobox would be an immense project. You'd almost be replacing all three templates with a single one to handle them all. It should be the goal to get them combined eventually, but until someone is inclined to do all that extra work, I think having both on the page is perfectly acceptable. Though I don't think they should be listed one above the other on the page like that, next to each other would be more appropriate using a quick table, so it doesn't seem like one is more valuable than the other. --MECU≈talk 17:53, 20 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Bowl Record as optional field

Can you add another optional field for the coach's bowl record since that tends to be an important stat in college ball? z4ns4tsu\talk 19:21, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

Done.--NMajdan•talk 19:39, 4 January 2007 (UTC)
Thanks. z4ns4tsu\talk 20:21, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Proposed changes

I'm planning to modify this template. I've added a bit of color, reordered the template and added a few optional attributes (Conference, Tournament Records, Coaching records) - and added more room (2 columns) for awards and championships. I've done the work in a local sandbox (User:Вasil/T2) and hope you guys can could give me some input, suggestions or a tongue lashing, if need be ;-) Вasil | talk 15:31, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

Hello, I am the original creator of this template. Overall, I like your changes. However, my personal preference for templates such as this is not to allow the colors to be modifiable. I believe there are only a few cases where the colors of a template should be modifiable and those changes should be governed (such as on {{Infobox Album}}). I prefer everything to look as uniform as possible and giving the editor ability to change colors could result in a hard to read infobox or yet another opportunity for vandals.↔NMajdan•talk 15:54, 5 April 2007 (UTC)
My apologies. I hadn't intended for the colors to be optional. I based this on my earlier work with {{infobox NCAA Athlete}} and was striving for consistency. Can we use the LightSteelBlue color without allowing users to change it? Вasil | talk 16:03, 5 April 2007 (UTC)
I don't mind your current color selection so yes we can use that color without allowing users to change it.↔NMajdan•talk 16:05, 5 April 2007 (UTC)
I agree. Stick with black on LightSteelBlue. A similar debate is going on for {{Infobox NFL player}} and my opinion is consistency is key. Everything else looks fine to me. Great work! — PSUMark2006 talk | contribs 16:07, 5 April 2007 (UTC)
Thanks, Guys. Any suggestions as to how to render the colors static? I took a peek at {{Infobox Album}} and the color scheming looked a trite beyond my expertise. Вasil | talk 16:12, 5 April 2007 (UTC)
You're wanting to make it static so you're wanting to take away an editor's ability to define color. So, just change {{{color|LightSteelBlue}}} to LightSteelBlue and {{{fontcolor|black}}} to black.↔NMajdan•talk 16:20, 5 April 2007 (UTC)
The only suggestion I would toss out is to make the title for all of the sections centered, but that's a minor aesthetic thing. I was surprised to see it change, but it's definitely for the better. Bravo! --fuzzy510 07:34, 7 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Coaching Positions

OK, I was looking at Nick Saban and saw that the info for coaching positions is not lined up (years are not adjacent to school/team). Reading the template page I see that it should only be head coaching positions in the box and the Saban page does not meet the infobox standards. But since Saban was also an NFL head coach, should his page also have the Template:NFL Coach? Steve Spurrier and Lou Holtz also went College-NFL-College.

It sure seems that limiting the infobox to NFL or college would not show the desired information. Also, limiting it to one coaching position (HC, OC, DC, etc.) would not show enough detail in a coach's career where he took a head coach job, went back to being an assistant and then became a head coach again. (This happens more often in college than the pros when one can be a head coach in I-AA and advance his career by becoming an assistant in I-A.)

Why can't there be just one Template:Football playercoach infobox that covers both playing and coaching at all levels, and allows for people who have moved back and forth?

I saw it suggested that Template:NFL PlayerCoach be merged into Template:NFL Coach and have posted a comment on Template talk:NFL Coach that this be combined in as well. - SCgatorFan 03:56, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Contract/Salary

Last week, at MECU's suggestion, I added a new field for the coach's contract. Today, I renamed this field Salary since it can be just as applicable to head coaches when discussing their contract and I believe it it more applicable when discussing assistant coaches.↔NMajdan•talk 21:40, 11 September 2007 (UTC)