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suffer a decline from a NFC West title and a berth in the NFC Championship game to a 4-12 season. Owner Jerry Richardson is looking for a new start. The team appears to be on the rise, with running back Tim Biakabutuka and wide receiver Muhsin Muhammad both coming off great sophomore years. Carolina also has a solid but aging defense featuring six former All-Pros.

Seifert handed the reins of the team to Steve Beuerlein after judging that first-ever pick Kerry Collins was not the answer under centers. Seifert starts out 2-5, but the team rallies to an 8-8 record - doubling the wins of the previous year. The offensive changes do seem to work, as the offense rises from twelfth to fourth in the NFL and the defense rises from thirtieth to twenty-sixth.

The following year Beuerlein had another strong year, but the Panthers fall to 7-9 as the defense falls back to twenty-seventh. The offense really dies off to finish twenty-first in the NFL - Biakabutuka only manages to break 600 yards. It is apparent that the Panthers' defense is not going to improve and the offense that was constructed by Bill Polian and Dom Capers is not the answer. Seifert repeats his Montana move and hands the team over to Heisman trophy winner (and oldest rookie in the NFL) Chris Weinke.

The year starts off great as Weinke beats the Vikings - then the team misses a week for September 11. The wheels come off the Panthers on both sides of the ball. Chris Weinke is unable to recapture the magic and Seifert's defense is just shredded by team after team. Even when the defense plays well they always seem to allow a bad drive and lose in the final minute. Seifert is fired the day after the season ends, as Jerry Richardson decides that Seifert is not going to be able to rebuild a team completely from a twenty-ninth-ranked offense and twenty-eighth-ranked defense.

Seifert does not get the credit he deserves as a Niners coach and is unfairly trashed as a Panthers coach; he lost more games in three years with Carolina than he did in eight years as San Francisco's coach. But Seifert was at his best when, like Buddy Ryan, he was left with the defense to build and make it excel. Unlike Ryan he was smart enough to recognize talent on the offensive side of the ball in both coaches and players, and exhibited a willingness to try to win with new players instead of trying to coax one more year from the greats. Had either the Niners or the Panthers been able to draft well enough to give him the talent needed he might have given San Francisco that third post-Walsh ring or even gotten Carolina that one final step to a Super Bowl.

Learn more about this author, David Snipes.
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