Chan Gailey

Thomas Chandler Gailey Jr. (born January 5, 1952) is a former American football coach.

Gailey was born in Gainesville, Georgia, in 1952.

He attended Americus High School in Americus, Georgia, where he earned Eagle Scout honors, and a letterman in high school football, basketball, baseball, and golf.

In football, he was an all-state selection as quarterback.

Gailey graduated from Americus High School in 1970.

Gailey attended the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, where he was a three-year letterman for coach Doug Dickey's Florida Gators football team as a quarterback from 1971 to 1973.

Gailey graduated from Florida with a bachelor's degree in physical education in 1974.

Gailey stayed with Florida as a graduate assistant for two years before taking his first actual coaching job as the secondary coach for the Troy Trojans of Troy University (then known as Troy State University) in Troy, Alabama.

After two seasons there, he spent four seasons with the U.S. Air Force Academy, including two as defensive coordinator under head coach Ken Hatfield.

In 1983, Gailey made his way back to Troy, taking over the head coaching duties at Troy University.

In his first season as head coach, he led the Trojans to a 7-4 overall record.

In his second season at the helm in 1984, he led his #3-ranked Trojans to a 12–1 record en route to the NCAA Division II national championship, defeating #1-ranked North Dakota State, 18-17 to win the title.

Gailey moved to the NFL the next year, when the Denver Broncos signed him as an offensive assistant and special teams coach.

In a coaching career spanning 46 years, Gailey began his NFL career as part of Dan Reeves' coaching staff on the Denver Broncos from 1985 to 1990, appearing in Super Bowls XXI, XXII, and XXIV with the Broncos.

The team made three Super Bowl appearances during his six-year tenure and coached quarterbacks John Elway and Gary Kubiak during his lone year as quarterbacks coach in 1988.

In 1991, Gailey left the NFL to become the head coach of the Birmingham Fire of the World League of American Football, where the team made the playoffs in both years that he was coach.

After a one-year stint as head coach at Samford University, he returned to the NFL with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Gailey was on the Pittsburgh Steelers staff from 1994 to 1997 when the Steelers won four straight AFC Central titles and coached in one Super Bowl (XXX).

After starting off as coach for the wide receivers, then moved up to offensive coordinator for the 1996 and 1997 NFL seasons.

The Steelers won their division all four years, and made one Super Bowl appearance.

Gailey has previously served as the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys, Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, and Buffalo Bills from 1998 to 2012.

He held his first professional head coach position in 1998, when he became the new head coach of the Dallas Cowboys, and led the Cowboys to playoff appearances in each of his 2 seasons in Dallas.

In 1998, Gailey was hired to take over a struggling Dallas Cowboys squad, one that had faltered under Barry Switzer during his last year.

Gailey's Cowboys won the NFC East in 1998, and made the playoffs under his two years at the reins, although they failed to win a playoff game.

Gailey is the only Cowboys coach to have never missed the playoffs with his team.

Gailey is also sometimes referred to by fans as "the forgotten coach" of Dallas.

Gailey served as offensive coordinator for the Miami Dolphins in 2000 and 2001, when the Dolphins posted consecutive 11–5 records, and was part of the 2000 Dolphins squad which was the last time the team had won a playoff game.

Gailey returned to the offensive coordinator role, this time with the Miami Dolphins for the 2000 and 2001 seasons.

Gailey was hired by the Yellow Jackets in 2002 to replace George O'Leary, who left to become head coach at the University of Notre Dame (O'Leary infamously resigned at Notre Dame after only 5 days).

In his first five years at Georgia Tech, he had compiled a 37–27 record.

Georgia Tech went to bowl games each year under Gailey, and won two: the 2003 Humanitarian Bowl (a 52–10 win over the University of Tulsa), and the 2004 Champs Sports Bowl (a 51–14 victory over Syracuse University).

Gailey compiled six winning seasons in six years at the helm.

However, he never defeated Tech's biggest rival, the University of Georgia, never won the ACC, never went to a BCS bowl, never won more than nine games, and never finished in the top 25.

The 2006 season was his most successful at Georgia Tech, winning the ACC Coastal Division, but losing his last three games to rival UGA, Wake Forest in the ACC Championship Game, and West Virginia in the Gator Bowl.

Gailey's name was mentioned for both the Pittsburgh Steelers and Miami Dolphins head-coaching jobs following the 2006 season, two teams for which he was offensive coordinator.

Gailey served as the offensive coordinator for the Kansas City Chiefs in 2008 and three games of the 2009 preseason.

In 2010, he was hired as the new head coach of the Buffalo Bills, where he coached until 2012.

Three years after his firing from the Bills, he served as the offensive coordinator for the New York Jets from 2015 to 2016.

In 2020, Gailey came out of retirement to again serve as the offensive coordinator for the Miami Dolphins, where he would last for only a season before resigning on January 6, 2021.

Most recently in 2020, he was the offensive coordinator for the Miami Dolphins of the National Football League (NFL).