Sport(s) Football 1990–1992 Oklahoma (LB) Spouse Freda Blake 1979–1982 Oklahoma 1993–1995 Dallas Cowboys (DL) Education University of Oklahoma | 1987–1988 Tulsa (TE/WR) Name John Blake Position Nose guard 1989 Oklahoma (DL) Role American football player Children Jourdan Blake | |
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Born March 6, 1961 (age 63)
Rockford, Illinois ( 1961-03-06 ) | ||
John Patrick Blake (born March 6, 1961) is an American football coach and former player. He served as the head football coach at the University of Oklahoma from 1996 to 1998. Blake was also the defensive line coach of the Buffalo Bills. Prior to that he held the same position at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, from 2007 until 2010, when he left in the midst of a scandal over undisclosed loans and misleading NCAA investigators.
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Coaching career
Blake served as the head coach for the Oklahoma Sooners from 1996 to 1998, succeeding the one-year term of Howard Schnellenberger. He compiled a career record of 12–22 which is the worst three-year stretch in The University of Oklahoma football history. Despite being in way over his head as a college head coach, Blake was an admirable recruiter. He was responsible for bringing in more than half of the 2000 championship team’s 22 starters, including future N.F.L. players like safety Roy Williams and linebacker Rocky Calmus.
Prior to his arrival in Norman, Blake had served as the defensive line coach for the Dallas Cowboys, working alongside former UNC coach Butch Davis (2007–11) as well as former Sooner and then Cowboys head coach Barry Switzer. The Dallas Cowboys won two Super Bowls (1993 & 1995) during Blake's stint. Blake also worked as a defensive assistant at Oklahoma in the early 1990s under Gary Gibbs.
Blake served as the defensive line coach at Mississippi State University in 2003. He later held the same position on Bill Callahan's staff at the University of Nebraska from 2004 to 2006. Blake resigned his position at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on Sunday, September 5, 2010. On February 16, 2016 Lamar University announced that they had hired Blake to serve as their defensive line coach. After one month at Lamar and during the Cardinals' spring camp, John Blake accepted the defensive line coach position with the Buffalo Bills on March 15, 2016 following the Bills' firing of Karl Dunbar.
Controversies
In 2010, Blake resigned from North Carolina in the midst of an investigation into players' relationships with agent Gary Wichard, who died of pancreatic cancer in 2011. At the time, Blake was suspected of being an employee and receiving cash benefits from Wichard. On March 12, 2012, the NCAA announced that Blake had received a three-year show-cause penalty, which effectively barred him from college coaching during that period. The NCAA determined that Blake had received personal loans from Wichard and failed to disclose them to UNC, and also misled NCAA investigators.
Coaching tree
Assistant coaches under John Blake who became NCAA or NFL head coaches: