If you watch the in-season Hard Knocks from last year - to me it wasn't as much that he wanted to be a "buddy", but more that he just awkwardly didn't fit in at all. Not someone who the players repected by commanding authority, not someone who actually fit in with the players - but rather just this awkward guy who players put up with as the quirky guy when things were OK, and when things got bad and he tried to rally them it was truly cringe worthy.
All this love for the guy bc he is 'different' and 'quirky' and has incomprehensible word salad answers to everything I just don't get - that doesn't make you a good head coach, in a lot of ways it contributes to making you a bad one.