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Judging Big 12 coaches by conference records


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Judging Big 12 coaches by conference records

 

Posted by ESPN.com's Tim Griffin

 

Who was it that said necessity is the mother of invention?

 

They must have had a pretty good handle on football statistics, because I wracked my brain twice in the last week looking for a specific set of figures that I thought any upstanding conference would compile as part of a basic statistical package.

 

Surprise for me, I guess.

 

I wanted to find out the overall conference records of every coach in the history of the Big 12. These records are a strong tool to comparatively analyze coaches, I think.

 

All of the games are against Division I teams (unlike overall records). And the games are typically between coaches who typically get a chance to coach against each other on more than one occasion, providing a chance to make adjustments over the years as they learn more about their opponents' tendencies.

 

That's why I found these statistics -- compiled by me during the second half of a boring Cleveland-Atlanta basketball game last night -- to be so fascinating.

 

Here are my Big 12 conference won-loss figures. Records are for conference games, conference championship games and overall conference records.

 

Records of all coaches in Big 12 history

Name/School Conf. game W-L Pct. Conf. title game W-L Pct. Overall conf. W-L Pct.

Bob Stoops, Oklahoma 67-13 .838 6-1 .857 73-14 .839

Mack Brown, Texas 72-16 .818 1-2 .333 73-18 .802

Bill Snyder, Kansas State 53-27 .663 1-2 .333 54-29 .651

Mike Leach, Texas Tech 42-30 .583 0-0 .000 42-30 .583

R.C. Slocum, Texas A&M 34-22 .607 1-1 .500 35-23 .603

Gary Barnett, Colorado 34-22 .607 1-3 .250 35-25 .583

Frank Solich, Nebraska 33-15 .688 1-0 1.000 34-15 .694

Gary Pinkel, Missouri 32-32 .500 0-2 .000 32-34 .485

Dan McCarney, Iowa State 26-62 .295 0-0 .000 26-62 .295

Mark Mangino, Kansas 22-34 .393 0-0 .000 22-34 .393

Spike Dykes, Texas Tech 19-13 .594 0-0 .000 19-13 .594

Dennis Franchione, Texas A&M 19-21 .475 0-0 .000 19-21 .475

Tom Osborne, Nebraska 16-0 1.000 1-1 .500 17-1 .944

Les Miles, Oklahoma State 16-16 .500 0-0 .000 16-16 .500

Larry Smith, Missouri 16-24 .400 0-0 .000 16-24 .400

Bill Callahan, Nebraska 15-17 .469 0-1 .000 15-18 .455

Rick Neuheisel, Colorado 14-10 .583 0-0 .000 14-10 .583

Bob Simmons, Oklahoma State 14-26 .350 0-0 .000 14-26 .350

Mike Gundy, Oklahoma State 13-19 .406 0-0 .000 13-19 .406

Terry Allen, Kansas 10-30 .250 0-0 .000 10-30 .250

John Mackovic, Texas 8-8 .500 1-0 1.000 9-8 .529

Ron Prince, Kansas State 9-15 .375 0-0 .000 9-15 .375

Dan Hawkins, Colorado 8-16 .333 0-0 .000 8-16 .333

John Blake, Oklahoma 8-16 .333 0-0 .000 8-16 .333

Guy Morriss, Baylor 7-33 .175 0-0 .000 7-33 .175

Bo Pelini, Nebraska 5-3 .625 0-0 .000 5-3 .625

Art Briles, Baylor 2-6 .250 0-0 .000 2-6 .250

Glen Mason, Kansas 2-6 .250 0-0 .000 2-6 .250

Mike Sherman, Texas A&M 2-6 .250 0-0 .000 2-6 .250

Gene Chizik, Iowa State 2-14 .125 0-0 .000 2-14 .125

Dave Roberts, Baylor 2-14 .125 0-0 .000 2-14 .125

Chuck Reedy, Baylor 1-7 .125 0-0 .000 1-7 .125

Kevin Steele, Baylor 1-31 .031 0-0 .000 1-31 .031

 

 

Note: Active coaches are in yellow. Iowa State coach Paul Rhoads will be in his first season as a head coach in the conference.

 

The numbers provide some interesting factoids.

 

I think these figures indicate that the two most underrated coaches in Big 12 coaching history are R.C. Slocum and Frank Solich.

Texas A&M has never had a Big 12 coach with a career winning percentage above .500 other than Slocum, who remains the only A&M coach to take his team to a Big 12 title game and win a conference football championship.

 

Solich ranks fourth in career conference winning percentage, trailing only Hall of Famer Tom Osborne and future Hall of Famers Bob Stoops and Mack Brown.

 

Here's a strike against the Bill Callahan era at Nebraska. Callahan is the only Nebraska coach since the start of the Big 12 era to have a below .500 career conference record.

Another underrated figure from the early days of the conference was Texas Tech's Spike Dykes, who compiled an impressive 19-13 conference record in the first four seasons in the conference. The Red Raiders have had one below .500 record during the 13-season history of the conference.

Want an indication of the Baylor program over the years? The three coaches who directed Baylor before Art Briles piloted the Bears to a combined 11-85 conference record, for a winning percentage of .115. That's an average of less than a victory per season.

Briles was 2-6 in his first season with Baylor last season -- more than doubling the school's average in conference victories during its previous history.

 

Bo Pelini's fast 5-3 start last season makes him one of only seven Big 12 coaches with a career winning percentage in conference games of more than .600.

Mack Brown leads the Big 12 with 91 conference games -- 88 regular-season games and three titles. Dan McCarney of Iowa State is second with 88 regular-season Big 12 games.

 

Looks like the Husker coaches have all fared well. With the exception of the unnamed!!

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After this season, I'm guessing that we'll have 3 out of 5. The question is, will Bo beat out Bill because NU rocks, or will it be because KSUcks? I'm guessing combination of both. Mathematically, I haven't figured out what each would need to win--it's Friday evening and I've been teaching math all week so I need a break from numbers. But if anybody wants to calculate this, be my guest.

 

Top six:

 

1) Tom Osborne

2) Bob Stoops

3) Mack Brown

4) Frank Solich

5) Bill Snyder

6) Bo Pelini

 

3 out of 6.....not bad!

Link to comment

After this season, I'm guessing that we'll have 3 out of 5. The question is, will Bo beat out Bill because NU rocks, or will it be because KSUcks? I'm guessing combination of both. Mathematically, I haven't figured out what each would need to win--it's Friday evening and I've been teaching math all week so I need a break from numbers. But if anybody wants to calculate this, be my guest.

 

Top six:

 

1) Tom Osborne

2) Bob Stoops

3) Mack Brown

4) Frank Solich

5) Bill Snyder

6) Bo Pelini

 

3 out of 6.....not bad!

If NU goes 5-3 again, worst case scenario (?), his percentage stays the same. If Bill the Old Guy goes 2-6 his average is 0.615, 3-5 makes it 0.626. All after a week of teaching AP Chem

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After this season, I'm guessing that we'll have 3 out of 5. The question is, will Bo beat out Bill because NU rocks, or will it be because KSUcks? I'm guessing combination of both. Mathematically, I haven't figured out what each would need to win--it's Friday evening and I've been teaching math all week so I need a break from numbers. But if anybody wants to calculate this, be my guest.

 

Top six:

 

1) Tom Osborne

2) Bob Stoops

3) Mack Brown

4) Frank Solich

5) Bill Snyder

6) Bo Pelini

 

3 out of 6.....not bad!

If NU goes 5-3 again, worst case scenario (?), his percentage stays the same. If Bill the Old Guy goes 2-6 his average is 0.615, 3-5 makes it 0.626. All after a week of teaching AP Chem

 

Bo winning at least 5 conference games and Bill losing 6 or more.....I would definitely take that bet! Thanks for doing the math.

Link to comment

After this season, I'm guessing that we'll have 3 out of 5. The question is, will Bo beat out Bill because NU rocks, or will it be because KSUcks? I'm guessing combination of both. Mathematically, I haven't figured out what each would need to win--it's Friday evening and I've been teaching math all week so I need a break from numbers. But if anybody wants to calculate this, be my guest.

 

Top six:

 

1) Tom Osborne

2) Bob Stoops

3) Mack Brown

4) Frank Solich

5) Bill Snyder

6) Bo Pelini

 

3 out of 6.....not bad!

If NU goes 5-3 again, worst case scenario (?), his percentage stays the same. If Bill the Old Guy goes 2-6 his average is 0.615, 3-5 makes it 0.626. All after a week of teaching AP Chem

 

Bo winning at least 5 conference games and Bill losing 6 or more.....I would definitely take that bet! Thanks for doing the math.

Rank them by Big 12 titles!

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