CJH record vs other coaches

[njvols]

There should be * next to both of Urban's records here.
Of the 5 on that list, he by far walked into the BEST situation...BOTH times.

The problem with previous coaches at FL and OSU wasn't that they couldn't recruit. They just couldn't coach or wanted out of the college game...those rosters were flooded with talent.

Still blows me away what Saban was able to do at Bama, Kiffin has done at Ole Miss, and Heupel is doing at UT considering the roster talent they had starting out.

Agree. Gotta put Kiffin on the list too. Say what you will but he’s made OM relevant from historically mediocre program…JH in same breath took us from brink of going into second decade of suck, risking same irrelevance as OM was, or Auburn is now.

This moment in time is, with all the competition, not a time you need continued regression. For a program like UF, like UT you always say they can be relevant w the right HC, but the longer you drift, the longer the climb back to consistent winning.

 

[Sudden Impact]

I recall reading much speculation that those guys left primarily because they were afraid of getting busted for taking money.

I guess a majority that changes the fact above was that 33 or 34 left and CJH was handed a house on fire and had a better record than Pruitt did.

We got a pretty good look at how Alabama paid players before NIL.

 

[Hank Bukowski]

I guess a majority were does not change the fact that 33 or 34 left and CJH was handed a house on fire.

Obviously.

 

[HalfullVol]

So, all things considered, Hype is the best.
No surprise there.

Go Vols!

 

[Rickyvol77]

It’s crazy that most people outside of Volnation don’t have neyland as a top 10 coach all time. This list right here speaks for itself how good the general was.

It’s because most casual fans are just uneducated on most topics

 

[volKano]

All of Osborne’s teams were on enough steroids to kill a horse.

 

[tennesseeduke]

In their first 93 games as a HC:


Neyland - 78-9-6
Smart - 78-15
Paterno - 78-14-1
Fulmer - 77-16
Meyer - 76-17
Carr - 72-21
Osborne - 72-19-2
Heupel - 69-24
Spurrier - 69-23-1
Hayes - 68-21-4
Saban - 67-24-2
Swinney - 67-26
Vaught - 66-22-5
Kelly - 65-28
Petrino - 64-29
Royal - 63-27-3
Dooley - 63-26-4
Kelly - 62-31
Dye - 62-30-1
Bryant - 61-27-5
Dickey - 61-28-4
Franklin - 61-32
Bowden - 60-33
Harbaugh - 60-33
Kiffin - 59-34
Sarkisian - 57-36
Tuberville - 55-38

Don’t be coming up in here with facts. Volnation can’t take that!

 

[tennesseeduke]

In their first 93 games as a HC:


Neyland - 78-9-6
Smart - 78-15
Paterno - 78-14-1
Fulmer - 77-16
Meyer - 76-17
Carr - 72-21
Osborne - 72-19-2
Heupel - 69-24
Spurrier - 69-23-1
Hayes - 68-21-4
Saban - 67-24-2
Swinney - 67-26
Vaught - 66-22-5
Kelly - 65-28
Petrino - 64-29
Royal - 63-27-3
Dooley - 63-26-4
Kelly - 62-31
Dye - 62-30-1
Bryant - 61-27-5
Dickey - 61-28-4
Franklin - 61-32
Bowden - 60-33
Harbaugh - 60-33
Kiffin - 59-34
Sarkisian - 57-36
Tuberville - 55-38

I’ve posted before that Saban away from Bama was only a good coach. Prior to LSU he sucked! I use to love hearing Spurrier call him out on it. Shingle schools!

 

[Boston Vol]

I’ve posted before that Saban away from Bama was only a good coach. Prior to LSU he sucked! I use to love hearing Spurrier call him out on it. Shingle schools!

He inherited a mediocre Michigan State program, then was hit with NCAA sanctions for violations that occurred under the previous regime. Yet, he still built them into a top-ten team and produced their first ten-win season in over thirty years before leaving for Baton Rouge. So no, he didn’t suck prior to arriving in Baton Rouge.

 

[iuvol]

First year 33 players left the program.

and several of those were starters. The program was in a mess for sure. I wouldn’t trade Heupel for any coach in America.

 

[The Original Fade]

how's it misleading?

You could pick any number besides 93 games and make it tell a different story. Coaches’ greatness or failure is determined by their careers in totality, not the first X number of games

 

[marcusluvsvols]

All of Osborne’s teams were on enough steroids to kill a horse.

To be fair...so were our VOLS in the 90s. Look at some of those teams. College and pro sports were flush with steroids in the 80s and 90s. I am sure there are guys today on anabolics and HGH too at every program thats any good.

 

[scvol98]

For a split second I thought I was living in an alternate universe, but then it made all sense.

If you are confusing Vince and Derek, my advise to you is to stop using old radiators to make your moonshine!

 

[unfrozencvmanvol]

It’s crazy that most people outside of Volnation don’t have neyland as a top 10 coach all time. This list right here speaks for itself how good the general was.

I think it's just such a different era at this point that it's really incomparable. CFB pre and post integration are almost 2 different sports. There probably should be two sets of records.

 

[unfrozencvmanvol]

To be fair...so were our VOLS in the 90s. Look at some of those teams. College and pro sports were flush with steroids in the 80s and 90s. I am sure there are guys today on anabolics and HGH too at every program thats any good.

Nope, as is the case on every Southern football board, the home team is as pure as the wind driven snow and everyone else is biased against the home team. All the other teams are cheaters but all outsiders conspire together against the home team.

 

[knox73]

Very interesting data. Thanks.

Various thought: Of course there are circumstances that greatly influence coaching success. John Majors for example paid dearly at Tennessee his first 6/7 seasons trying to rebuild the Vols to an SEC power following the Bill Battle debacle. Bill has a nice career record on paper as a HC following Doug Dickey but his complete recruiting ineptitude destroyed Tennessee with the final collapse falling under Majors’ tenure. Battle never coached another day after leaving Knoxville at age 34 or so.

Majors had a mixed record while rebuilding Iowa State, Pitt and Tennessee but he was a master program builder. If Majors had followed Dickey, it could have been incredible success. Fulmer took Johnny’s Vol program to another level but Phil was in the trenches assisting Majors and Fulmer deserves enormous credit. Richt is underrated for his job at Georgia which was extremely impressive and hard work. Georgia’s instate talent base historically made it a far easier job than Tennessee especially after black athletes entered the picture. An easy case can be made for Josh Heupel’s surprising rebuild of Tennessee to rank as one of the best SEC coaching tenures of all time. And Josh’s best is yet to come.

Nebraska is an interesting case. Tom Osborne followed Bob Devaney who was another great coach. Will it be possible during NIL and easy transfer policies for that program to become a top national contender again?

 

[VolCalls]

It’s because most casual fans are just uneducated on most topics

There are hundreds of thousands of passionate college football fans who know very little about Gen Neyland because he last coached 70+ years ago and they aren’t die-hard Tennessee fans. Why would they care?

I couldn’t have an educated discussion about Pop Warner, Amos Alonzo Stagg, or John Gagliardi without taking time to read up on them, but why would I? They all died before I was born and none of them coached at Tennessee.

 

[MemphisVol77]

You could pick any number besides 93 games and make it tell a different story. Coaches’ greatness or failure is determined by their careers in totality, not the first X number of games

93 games is 7 - 9 seasons depending on the era. That's a significant data sample.

Unless he left off coaches with better records after 93 games than Heupel, there's nothing misleading about it.

 

[DaltonVol2298]

Yeah, Richt was 74-19 in his first 93 games, which is better than most of this list. Though Richt never won a Natty, UGA has had 2 really quality coaches back to back.

This is true. While Richt was not elite, they were often over average and in fact the first half of his time in Athens almost no one wanted him fired.

They were somewhat more of a finesse team and were not as tough in the trenches as they usually are these days but it was a good situation for Smart to inherit. Riley at OU also walked into a great situation but even better to the extent that the Sooners didn’t have to face SEC competition.

Then you have Urban Liar who was obviously a really good head coach but one who walked into great situations at both UF and OSU. Zook could recruit but could not coach them up and the Buckeyes had a strong roster. Of course Josh Heupel has room to grow but I am impressed that we have improved this much.

 

[Rickyvol77]

You could pick any number besides 93 games and make it tell a different story. Coaches’ greatness or failure is determined by their careers in totality, not the first X number of games

True however, this is the sample size we have on CJH and it’s interesting to see how successful he has been already.

 

[ArmchairQB]

93 games is 7 - 9 seasons depending on the era. That's a significant data sample.

Unless he left off coaches with better records after 93 games than Heupel, there's nothing misleading about it.

I think it’s not so much omitting coaches with better records as the coaches with worse ones. Some hot starts stay hot for a whole career and it’s great to look at that and think wow look where Heup’s going! But Frank Solich started out winning 75% of his games at Nebraska too and wound up in Ohio because 75% wasn’t good enough for the Huskers at the time. So Solich wound up a career 63% coach in the MAC.

Not to say Heupel isn’t the best thing in ages for us! And we’re sure not waiting for him to hang em up to make threads. But saying hey it’s early days still, is also a valid take here.

 

[ArmchairQB]

Side note: Tommy Tuberville’s wikipedia page is a hoot. Usually when you see US Senator from whatever state, you aren’t thinking “head coaching record” is what’s going to come next.

 

[HighWaterVol]

Op- interesting topic. Thanks!

I’d like to see the coaches at their primary schools in a 4-5 yr period, or in Urban’s case, both schools.

Heup- Tennessee
Saban-Bama
Spurrier- Florida
Urban- Florida
Urban- Ohio state
Kiffin- ole miss

Have you tried ChatGPT?

 

[tennesseeduke]

He inherited a mediocre Michigan State program, then was hit with NCAA sanctions for violations that occurred under the previous regime. Yet, he still built them into a top-ten team and produced their first ten-win season in over thirty years before leaving for Baton Rouge. So no, he didn’t suck prior to arriving in Baton Rouge.

He had 1 good season at Mi St out of 5. That first 4 yrs record at Tennessee and he’s fired. Before LSU he was 43-26-1. Not a great coach!

 

[Boston Vol]

He had 1 good season at Mi St out of 5. That first 4 yrs record at Tennessee and he’s fired. Before LSU he was 43-26-1. Not a great coach!

Did you miss the part about where the program got hammered with NCAA sanctions after his first year? LSU hadn’t won the SEC in 14 years when he took over, and he wins it in his second year. They hadn’t won a national championship in over four decades, yet he wins one in his fourth season. The notion that he was just a good coach before he got to Tuscaloosa is asinine.