FanPost

Coaches in their first year

While watching the Boise State mess and the situation Chip Kelly is in I started wondering how some of the coaches in the top-25 started their Head Coaching careers. I just used Wikipedia and some general Google research to see if I could find any trends. I only looked at their first year at the BCS level, not how they did at smaller or division II schools.

Rich Rodriguez - 3-8 at WVU
Les Miles - 4-7 at Ok. State
Frank Beamer - 2-9 at Virginia Tech
Mike Riley - 3-8 at Or. State
Mike Gundy - 4-7 at Ok. State (Like Chip Kelly, this was his first HC experience)
Jeff Tedford - 7-5 at Cal
Jim Tressel - 7-5 at Ohio State
Bob Stoops - 7-5 at Oklahoma
Urban Meyer - 9-3 at Florida
Mack Brown - 9-3 at Texas
Pete Carrol - 6-6 at USC (2-5 to start his tenure there)

If anyone wants to contribute some other stats I'd be very interested to see them. Of course some people (like a guy named Mike Bellotti) did very well in their first year, and I didn't separate guys with zero HC experience from those who coached at other schools first. It looks like even solid coaches had to adjust to the BCS level and the ones who were very successful early inherited loaded teams.

I want to blame everything on Chip Kelly and the staff because the game was so ugly but the (small) part of me that isn't a rabid Duck fan says to give him some time. Maybe we aren't going to rout Florida 55-3 this year but there are a number of very well respected coaches who struggled early and still lifted their programs to a very high level.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of SB Nation or the Addicted To Quack Moderators. FanPost opinions are valued expressions of opinion by passionate and knowledgeable Oregon fans.

In This FanPost

Teams