12-15-2020, 03:42 PM
(12-15-2020, 02:56 PM)Phogge Wrote: Actually based on percentage Pop Warner at .781 outperforms Shaw at .717. Plus he recruited the guys who help make Tiny Thornhill's first three years the only time Stanford appeared in three consecutive Rose Bowls.
That's a great point, Phogge. Per Wikipedia, the top five coaches by winning percentage are:
Pop Bliss, .944
James Lanagan, .862
Carl Clemans, .857
Clark Shaughnessy, .842
George Brooke, .800
I've heard of one of those guys.
But if we restrict it to a four-year minimum, we get:
Pop Warner, .781, Stanford record the year before he started was 7-2
David Shaw, .759 (so far), Stanford record the year before he started was 12-1
John Ralston, .601, Stanford record the year before he started was 5-5
Bill Walsh, .585, Stanford records the year before he started were 6-5 (Walsh I) and 8-4
Jim Harbaugh, .580, Stanford record the year before he started was 1-11.
That's a great list, and I would rank them Warner, Harbaugh, Shaw, Ralston, Walsh.
If there's one thing people have learned in Berkeley, it's that you can't put "Cal football" and "Rose Bowl" in the same sentence. The words just don't fit. You'd be better off linking "covered wagons" with "Mars travel." (Bruce Jenkins, Cal '70, SF Chronicle, Nov. 11, 2017)