The last category:
Position Coaches
Pat Fitzgerald (Northwestern): Northwestern linebackers coach and recruiting coordinator; previously Northwestern defensive backs coach; no other experience [Miscellaneous: Northwestern alum (legend actually)] - 31
Tyrone Willingham (Stanford): Minnesota Vikings running backs coach; previously coached position groups on offense, defense, and special teams at Stanford, Rice, NC State, Michigan State, and Central Michigan [Miscellaneous: as a Willingham hater this pains me, and I'm sure it will pain Walsh lovers, but Walsh II was so awful that this is a straightforward turnaround artist case thanks to the eventual heights of the Rose and Seattle bowl years] - 41
This group is too small to have a meaningful median but of course they were both young.
This hasn't happened since 2006. Not a proven way to get a successful turnaround artist in the modern era in my view.
A few alibis as I close out my initial contribution to this thread.
* TCU is a noticeable omission from this list. The reason is that Dennis Franchione didn't stay long enough to be considered a true turnaround artist yet bequeathed a good enough program that Gary Patterson can't be considered one either, and now Sonny Dykes hasn't been there long enough to count. I consider all three good coaches. I think if I did this list a few years from now Dykes would be on the list. He belongs in the proven Power Five coach category and given his various stops and the degrees of difficulty is one of the most underrated coaches in the country.
* Speaking of Sonny Dykes, his dad left too stable of a program for Mike Leach for me to count Leach's Texas Tech tenure on this list, but it's somewhat debatable since Leach definitely took mediocre to very good. If Leach were on the list for that tenure he'd be on the coordinator list as he was Oklahoma and Kentucky's offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.
* Urban Meyer's spectacular two years at Utah is the definition of a turnaround but he isn't included because Utah wasn't Power Five at the time. If he were included he would be in the proven lower level coach category due to his time at Bowling Green.
TL;DR:
My picks for the next Stanford football coach are somebody among Bronco Mendenhall, Tom Herman, Jeff Brohm, Lance Leipold, Chris Kleiman, Kalani Sitake, PJ Fleck, Chris Petersen, Dave Clawson, Lance Taylor, Brent Brennan, and Troy Taylor. And David Shaw must go.
Position Coaches
Pat Fitzgerald (Northwestern): Northwestern linebackers coach and recruiting coordinator; previously Northwestern defensive backs coach; no other experience [Miscellaneous: Northwestern alum (legend actually)] - 31
Tyrone Willingham (Stanford): Minnesota Vikings running backs coach; previously coached position groups on offense, defense, and special teams at Stanford, Rice, NC State, Michigan State, and Central Michigan [Miscellaneous: as a Willingham hater this pains me, and I'm sure it will pain Walsh lovers, but Walsh II was so awful that this is a straightforward turnaround artist case thanks to the eventual heights of the Rose and Seattle bowl years] - 41
This group is too small to have a meaningful median but of course they were both young.
This hasn't happened since 2006. Not a proven way to get a successful turnaround artist in the modern era in my view.
A few alibis as I close out my initial contribution to this thread.
* TCU is a noticeable omission from this list. The reason is that Dennis Franchione didn't stay long enough to be considered a true turnaround artist yet bequeathed a good enough program that Gary Patterson can't be considered one either, and now Sonny Dykes hasn't been there long enough to count. I consider all three good coaches. I think if I did this list a few years from now Dykes would be on the list. He belongs in the proven Power Five coach category and given his various stops and the degrees of difficulty is one of the most underrated coaches in the country.
* Speaking of Sonny Dykes, his dad left too stable of a program for Mike Leach for me to count Leach's Texas Tech tenure on this list, but it's somewhat debatable since Leach definitely took mediocre to very good. If Leach were on the list for that tenure he'd be on the coordinator list as he was Oklahoma and Kentucky's offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.
* Urban Meyer's spectacular two years at Utah is the definition of a turnaround but he isn't included because Utah wasn't Power Five at the time. If he were included he would be in the proven lower level coach category due to his time at Bowling Green.
TL;DR:
My picks for the next Stanford football coach are somebody among Bronco Mendenhall, Tom Herman, Jeff Brohm, Lance Leipold, Chris Kleiman, Kalani Sitake, PJ Fleck, Chris Petersen, Dave Clawson, Lance Taylor, Brent Brennan, and Troy Taylor. And David Shaw must go.