12-17-2022, 11:49 PM
Coming off a bad season with a .250 win record, I wondered how bad, historically, was this?
In 102 years of Stanford football, there were 8 seasons in which we won fewer than 3 games, and (including this year) 9 years in which we won 3 games. So by wins we were in the bottom 17 of 102.
The number of games played each year has varied, however. By percentage there were 7 worse seasons in 102 years of Stanford football history.
2021 2020 (tie) .250
1958 .200
2002 .182
1939 .167
1983 .091
2006 .083
1960 1918 (tie) .000
Looking ahead, I thought it might be interesting to ask what were the records of coaches in their first year who followed a departing coach with a losing year. There have been only 7, although two more came in after a year in which wins and losses were tied. The majority of Stanford coaches started their time here after a winning season, not after a losing one. But here are the possible turnaround artists:
1919 Bob Evans 4-3 (followed 0-4)
1940 Clark Shaughnessy 10-0 (followed 1-7-1)
1984 Jack Elway 5-6 (followed 1-10)
1989 Dennis Green 3-8 (followed 3-6-2)
1995 Tyrone Willingham 7-4-1 (followed 3-7-1)
2005 Walt Harris 5-6 (followed 4-7)
2007 Jim Harbaugh 4-8 (followed 1-11)
The biggest turnaround was, of course, Clark Shaughnessy--one of the biggest in any sport in any era. But every other coach improved on the prior year except for Dennis Green, and he at least won the same number of games as his predecessor.
Let's hope Troy Taylor is the next Clark Shaughnessy--except that he will stay longer than one year!
In 102 years of Stanford football, there were 8 seasons in which we won fewer than 3 games, and (including this year) 9 years in which we won 3 games. So by wins we were in the bottom 17 of 102.
The number of games played each year has varied, however. By percentage there were 7 worse seasons in 102 years of Stanford football history.
2021 2020 (tie) .250
1958 .200
2002 .182
1939 .167
1983 .091
2006 .083
1960 1918 (tie) .000
Looking ahead, I thought it might be interesting to ask what were the records of coaches in their first year who followed a departing coach with a losing year. There have been only 7, although two more came in after a year in which wins and losses were tied. The majority of Stanford coaches started their time here after a winning season, not after a losing one. But here are the possible turnaround artists:
1919 Bob Evans 4-3 (followed 0-4)
1940 Clark Shaughnessy 10-0 (followed 1-7-1)
1984 Jack Elway 5-6 (followed 1-10)
1989 Dennis Green 3-8 (followed 3-6-2)
1995 Tyrone Willingham 7-4-1 (followed 3-7-1)
2005 Walt Harris 5-6 (followed 4-7)
2007 Jim Harbaugh 4-8 (followed 1-11)
The biggest turnaround was, of course, Clark Shaughnessy--one of the biggest in any sport in any era. But every other coach improved on the prior year except for Dennis Green, and he at least won the same number of games as his predecessor.
Let's hope Troy Taylor is the next Clark Shaughnessy--except that he will stay longer than one year!