2007 1st Year Coaching Impacts

This past fall there were 22 new head coaches roaming the sidelines. Some had more success than others. Some may have appeared to be more successful than others. When you break it down, however, to see who had the greatest impact to their program you may be surprised at the results.

There are obviously many more factors that are needed to be looked at when judging the success of a 1st year coach (player development, signature wins, recruiting, etc.), but in terms of wins and losses compared to the season before Troy Calhoun from Air Force was a rung above the rest. Other coaches like Dennis Erickson, Jeff Jagodzinski, and Brian Kelly had wildly successful 1st seasons, but they were acquiring teams who had more success the season before. Falling to the bottom tier of coaches was Tim Brewster and Steve Kragthorpe. Brewster is one who hopes to follow Ron Zook's philosophy of focusing on recruiting to turn around the program. He had a terrible season at Minnesota, but was in the top 20 nationally in recruiting. The most disappointing coach was probably Steve Kragthorpe. He was hired almost instantaneously after Bobby Petrino left for the Atlanta Falcons, but never really produced results for a highly successful team from the season before. It will be an uphill battle for Kragthorpe this season without star quarterback Brian Brohm.

Below is the rankings of last season's new hires based on the number of games improved from the school's previous season's record. Half games occurr due to a different number of total games played between the two seasosn.

+/- games from previous season

+4.5 Troy Calhoun- Air Force 9-4 (6-2)
+3 Dennis Erickson- Arizona State 10-3 (7-2)
+3 Jim Harbaugh- Stanford 4-8 (3-6)
+2.5 Mark Dantonio- Michigan State 7-6 (3-5)
+2.5 Derek Dooley- LA Tech. 5-7 (4-4)
+2 Brian Kelly- Cincinnati 10-3 (4-3)
+2 Tom O'Brien- NC State 5-7 (3-5)
+1.5 Todd Graham- Tulsa 10-4 (6-2)
+1 Nick Saban- Alabama 7-6 (4-4)
+1 Butch Davis- North Carolina 4-8 (3-5)
+1 Mario Cristobal- Florida International 1-11 (1-6)
+0.5 Jeff Jagodzinski- Boston College 11-3 (6-2)
0 Bob Toledo- Tulane 4-8 (3-5)
0 Stan Brock- Army 3-9
-1 Gene Chizik- Iowa State 3-9 (4-8)
-1 Todd Dodge- North Texas 2-10 (1-6)
-1 Neil Calloway- UAB 2-10 (1-7)
-1.5 Randy Shannon- Miami 5-7 (2-6)
-3 Rob Akey- Idaho 1-11 (0-8)
-3.5 David Bailiff- Rice 3-9 (3-5)
-4.5 Tim Brewster- Minnesota 1-11 (0-8)
-5.5 Steve Kragthorpe- Louisville 6-6 (3-4)