Bumped from the diaries. Another greatpost chalk full of facts and stats, which may come across to some blindos as "bashing." GO BRUINS. -N
There's been a lot of discussion about Karl Dorrell here lately and how good or bad of a coach he is. So I decided to look up the numbers and compare Dorrell to his peers.
In the 4 years before Dorrell, UCLA went 25-22, so I looked up every current BCS coach who inherited a team with 20-30 wins in the four years before he was there and has lasted at least four years with the school. 16 of them fit this profile.
Here they are, sorted by the number of wins in their first four years. The first column of numbers is the team's record in the four years before the coach inherited the program. Dorrell's 29-21 is 11th out of the 16 coaches.
Before 1st 4 yrs
Carroll (USC) 25-23 42-9
Brown (Tex) 30-18 38-13
Paterno (PSU) 27-14 35-7
Amato (NcSt) 22-24 34-17
Leach (TTU) 26-20 31-21
Bellotti (Ore) 23-24 30-17
Nutt (Ark) 20-26 30-18
Tuberville (Aub) 29-19 30-19
Groh (UVA) 29-18 30-21
Bowden (Clem) 25-22 29-20
Dorrell (UCLA) 25-22 29-21
Rodriguez (WVU) 26-21 28-21
Ferentz (Iowa) 27-20 22-26
Doba (WSU) 27-21 25-22
Franchione (A&M) 29-19 25-23
Pinkel (Mizz) 22-24 22-25
Note: Two of the coaches below Dorrell (Rodriguez and Ferentz) enjoyed amazing success in their 5th and 6th years. WVU went 11-1 and 11-2, and Iowa went 10-3 and 10-2. I'm sure if UCLA has 10-win seasons in 2007 and 2008, the Dorrell doubters would support him.
Also, if you sort the data by how the 16 coaches did in their 4th season, usually their first season in which they recruited all of their players, Dorrell's 7-6 team beats only two other coaches.
Carroll 13-0
Paterno 11-0
Brown 11-2
Ferentz 11-2
Tuberville 9-4
Franchione 9-4
Bellotti 8-4
Groh 8-4
Rodriguez 8-4
Amato 8-5
Leach 8-5
Nutt 7-5
Bowden 7-6
Dorrell 7-6
Doba 6-6
Pinkel 5-6
To this point, Dorrell hasn't done nearly as well as his peers in similar situations. He needs a great year this season to keep up.
Also, notable coaches who inherited programs far worse than UCLA and made them great:
Before 1st 4 yrs
Stoops (OU) 17-27 43-9
Friedgen (MD) 15-29 36-14
Tiller (Purd) 13-28 33-16
Tedford (Cal) 13-31 33-17
If I have made a mistake in any of this data, feel free to correct me. My source for all of this was the College Football Data Warehouse