Successful college football coaches who had bad 1st seasons
There are 29 new college football coaches this season, and chances are at least half will be gone five years from now.
Some could have immediate success; some are going to struggle out of the gate. But fear not: Coaches who have a bad first season (and even a bad second season) can end up being quite successful. Here are 10 of those.
Think of it like that 1979 Bruce Springsteen song: From small things, big things one day come.
Barry Alvarez, Wisconsin
Season: 1990
Record: 1-10
The buzz: Wisconsin was a Big Ten power in the 1950s, but by the time Alvarez took over, the Badgers had had just five winning seasons since 1963. Wisconsin had won seven Big Ten games total in the previous five seasons. Alvarez was Notre Dame’s defensive coordinator when he was hired; before that, he had spent eight seasons as an assistant under Hayden Fry at Iowa. The Badgers proceeded to go winless in the league for the first time since 1968 in his first season, but they took small steps in his next two seasons before tying for the Big Ten title and going to the Rose Bowl in 1993. Wisconsin finished sixth nationally that season, its first top-10 ranking since 1962. That was the first of three Rose Bowl appearances under Alvarez, and the foundation he laid has meant just one losing season since 1992. The Badgers finished in the top-10 three times under Alvarez, who stepped down as coach after the 2005 season.
Frank Beamer, Virginia Tech
Season: 1987
Record: 2-9
The buzz: Beamer, a Virginia Tech alum, was coach at Division I-AA Murray State when he was hired; he had taken the Racers to one playoff appearance in his six seasons, and not everyone was happy with his hiring. The Hokies were coming off a 9-2-1 season in 1986, which had tied a school record for wins in a season. But coach Bill Dooley was forced to resign because of NCAA violations, and there were NCAA sanctions that impacted the number of scholarships available. Tech won three games in Beamer’s second season and six in his third and fourth seasons, but then dropped to five wins in 1991 and two in 1992. Then-AD Dave Braine stuck with Beamer and was rewarded when the Hokies became a Big East power and a fixture in the polls. Before he retired in 2015, Beamer guided Tech to 14 seasons with double-digit wins and seven top-10 finishes. In addition, the Hokies played for the national title after the 1999 season, falling to Florida State.
Bobby Bowden, Florida State
Season: 1976
Record: 5-6
The buzz: Bowden’s first season certainly wasn’t awful – but it also didn’t portend the job he would do turning a football non-entity into a legit 25-year dynasty. He had spent the previous six seasons at West Virginia before he was hired at FSU. Bowden took over a program that had won four games in the previous three seasons, including a 0-11 mark in 1973. His first FSU team upset No. 13 Boston College on the way to the 5-6 mark. His second season saw the Seminoles win 10 games, something they did 18 times under Bowden. The crowning achievement of his time at FSU was a 14-season run in which the Seminoles finished in the top five every season; to put that into perspective, the longest such streak for Nick Saban and Alabama is five. Bowden won two national titles and stepped down (reluctantly) after the 2009 season as the second-winningest coach in major-college history. He had 315 on-field wins at FSU; not bad for a guy who was 5-6 in his first season with the Seminoles.
Mack Brown, North Carolina
Season: 1988
Record: 1-10
The buzz: Brown’s first go-round as Tar Heels coach began inauspiciously. He replaced Dick Crum, the winningest coach in school history; Crum was fired after a losing record in 1987, the Tar Heels’ third in four seasons. Brown had just finished his third season at Tulane, where he went from 1-10 to 4-7 to 6-6. (By the way, if you want to win a bet, ask a buddy where Brown was before he went to Tulane. The answer: He was Barry Switzer’s offensive coordinator at Oklahoma.) UNC’s 1-10 season in ’88 was the worst since the 1944 team went 1-7-1. Then came another 1-10 season in 1989, and there was grumbling about Brown. From there, though, the Heels ascended the ladder in the ACC, though they never were able to get past Florida State, Brown’s alma mater. There were 10-win seasons in 1993, ’96 and ’97; UNC had had double-digit wins just four times before Brown’s arrival, and there has been just one since his departure after the ’97 campaign.
Matt Campbell, Iowa State
Season: 2016
Record: 3-9
The buzz: Campbell was 36 and never had coached outside the state of Ohio when he took over at Iowa State, including the previous four seasons as Toledo’s coach. To say Campbell took over a football “have not” is kind: The Cyclones still never have won 10 games in a season and only three times have they finished a season ranked. One of those was under Campbell, when Iowa State finished ninth in 2020. But his first season was the 10th time in 11 years that Iowa State finished below .500. Since then, though, he has guided Iowa State to five consecutive winning seasons; the last time that happened was 1923-27, when Iowa State was 4-3-1 each season. Iowa State also has had five consecutive winning Big 12 records, with 29 total league wins – the exact same number the Cyclones had won in the previous 13 seasons.
Kirk Ferentz, Iowa
Season: 1999
Record: 1-10
The buzz: Ferentz was a surprise choice. The assumption was Iowa alum Bob Stoops – then the defensive coordinator at Florida – would be coming “home” to replace Hayden Fry. Instead, Stoops chose Oklahoma and Ferentz – a former Iowa assistant who then was the offensive line coach of the Baltimore Ravens – was the choice. That first season didn’t assuage anyone who thought he was a poor choice; the second season wasn’t much better, with the Hawkeyes going 3-9 (at the same time, Oklahoma was winning the national title in its second season under Stoops). But the Hawkeyes began to turn the corner in Year 3, then Iowa tied for the Big Ten title and went to the Orange Bowl in Year 4, when it finished 11-2. Ferentz, of course, still is at Iowa, readying for his 24th season. He is the winningest coach in school history.
Bill McCartney, Colorado
Season: 1982
Record: 2-8-1
The buzz: Colorado was a solid Big Eight program for much of the 1970s, but when Chuck Fairbanks took over after an unsuccessful run as New England Patriots coach, the Buffs’ fortunes turned sour. The Buffs won a total of seven games in Fairbanks’ three seasons (1979-81), and McCartney was hired off Bo Schembechler’s staff at Michigan to turn things around. It took a while: Colorado won just seven games in McCartney’s first three seasons. But he switched to the Wishbone in 1985 and the Buffs won seven that season as they began their rise. They went 11-1 in both 1989 and ’90, losing the Orange Bowl with the national title on the line in 1989 but winning the bowl and part of the title the next season. McCartney guided the Buffs to another 11-win season and a third-place finish in the polls in 1994, then retired. The Buffs have had just four seasons with double-digit wins since and have finished in the top 20 only once since 2002.
Bill Snyder, Kansas State
Season: 1989
Record: 1-10
The buzz: Snyder took over one of the worst programs in all of Division I; he had spent the past 10 seasons as the offensive coordinator under Hayden Fry at Iowa. K-State began football in 1912, and when Snyder arrived, the Wildcats never had won more than eight games in a season (that came in 1912 and had been matched once). K-State had had losing records in 46 of the past 50 seasons, and Snyder’s first season was more of the same. But there were five wins in 1990, then seven in ’91, back to five in ’92, then at least nine in eight consecutive seasons; four times in that span, K-State won 11. In the bigger picture, K-State became nationally relevant – which is one of the greatest college football jaw-droppers of all time.
Mark Stoops, Kentucky
Season: 2013
Record: 2-10
The buzz: Stoops, the youngest of the three Stoops brothers who would become FBS coaches, had spent the previous three seasons as Florida State’s defensive coordinator when he was hired at UK. The Wildcats had enjoyed a modicum of success under Rich Brooks from 2003-09, but the program slid under Joker Phillips, who was fired after UK went 2-10 in 2012. Stoops’ first season mirrored Phillips’ last, from the 2-10 overall record to the 0-8 mark in the SEC. But two five-win seasons followed, and UK definitely was making incremental progress. Two seven-win seasons followed, then came a breakthrough 10-3 record in 2018. More important was that UK finished 5-3 in the SEC in ’18. That was a huge deal because UK hadn’t had a winning league record since 1977, when it was on probation. Stoops has led the Wildcats to six consecutive bowls, the longest such streak in school history. In addition, Kentucky has finished the season ranked twice in his tenure; that had happened once since ’77 before Stoops’ arrival. Stoops needs two wins in 2022 to become the winningest coach in Wildcats history, passing Bear Bryant.
George Welsh, Virginia
Season: 1982
Record: 2-9
The buzz: In some respects, Welsh might be the least successful coach on this list; he never had a team finish in the top 20, for instance. At the same time, when he took over at UVa after serving as Navy’s coach for nine seasons, the Cavs never had been to a bowl in their football history, which began in 1890. Welsh led Virginia to 12 bowls, including one of just two “major” bowl appearances in school history. In addition, in his 19 seasons, he had just two losing records – his first season and his fifth. He had back-to-back-to back winning records in his second, third and fourth seasons at UVa – the first time that had happened to the Cavs since 1950-52. He also led Virginia to 10 wins in 1989 – the only time the Cavs ever have had double-digit victories. Welsh guided UVa to its first ACC title in 1989. And he was the coach when Virginia was No. 1 for four weeks in 1990, the only time the Cavs ever have been No. 1 in football. Welsh retired after the 2000 season.