BTI's Rants and Ramblings: Assistant to Head Coach, Does it Work?

When judging SEC football, maybe more than any conference in the country, the head coach matters a lot.  For schools like Vandy and UK to succeed, they have to have the right kind of coach.  UK's last 2 coaches came from different backgrounds.  Rich Brooks was a grizzled veteran, a Division 1-A head coach for 18 years before coming to Lexington.  Joker Phillips, on the other hand, had no previous 1-A head coaching before taking the job.  It got me thinking if there might be something to that.  Do coaches who enter the SEC with previous head coaching experience do better than their couterparts with no experience?  I broke down the numbers here: THOSE WHO HAD PREVIOUS HEAD COACHING EXPERIENCE Kevin Sumlin (Texas A&M) before A&M: 35-17 during A&M: 11-2 (84.6 win%) Nick Saban (Alabama) before Bama: 91-40 during Bama: 68-13 (83.9 win%) Les Miles (LSU) before LSU: 28-21 during LSU: 85-21 (80.2 win%) Steve Spurrier (South Carolina) before USC: 142-40 during USC: 66-37 (64.1 win%) Gary Pinkel (Missouri) before Mizzou: 73-37 during Mizzou: 90-61 (59.6 win%) Hugh Freeze (Ole Miss) before Ole Miss: 10-2 during Ole Miss: 7-6 (53.8 win%) Combined SEC record: 327-140 (70.0 win%) ------------------------------------------------------------ THOSE WITH NO PREVIOUS HEAD COACHING EXPERIENCE Mark Richt (Georgia) before UGA: None during UGA: 118-40 (74.7 win%) Will Muschamp (Florida) before Florida: None during Florida: 18-8 (69.2 win%) James Franklin (Vanderbilt) before Vandy: None during Vandy: 15-11 (57.7 win%) Dan Mullen (Mississippi State) before MState: None during MState: 29-22 (56.9 win%) Combined SEC Record: 180-81 (69.0 win%) ------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW SEC HEAD COACHES THIS YEAR Bret Bielema (Arkansas) before Arkansas: 68-24 during Arkansas: TBD Gus Malzahn (Auburn) before Auburn: 9-3 during Auburn: TBD Butch Jones (Tennessee) before UT: 50-27 during UT: TBD Mark Stoops (Kentucky) before UK: None during UK: TBD ---------------------------------------------------------------- My biggest concern coming into the season is the mix of inexperienced head coaching with a roster on the rebuild.  You just never know how a coach is going to respond at the helm for his first time.  Joker Phillips did not seem to handle it well.  Motivation techniques seemed to be lacking and it showed on the field, especially in that 3rd year.  But the reality of the situation is that coaches in the SEC have seen just as much success whether or not they had head coaching experience before coming into the league.  OK, over 100 games, they might lose 1 more.  But statistically, that is basically the same. This year, 4 new coaches will start jobs in the SEC, and 3 of them have previous coaching experience.  All 4 take over rebuilding projects, so no excuses can be made about their starting points.  It will be interesting to see how Mark Stoops compares 5 years from now to the other 3 of his rookie mates.