Coach Comparisons

We have already compiled recruiting numbers for schools and conferences, see our "Recruiting Numbers" link above for that data, but now let's take a look at the numbers for National Championship coaches from 2002-2010.  Make sure to read our footnotes at the bottom regarding the data in the table below.

National Championship Coaches 2002 - 2010

The first thing that jumps off the screen is that despite being out of college football for 2 years (2005 & 2006), Nick Saban still signed 193 recruits, which is second only to Les Miles his successor at LSU when Saban left in 2005.  Saban also has the highest average recruits per year at 27.50.   In 7 years, Nick Saban has never signed less than 25 recruits in a single year.

Let's compare that to the same set of years (2002-2004 & 2007-2010) for the coach with the lowest numbers, Jim Tressel.  Tressel signed 142 players in the same years that Saban signed 193 recruits.  That is a difference of 51 players over the same period of time, 7 years.  That is mind boggling to say the least.  

And to further put that into perspective, only 4 BCS programs in the entire country have signed fewer players than Ohio State's Jim Tressel, Stanford (170), Georgia Tech (177), Wake Forest (174), and Northwestern (170).  Notre Dame tied with (180).  For Jim Tressel to win a NC, compete for 2 more, and win the Big 10 Conference 5 Times in a row with those kind of numbers is simply amazing.   The same goes for Pete Carroll, although his numbers are just slightly higher, and what he did at USC.  Imagine if either one of those coaches had an extra 40-50 players to select from or to use in order to fill in gaps from unexpected attrition such as career ending injury.

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The next thing that pops out is Les Miles' total number of recruits 222.  It would have been nice to have data for Saban in 05 & 06 so that we could see exactly who had the most.  However, if Saban took his average of 27 in both of those years it would have put him at 247.

The last thing that you notice is that SEC coaches (Saban, Miles, and Meyer) have the top 3 spots locked down, despite having 2 years with 0 recruits signed.  We couldn't find numbers for Urban's 2002 class at Toledo and Saban was in the NFL in 2005 and 2006, but still those are mind numbing numbers.  Those 3 coaches are also undefeated in the BCS National Championship Games; the 3 coaches at the bottom of the list, Carrol, Brown and Tressel all have at least 1 loss in the BCS National Champion Game, Tressel with the lowest numbers has 2 losses.

This comparison is not about conferences or schools, it's about the coaches.  So we are not implying here that the SEC had the highest numbers (even though when we compare conferences they do), we are implying that the coaches in the SEC have a history of signing high numbers, regardless of where they have been. 

We also find it interesting to compare the coaching stability to the number of players signed.  The 3 coaches at the bottom of the list were all at the same school over the entire 2002-2010 period, while the coaches at the top of the list combined for a total of 7 coaching changes during this period of time.  We have a theory that having the ability to oversign players is an enabler to coaching turnover, but we'll get into that in another post.

Notes regarding the data in the table:
1. The data is sorted by Average Players Per Year.
2. Urban Meyer's numbers come from (Bolwing Green 2002, Utah 03-04, and Florida 05-Present).
3. Les Miles' numbers come from (Ok State 02-04, LSU 05-Present).
4. Nick Saban's numbers come from (LSU 02-04, Alabama 07-Present)
5. Mack Brown, Pete Carroll, and Jim Tressel were all at the same school during 2002-2010.
6. All numbers come from Rivals.com recruiting database and represent the number of signed LOIs per year.

Update:
One of our readers,  YNBA, pointed out that Meyer didn't coach at Toledo in 2002, he coached at Bowling Green.  We have updated the chart and corrected our commentary.  Thanks, YNBA!