Oklahoma
Trivia Tuesday – FBS Head Coaches
There are 128 FBS schools that will be playing football this fall, but there are 129 FBS schools with head football coaches due to the rather odd, one year hiatus being taken by UAB – fodder for another blog.
Today’s Trivia Tuesday focuses on the 129 Head Football Coaches currently leading the programs at those 129 FBS schools. Just let me remind you that the information provided here is solely based on SOD’s limited research capabilities as powered through the Internet. The information is based on what SOD was able to ascertain through Internet searches and is only as accurate as that data allows. If you find any information to be inaccurate, we would love to know what the truth really is. Thanks.
TRIVIA QUESTION #1. How many FBS Head Coaches are coaching at their Alma Mater? How many can you name?
TRIVIA QUESTION #2. What college has produced the most FBS Head Coaches?
TRIVIA QUESTION #3. What is the most popular position played by Head Coaches in their collegiate careers?
TRIVIA QUESTION #4. Who is the FBS Head Coach that played baseball in college, but not football?
TRIVIA QUESTION #5. Who are the 5 current FBS Head Coaches who have been coaching the same school they are now with for 15 years or more? (Not counting 2015.)
BUFFER ZONE
You can join the SOD CFB College Football Poll by submitting your Top 25 to sodcfb@yahoo.com. Our Pre-Season Top 25 are:
ANSWER #1. 15. There are 15 FBS Head Coaches, including 3 who are new to their team this year, coaching at the same college where they attended college. They are: Terry Calhoun (Air Force); Scott Satterfield (Appalachian State); Bryan Harsin (Boise State); John Bonamego (Central Michigan); Ruffin McNeill (East Carolina); Paul Haynes (Kent State); Jim Harbaugh (Michigan); Pat Fitzgerald (Northwestern); Mike Gundy (Oklahoma State); David Shaw (Stanford); Kliff Kingsbury (Texas Tech); Matt Wells (Utah State); Sean Kugler (UTEP); Frank Beamer (Virginia Tech); Paul Chryst (Wisconsin).
ANSWER #2. Iowa. There are 5 FBS Head Coaches that list Iowa as their Alma Mater. They are: Bret Bielema (Arkansas); Bob Diaco (Connecticut); Dan McCarney (North Texas); Bob Stoops (Oklahoma); Mark Stoops (Kentucky). Four Head Coaches list Alabama as their Alma Mater. Three Head Coaches come from BYU, Kent State and West Virginia.
ANSWER #3. QB. 39 of the 129 FBS Head Coaches list QB as the position they played in college. A couple of them list QB as one of two positions they played. DB is the next most popular position played by FBS Head Coaches, followed by WR then LB.
ANSWER #4. California’s Head Coach, Sonny Dykes, played baseball at Texas Tech.
ANSWER #5. Frank Beamer (Virginia Tech, 28 years); Bill Snyder (Kansas State, 23 not-consecutive); Bob Stoops (Oklahoma, 16); Kirk Ferentz (Iowa, 16); Gary Patterson (TCU, 15). Both Gary Pinkel, at Missouri, and Mark Richt, at Georgia, are entering their 15th year as the Head Coach at their respective schools.
Trivia Tuesday – Football and Basketball Championships
March Madness is now upon us and SOD gets just as caught up in the basketball hysteria as many others of you. I, too, will fill out a bracket that gets all busted before the end of the 1st weekend. It’s a yearly tradition in our house; my wife, who doesn’t follow the game very closely, and I, who watches intently all season long, will each fill out brackets and track our results. She has about a 15 year winning streak going on me – she always kicks my football lov’n backside. But, this is a College Football Blog and it is Trivia Tuesday; so, today’s trivia will focus on Football and Basketball.
QUESTION #1. You probably heard in the build up to the National Championship game the coincidence that Ohio State and Oregon also played in the first ever NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship. The then called Webfoots from Oregon beat Ohio State, 46 – 33 in that game. But, do you know what other two teams made up the first Final Four?
QUESTION #2. This one is pretty easy. SOD looked to see how many times the same school was the reigning Football Champion and Basketball Champion. It has only happened once and that was pretty recently. What is the only school to be both Football Champions and Basketball Champions in the same off season? (It gets weird because the Football Champion is listed as the previous year – but, they would both be Champions over the same summer.) Not only that, but they achieved this feat by beating the same school in the championship for each sport.
QUESTION #3. Now here’s the tougher one. To make what the team that is the answer to Question #2 did so remarkable, there are only 10 schools that have ever won at least 1 of each national championships over all the years. Name the 10 schools that have at least 1 National Football Championship and 1 National Basketball Championship.
THE BUFFER ZONE
ANSWER #1. In the semi-finals of that first ever NCAA Championship Tournament, Ohio State defeated Villanova, 53 – 36 in the East Bracket and Oregon defeated Oklahoma, 55 – 37 in the West. The entire tournament consisted of only 8 teams and was played on the campus of Northwestern University in Evanstown, IL.
ANSWER #2. The Florida Gators won the BCS Championship Game over Ohio State to conclude the 2006 season and then won the 2007 NCAA Basketball Championship by beating the Buckeyes again on the hardwood.
ANSWER #3. The 10 schools to have at least 1 National Football Championship and 1 NCAA Basketball Championship are:
Arkansas – Football Co-Champs in 1964 (with Alabama and Notre Dame); Basketball Champs in 1994
California – Football: 1920, 1921 (with Cornell), 1922 (with Cornell); Basketball: 1959
Florida – Football: 1996, 2006, 2008; Basketball: 2006, 2007
Maryland – Football: 1953; Basketball: 2002
Michigan – Football: 1901, 1903 (with Princeton), 1904 (with Pennsylvania), 1918 (with Pittsburgh), 1923 (with Illinois), 1933, 1948, 1997 (with Nebraska); Basketball: 1989
Michigan State – Football: 1952, 1965 (with Alabama), 1966 (with Notre Dame); Basketball: 1979, 2000
Ohio State – Football: 1942, 1954 (with UCLA), 1957 (with Auburn), 1961 (with Alabama), 1968, 1970 (with Nebraska and Texas), 2002, 2014; Basketball: 1960
Stanford – Football: 1926 (with Alabama); Basketball: 1942
Syracuse – Football: 1959; Basketball: 2003
UCLA – Football 1954 (with Ohio State); Basketball: 1964, 1965, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1995
NOTE: This information is from the NCAA List of recognized champions. SOD did not look at NIT Champions for the years that this was the premier end-of-season basketball championship.
Trivia Tuesday – Power 5 Conferences
In recent years, there has been a lot of shuffling of College Football Conferences. And, if you believe Some Other Dude, there is more yet to come as we advance upon the age of the Mega-Conferences. But, SOD wonders, how well do you know the history of the current Power 5 Conferences?
THE TRIVIA CHALLENGE
Name the original teams in each of the current Power 5 Conferences.
THE BUFFER ZONE
THE ANSWERS
The Atlantic Coast Conference. Even though we appear to be headed to 16 team Mega-Conferences, back in history there was an even mega-er conference; the Southern Conference. The Southern Conference, at one time, consisted of 23 teams and eventually splintered into other, smaller conferences. One of those splinter conferences was the ACC which officially formed as a conference in 1953. The 7 charter members of the ACC were: Clemson, Duke, Maryland, North Carolina, North Carolina State, South Carolina and Wake Forest. Only South Carolina no longer calls the ACC home as they eventually joined the other splinter conference with former Southern Conference brethren. Link to information source.
The Big 12. The history of the Big 12 is a little more convoluted than that of the other conferences. The Big 12 itself wasn’t formed until 1994 when teams from the Big 8 merged with teams from the Southwest Conference. The Big 8 Conference was originally chartered in 1907 as the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association and eventually became known as the Big 6 and then grew up to become the Big 8. The original members of this conference were: Iowa (two-timing with the Big Ten), Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and Washington University in St. Louis. Only Kansas remains as a current member of The Big 12. Link to information source. The Southwest Conference was first formed in 1912, consisting of: Arkansas, Baylor, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Rice, Texas and Texas A&M. Baylor, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Texas remain as current members of the Big 12. Link to information source.
The Big Ten. The name “The Big Ten” was actually not officially incorporated until 1987, but the conference referred to as the Big Ten has been around since 1905. The original conference was made up of 7 teams in what was known as the “Intercollegiate Conference Athletic Association”. In 1917, when the conference had expanded to 10 teams, it was labeled the “Big Ten” by members of the media. The original members of this so-called Big Ten Conference were: Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Northwestern, Ohio State, Purdue, University of Chicago and Wisconsin. Only the University of Chicago is not a member of that conference today. Link to information source.
The Pac 12. The Pac 12 Conference started off as a little seedling conference that eventually grew up into the Pac 12. Forming in 1916 as the Pacific Coast Conference, its original members stood at only 4 schools: California, Oregon, Oregon Agricultural College (later known as Oregon State) and Washington. All four schools still remain in the conference today. Interestingly, Idaho and Montana were one time members of this conference and the conference was disbanded and re-assembled in 1959 due to a pay-for-play scandal. The re-formed conference was called the Athletic Association of Western Universities, commonly known as the Big 5. After growing once again, the conference started being referred to as the Pacific 8 in 1964 and officially became the Pacific 8 in 1968, the Pac 10 in 1978 and the Pac 12 in 2011. Link to information source.
The SEC. The SEC preceded the ACC in splintering away from the huge Southern Conference when 13 schools left in 1932 to form their own conference. The 13 schools that made up the first version of the Southeastern Conference were: Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Kentucky, LSU, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Sewanee (University of the South), Tennessee, Tulane and Vanderbilt. Georgia Tech now resides in the ACC; Tulane, although still an FBS school is no longer a member of a Power 5 Conference; and, Sewanee, after having decided to de-emphasize sports in 1940, currently competes in Division III athletics. Link to information source.
Greatest College Football Games Never Played
As we sit in the off season and wait for August to roll around again, SOD likes to look ahead at the upcoming schedules. In so doing, I was wondering, “What are some great football match-ups that haven’t yet occurred?” What are the greatest games never played?
To answer this question, SOD looked at the schools with the all-time winningest records and identified which of these schools have never played each other.
Like all of SOD’s, unscientific research, the results are only as good as my internet search skills allow – so, my findings may contain some erroneous data, but, the following table lists those match-ups of current FBS schools listed in the top 30 of all-time winningest programs that have not matched up against each other, as best as I could discover.
Many of these unplayed games make geographic sense, but a few of them are surprising and, almost all of them, would make great match-ups in future schedules.
A few observations:
Probably the most surprising games not yet played are: Tennessee v West Virginia and Penn State v Virginia Tech. It is also surprising to see that Oklahoma has never played Georgia and Arkansas has never gone up against Clemson. All of these non-games should be played!
The one team that shows up most often on this list is Washington. The Huskies have not yet matched up against 8 of the 23 other teams on top of the list of winningest programs. I know that the Dawgs are tucked away in the Pacific Northwest corner of the US and many of these teams are Eastern and Southern schools, but, come on Dawgs, you need to get out more!
SOD looked over this list and tried to determine which game would most likely be a National Championship Game? I’d probably have to go with Oklahoma v Georgia.
As we venture deeper into the new world order of the FBS playoff and schedule strength starts to play a bigger and bigger role in who gets selected to participate in the playoffs, SOD believes that we will see fewer and fewer cupcakes on FBS teams’ schedules. As a result, the list of unplayed games shown above would be a great place to start in finding non-conference games to play. Really – which one of those games would you not want to see played and have your team go up against some patsy instead?
Oh well, a guy can dream can’t he?
Colleges Represented on NFL Rosters
Today’s blog is almost an extension of yesterday’s article on “The Rich Getting Richer”.
Yesterday, we made the observation that the FBS schools on top of the Recruiting Class list are the same teams on the top of the Team Rankings at the end of the year, and, these teams seem to be pretty much the same year in and year out with little variation. Seems rather obvious, wouldn’t you say?
So, with it being a Friday and all, and, with Some Other Dude’s brain already in weekend mode, let’s make another obvious connection: One would expect that these same schools would lead the list of colleges with the most ex-players (I almost typed “graduates” – what was I thinking!?) on NFL rosters. And, you would be right. Let’s take a look.
The following table tallies the top schools in terms of players on NFL rosters; shows their current ranking in 2015 recruiting classes (according to ESPN); their ranking in most appearances in the Final AP Poll; and their final ranking in the 2014 AP poll.
Just the vicious cycle one might expect to see: do well in recruiting, and you will do well in the polls, and you will put lots of players in the NFL. And, the reverse is also true – put lots of players in the NFL and do well in the polls and it will help you with recruiting.
A few anomalies do stick out, however. Like … what is California doing so high up on the list of players on NFL rosters!? The Golden Bears do not have highly rated recruiting classes; they don’t finish in the AP Final Poll too often, and yet, they have the 11th most number of former players in the NFL. That was a little surprising.
Clemson and Texas A&M have highly rated recruiting classes for 2015 (3 & 8 respectively) but only rank 23 and 25 in number of players in the NFL. You would expect them to start moving up that chart with the recent recruiting success they have achieved.
This chart also supports the observation made in yesterday’s blog that Oregon is a relative newcomer to the elite football programs club with a low ranking in the number of appearances in the final AP poll but high rankings in all the other categories.
This chart also seems to suggest that Miami-FL and Florida are programs that are slipping a bit of late. Also missing from the table are Michigan, Nebraska and Penn State – all programs that rank in the top 10 for number of appearances in the final AP Poll but not in the top 15 for current NFL players. This may suggest that their fall from the top has gone on a little bit longer.
With the Super Bowl just two days away, this chart has been making its rounds through social media.
A neat little chart, but with only a two team sample it can skew the real results. A school like Rutgers can wave this banner at potential recruits as evidence that they put good players in the NFL. Even schools like Utah State and Kent State can be proud of this chart. But, when you look at the whole picture, Rutgers ranks tied for 34th with 18 players on NFL rosters; Utah State falls in at tied for 60 with 11; and, Kent State ranks tied for 70th with 9.
All of this is just fun facts to throw around while we await the Super Bowl on Sunday and Signing Day on Wednesday. The fun just never stops.
The Rich Getting Richer
National Signing Day, the first day High School seniors can officially commit to the college they will attend, is just around the corner, Wednesday, February 4. If you have found yourself to this blog that is probably something you already know and are looking forward to.
No real surprises are expected, as regards to the top classes; there may be a few individual commit surprises, but not enough to drastically change the class rankings. In some people’s minds it’s just more of, “the rich getting richer”. Some Other Dude thinks of it more as, “the rich staying rich”. One of the downfalls of signing such elite classes year after year is the resulting high number, relatively speaking, of early declarers into the NFL Draft each year – so, SOD thinks of it more as replacing your riches as opposed to adding to them.
If you look at the Class Rankings from any number of Recruiting Web Sites, you see the same, usual suspects at the top of the list. The ESPN Top 10, for example, lists, in order from 1 – 10: Alabama, Florida State, Clemson, Georgia, Tennessee, USC, Ohio State, Texas A&M, Texas, and Notre Dame. All elite programs, maintaining their elite status. To no one’s surprise, 6 out of those 10 teams finished 2014 in the AP Top 25 rankings. Just the rich staying rich.
So, it seems to SOD that this pattern of Top Classes stays pretty consistent from year to year. This would support the feeling that the elite schools in college football stay pretty constant from year to year. I wonder, thinks SOD, am I influenced by recent events, or does history bear this out? If we grouped college football programs into classifications, such as: Elite Programs; Near Elite Programs; Middle of the Road Programs; Below Average Programs; and Bottom Dwellers, how hard is it for one program to move from one grouping to another, and, how often does that occur?
Just relying on SOD’s instinct, it seems there are not that many programs that have moved into Elite or Near Elite status in recent history. Just go down this years’ Final AP Poll and put a label on each program and how long they’ve been in that classification. Go ahead, I’ll wait.
SOD, using only his instinct and, rather challenged, memory, labeled the Top 10 this way:
- Ohio State – Elite for a long time
- Oregon – Relatively new Elite
- TCU –Near Elite, moving upwards
- Alabama – Elite for a long time
- Michigan State – Moves between Elite and Near Elite
- Florida State – Moves between Elite and Near Elite – Mostly Elite
- Baylor – Newly Near Elite, moving upwards
- Georgia Tech – Fluctuates through all categories
- UCLA – Moves between Elite and Near Elite
Interested to see if facts support perception, SOD found this web page that lists the total number of appearances each school has in the final AP Poll throughout the years.
At the top of the list is Michigan, with 57 appearances. The Wolverines have fallen on hard times of late but have had a long enough history of being an elite program that it is going to take more than a few years of mediocrity to knock them from this group. And, Jim Harbaugh might have some magic to help get them back into the club.
Tied for 2nd with 54 appearances are Oklahoma and Ohio State. Elite and elite, although Oklahoma is at risk of slipping a bit if they don’t get back into Top 10 levels soon.
And, as you continue down the list there are no real surprises – one elite program after another. Those with a deep history of being top programs are the same ones that are tops today – for the most part. Certainly you have programs that have periods of mediocrity sprinkled in, but, you wouldn’t be surprised to see them bounce back to the top soon. For instance, programs like Tennessee, which hasn’t had a Top 10 team for some time, weighs in at #9 all time. The Volunteers haven’t finished in the final AP Poll since 2007, when they were ranked #12, and haven’t been in the Top 10 since 2001 (#4). Tennessee is slipping down the list, but, it wouldn’t be a huge surprise to see them back in the polls in the near future, especially given their Top 10 ranking in this year’s recruiting class.
This list does suggest that some of today’s better programs are new members to the Elite and Near Elite category, as SOD suspected. TCU, a team that probably deserved a spot in this years’ playoff, ranks 29 on the all-time list. Oregon, an elite program today, ranks only 39 on the list. The Ducks have only 15 appearances in the Final AP Poll, 14 of them since 1994 and 11 appearances since 2000. So, the Ducks are proof that a program can move up through the classifications – but, they are that rare breed.
And, there are programs, like Georgia Tech, that seem to enjoy a roller-coaster ride through the classifications. The Yellow Jackets have 25 appearances in the final rankings scattered throughout the decades, never staying too long and never being absent for too long.
So, let’s do one final comparison; let’s compare the Top 25 in the Final AP Poll for the decade years against 2014.
- The 2010 Final AP Poll included 11 of the same teams as in the Final 2014 Poll.
- The 2000 Final AP Poll included 10 of the same teams as in the Final 2014 Poll.
- The 1990 Final AP Poll included 6 of the same teams as in the Final 2014 Poll.
- The 1980 Final AP Poll included 7 of the same teams as in the Final 2014 Poll.
- The 1970 Final AP Poll included 6 of the same teams as in the Final 2014 Poll
- The 1960 Final AP Poll included 7 of the same teams as in the Final 2014 Poll.
- The 1950 Final AP Poll included 4 of the same teams as in the Final 2014 Poll.
- The 1940 Final AP Poll included 3 of the same teams as in the Final 2014 Poll.
NOTE: The 1940 – 1980 Polls only ranked the Top 20 teams.
So, if you go back far enough, the list of elite teams changes a bit more drastically, but, over the past 50 years or so, it appears that it is rather difficult for teams to move up on the elite program scale. But, programs like Oregon and Baylor show that it can be done. And, there are other programs, like Rutgers for instance, that have slowly moved up from Bottom Dwellers to Middle of the Road that could be on the precipice of Near Elite or higher, especially given the recent change in conference affiliation.
It is a slowly changing landscape, but, if you root for one of those teams on the journey, it can be a fun ride.
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