David Cutcliffe at Duke.
we have not been great but would anyone have wanted to trade places with duke and washington state before cutcliffe and leach?cutcliffe inherited worse than what marrone did, not what shafer did. Completely different.
yes! no one wants to think about probabilities with this stuff. there are so many teams, there's always going to be an exception that can be used to prop up any possible story.Exceptions to strong correlations do not disprove the correlation. If Scooch's data suggests that the vast majority of successful coaches show improvement in win-loss totals by year 3, pointing out exceptions like Cutcliffe and Beamer does not invalidate the correlation. There are probably 1000s of people (just making up numbers here) who smoke 2 packs a day and never get lung cancer. Does that prove that smoking does not cause cancer?
If the majority of successful coaches show improvement in win-loss totals by year 3, does that mean that Shafer will not have a Cutcliffe like career? Nope. It does show that he is in a much larger "risk pool."
007 said:Exceptions to strong correlations do not disprove the correlation. If Scooch's data suggests that the vast majority of successful coaches show improvement in win-loss totals by year 3, pointing out exceptions like Cutcliffe and Beamer does not invalidate the correlation. There are probably 1000s of people (just making up numbers here) who smoke 2 packs a day and never get lung cancer. Does that prove that smoking does not cause cancer? If the majority of successful coaches show improvement in win-loss totals by year 3, does that mean that Shafer will not have a Cutcliffe like career? Nope. It does show that he is in a much larger "risk pool."
I thought you were joking but looked it up and sure enough Shafer said it. I forgot all about it."Stats are for losers." - Scott Shafer
hello??
anyone??
is this thing on??
where are the pro-SS arguments against this??
Should I go spend time researching and pull up the 20 coaches that it took longer for starting with our own Coach Mac. I'll pass... says data.
As I always preface all of my stats-heavy posts, this is not perfect. There are outliers and qualifiers.
I took a look at coaches currently with teams in the AP top 25 to see how they did in year #3 at their program. I didn’t bother to look at coaches from powerhouse schools, so I excluded Ohio State, LSU, Alabama, ND, Florida, Oklahoma , Michigan and Florida State. What Bob Stoops did at Oklahoma in year #3, or Saban at ‘Bama, really has little bearing on how we should calibrate our expectations at SU.
I also excluded Houston since the coach hasn’t been there 3 years yet . So I’ve focused on what arguably could be the sixteen comparable top 25 programs with circumstances vaguely similar to SU. Again, NOT PERFECT, but at least a conversation starter.
Of the sixteen coaches I examined 11 had more wins in year 3 than what the program achieved the year prior to that coach’s arrival. 2 were the same and 3 were worse. To be fair, just 8 of those 16 programs had winning seasons before the coach’s arrival, so many faced a relatively low bar. Also to be fair, of those 3 that were worse it includes David Shaw following a 12-1 year and Kyle Whittingham following a 12-0 year. Exceedingly high bars.
Perhaps more telling, of the sixteen coaches 12 had more wins in year #3 of their tenure then than they had in year #1. Three had the same amount of wins, and just 1 had less.
I know what some of the immediate responses will be: this isn’t apples-to-apples with SU’s circumstances, we have young talent, we’re catching up to the rest of the ACC, this isn’t a fair peer set, etc. I get it. I do.
But this data suggests that generally speaking, in broad strokes, by year #3 a top 25 coach tends to be showing progress, if not outright marked improvement. Only one of these coaches actually backslid from year #1 to #3, and that was Mark Dantonio with a 1 win decline.
I know progress is rarely linear, and I’m sure someone can produce examples of ultimately successful coaches who struggled for 3 years before flourishing later. But I do find this data troubling. We should be seeing improvement from a record standpoint, and we’re not.
Falling off from the 8 win total we had the year before Shafer started would not be unheard of. But falling off to 3 or 4 wins in year #3 definitely would be for a coach that ultimately gets to the top 25.
Maybe we’ll finish strong and put this to bed, I think we’d all prefer that.
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Just a waste of time.Same arguments I made before...
The recruiting is better. The team is very young. I give him one more year.
Next year, no excuses. 7-5 or better.
HOWEVER, what is becoming increasingly concerning to me are two things:
1. In-game decisions. I don't think there is any need to elaborate here.
2. Extracurriculars. He is complaining about Golson's injury not being disclosed? Really????? What if they had both been healthy and Fisher had decided to bring in Maguire? Focus on what you can control and ignore that why you can't or that which is trivial. Like we would have won the game if we had known that Maguire was going to be the QB? We all knew that they were going to hand the ball off the entire second half and we still couldn't stop them. Gimme a break.
As I said, next year 7-5 or better...
so much making the perfect the enemy of the goodThanks for reading!
Just a waste of time.
Why is four years enough but three years is too soon?That is just a difference of opinion.
You think he is a lost cause.
I'm not there yet.
it's interesting that no one seems to be that upset that robinson was around for 2008.I think I was pretty unambiguous in my initial post that there are many exceptions to this data. I hope Shafer rips off 3 wins to close this season, wins a bowl, and has a long, successful career at SU.
But what this data indicates to me (note: not proves, just indicates) is that the oft-repeated comment that a coach needs 4 or 5 years is not necessarily true. Lots of currently successful coaches had their programs pointing in the right direction by year 3 of their tenure.
Millhouse said:it's interesting that no one seems to be that upset that robinson was around for 2008. all the frustration is concentrated on hiring him in the first place. but it's just sort of accepted that he got that extra year
Eh, GMs and ADs think that way sometimes. Maybe they're aware of the types of trends you identified.It's also interesting that the mantra when it comes to players (professionals, obviously, with contracts) is that it's better to cut a guy a year too early than a year too late.
No one seems to think that way re: coaches. Not perfectly analogous, but interesting.
Why is four years enough but three years is too soon?
Many said the same thing about Gerg in 2007. Playing a few freshmen and sophomores here and there doesn't mean you can't evaluate a head coach.Because the team this year is very young and inexperienced, other than the O-Line.
A lot of young guys getting a lot of playing time.
I wasn't happy he was hired and I wasn't happy he got the extra yearit's interesting that no one seems to be that upset that robinson was around for 2008.
all the frustration is concentrated on hiring him in the first place. but it's just sort of accepted that he got that extra year
i remember the sinking feeling the first time i heard west coastI wasn't happy he was hired and I wasn't happy he got the extra year