Alton Kircher

Head coach, Washington State, 1952 to 1955

College career13-25-2

Program liftNo. 959tied · of 1,290 tenures since 1937

Now

Career arc

Stats

Big games

The big-game ledger

How he does in the games that matter most — rivalry record, performance broken out by real opponent tier, one-score games, and his toughest historical matchup.

2-2 against his rivals. Winless in 4 tries against Jess Hill.

Rivalry record

2-2

50.0% · 1 rival

One-score games

5-4-2

45.5% · margin ≤8

Against Blue Bloods or better

0-1

0.0%

Rivalry ledger

Washington2-250%

The toughest matchup

vs. Jess Hill0-4

4 meetings, 1952–1955

’52 L’53 L’54 L’55 L

0% win rate across a real, 4-meeting series — short of the bar this site uses before badging a series “Nemesis.” Shown here as the toughest matchup on record, not an algorithmic crown.

Performance by opponent class

Blue Blood

0-1 0.0%

Power Program

0-12 0.0%

National Program

5-4 55.6%

Regional Program

6-7 46.2%

Building the roster

Two numbers on how he actually stocks a roster, from signing day to draft day.

1Roster ownership
2The NFL pipeline

Roster ownership

This coach's entire tenure (1952-1955) predates 2021, when transfer-portal tracking begins in this database. Portal usage cannot be measured for this tenure at all -- this is not the same as '0% portal'.

“His own” means the player arrived while he was head coach; “inherited” means a predecessor brought him in.

The NFL pipeline

at least4Drafted

players drafted into the NFL off his teams here (a floor — see the note below). None can be traced to who brought them in — there’s no roster record for these players here. 1 went in the first round.

At least 4 — his 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955 seasons predate the modern 7-round draft, so this table’s pre-1994 pick counts are a floor, not a full count, for those seasons.

0 roster-verified · 4 estimated

Most recent picks first

Year	Pick	Note
1954	R4.46	Estimated
1954	R7.70	Estimated
1953	R1.10	Estimated
1953	R6.68	Estimated

A pick counts toward his tenure when the player’s final college season was one he coached, a checkable rule rather than a claim about who developed the player. A blank note means the player is on a verified roster and arrived on his watch. “Estimated” means no roster record, so the final season is assumed to be the year before the draft.