Now
Career arc
Bowls and playoffs: 3-4
2007International BowlL 30-52
2010Poinsettia BowlW 35-14
2021Frisco BowlW 38-24
2022Hawaii BowlL 23-25
2011Sugar BowlW 23-20
2012Outback BowlL 28-33
2013Buffalo Wild Wings BowlL 14-31Fans
No fan talk about him on our list yet. His record is on Career.
Stats
Big games
Pick a job to see its years on their own.
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.
2-3 against his rivals at Ball State. Winless in 3 tries against Brian Kelly.
Signature games






Tags describe each game; they aren’t scores. The weighting that picks these games is still being tested.
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.
Signature games






Tags describe each game; they aren’t scores. The weighting that picks these games is still being tested.
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.
4-8 against his rivals at Michigan. Winless in 3 tries against Urban Meyer.
Signature games






Tags describe each game; they aren’t scores. The weighting that picks these games is still being tested.
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.
1-2 against his rivals at San Diego State. Just 1-2 against Andy Avalos.
Signature games






Tags describe each game; they aren’t scores. The weighting that picks these games is still being tested.
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.
7-14 against his rivals. Winless in 3 tries against Gary Pinkel.
Signature games






Tags describe each game; they aren’t scores. The weighting that picks these games is still being tested.
ATS is his record against the spread: did his team beat the closing betting line, winning by more than it or losing by less? Lines start in 2013; a dash means fewer than 6 of those games had one. One-score games carry no spread record: a big favorite that wins a close game has almost always failed to cover, so that number would say nothing about the coach.
How he plays
Run/pass mix, by field position
Called about what the situation called for.
101 run and pass snaps at Tennessee, 2017–2017, his own games, one row per offensive coordinator. Each cell is how much more often he passed than the rest of FBS did in the same situation (field zone, down, distance, score, quarter, same season), in percentage points.
Pass rate, stint by stint
Where each stint’s offense sat between run-first and pass-first, and how far it moved from one season to the next, against the FBS-wide average of 41% pass. The band is that stint’s real season-to-season range, not a fixed-width box.
Season-to-season pass-rate range for all 449 FBS coaching stints with at least three covered seasons, 2004–2025.
Building the roster
Five numbers on how he actually stocks a roster, from signing day to draft day.
His recruiting, really
His 3 ranked San Diego State classes of his own have averaged #68 nationally — best #62, worst #78.
His class — he had the full signing cycleTransition — he was hired mid-cycle
Rank is each signing class’s national recruiting rank (#1 is best). Only a class he had a full signing cycle to build counts as his; inherited and mid-transition classes still show here, faded, but stay out of the average.
Followed him here
Ball State→
San Diego State2009Players who transferred from his old program to his new one through the portal in the same year he made the move. Name-matching across data sources misses some, so every count is a floor, not an exact number.
Roster ownership
Roster ownership
of his 2017 roster arrived on his watch — 121 of 121 players. Nobody is left from before he was hired.
This coach's entire tenure (2017-2017) 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.
Size up front
Size up front
Offensive linemen on his San Diego State rosters have averaged within a few pounds of the FBS average (2010–2023 (5 seasons) rosters on record).
Average listed weight of every offensive lineman on each season’s roster, holdovers included, against every FBS roster that season (2010 on; a program needs 3+ seasons under him to appear). Weights are the ones programs publish, and programs list differently. This describes size only — not scheme, and not quality.
Where he recruits
is his biggest recruiting state: 10 of 30 signees (33%) across his 2017–2017 tenure, drawn from 11 states in all. Next: FL (6).
60% of his signees come from TN and its 8 border states (GA 3, VA 2, AL 1, MS 1, NC 1).
Off this map: 1 signee to the west (TX).
- median hometown distance
- 194 mi
- within 100 mi
- 14%
- within 500 mi
- 81%
- beyond 1,000 mi
- 3%
The map counts signed recruits across his tenure; the distance figures cover his current roster, transfers and walk-ons included. Two different groups, kept separate on purpose.
News
No outlet on our list has written about him by name yet. His record is on Career.
Career
Coaching career
The arc of his career is on Now.
Steady no large move in either direction on our stature ladder
Followed Butch Jones (2013–2017) · succeeded by Jeremy Pruitt (2018–2020).
Underperforms his recruiting talent, on both sides of the ball.
12th-best Michigan tenure of 13 by the numbers.
Followed Rich Rodriguez (2008–2010) · succeeded by Jim Harbaugh (2015–2023).
| Season | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Record & result | |||||
| Record | 11-2 | 8-5 | 7-6 | 5-7 | |
| Postseason | W bowl | L bowl | L bowl | — | |
| Coordinators | |||||
| OC | — | — | — | Doug Nussmeier | |
| DC | — | — | — | Greg Mattison | |
| Outcome — opponent-adjusted efficiency percentile | |||||
| Offense | 43 | 61 | 52 | 30 | |
| Defense | 68 | 61 | 50 | 74 | |
| Tendencies — play-by-play, neutral script | |||||
| 1st-down pass% | 28.0 | 36.0 | 34.6 | 42.3 | |
| Red-zone pass% | 27.4 | 30.0 | 34.6 | 25.9 | |
| 4th-down go%opp. territory | 42.9 | 24.2 | 21.6 | 20.0 | |
11 NFL Draft picks: Mike Martin (2012), David Molk (2012), Junior Hemingway (2012), Denard Robinson (2013), William Campbell (2013), Taylor Lewan (2014), Michael Schofield (2014), Jeremy Gallon (2014) + 3 more
4th-best San Diego State tenure of 11 by the numbers.
Followed Chuck Long (2006–2008) · succeeded by Rocky Long (2011–2019) · returned in 2020 · succeeded by Sean Lewis (2024–now).
| Season | 2009 | 2010 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Record & result | |||||||
| Record | 4-8 | 9-4 | 4-4 | 12-2 | 7-6 | 4-8 | |
| Postseason | — | W bowl | — | W bowl | L bowl | — | |
| Coordinators | |||||||
| OC | — | — | Jeff Hecklinski | Jeff Hecklinski | Jeff Hecklinski | Ryan Lindley | |
| DC | — | — | Kurt Mattix | Kurt Mattix | Kurt Mattix | Kurt Mattix | |
| Outcome — opponent-adjusted efficiency percentile | |||||||
| Offense | 65 | 75 | 12 | 32 | 37 | 21 | |
| Defense | 41 | 76 | 100 | 85 | 94 | 25 | |
| Tendencies — play-by-play, neutral script | |||||||
| 1st-down pass% | 40.8 | 43.1 | 33.9 | 39.9 | 36.8 | 31.4 | |
| Red-zone pass% | 49.4 | 44.7 | 32.6 | 36.9 | 43.2 | 30.5 | |
| 4th-down go%opp. territory | 14.3 | 21.9 | 48.5 | 22.6 | 20.9 | 32.7 | |
Underperforms his recruiting talent on offense and outperforms his recruiting talent on defense.
Barely touches the portal — recruits and develops his own.
Typical size for position, once adjusted for position mix.
Recruits older, more experienced transfers than most.
7 NFL Draft picks: Vincent Brown (2011), Demarco Sampson (2011), Darren Hall (2021), Cameron Thomas (2022), Daniel Bellinger (2022), Matt Araiza (2022), Zachary Thomas (2022)
Coach of the Year: Mountain West Coach of the Year (2021)
2 player-seasons honored (All-America / national award): Matt Araiza (2021), Cameron Thomas (2021)
5th-best Ball State tenure of 10 by the numbers.
Followed Bill Lynch (1995–2002) · succeeded by Stan Parrish (2008–2010).
| Season | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Record & result | |||||||
| Record | 4-8 | 2-9 | 4-7 | 5-7 | 7-6 | 12-1 | |
| Postseason | — | — | — | — | L bowl | — | |
| Outcome — opponent-adjusted efficiency percentile | |||||||
| Offense | — | 44 | 6 | 33 | 84 | 83 | |
| Defense | — | 19 | 37 | 10 | 8 | 27 | |
| Tendencies — play-by-play, neutral script | |||||||
| 1st-down pass% | — | 38.6 | 36.5 | 41.1 | 43.8 | 40.6 | |
| Red-zone pass% | — | — | 43.1 | 42.9 | 42.2 | 32.8 | |
| 4th-down go%opp. territory | — | — | 30.8 | 28.2 | 17.6 | 16.7 | |
5 NFL Draft picks: Dante Ridgeway (2005), Justin Beriault (2005), Reggie Hodges (2005), Robert Brewster (2009), Nate Davis (2009)
Was he good?
A mixed record — ahead of expectations by some measures here, behind by others. The honest read is that it depends which lens you use.
+1.5 pts at Michigan · #579 of 1290 · middle half