Followed Scott Shafer. Dino Babers held Syracuse at Regional Program I for 8 seasons.
His real stature score, season by season, across every program he’s coached — so a stretch that stays in one tier the whole way can still climb or sink on the line, not just flatten out. Node color marks the tier reached. Which program a stretch belongs to is carried by the shaded lane behind it.
Reached Regional Program in his 1st career season — faster than 20% of the 925 FBS coaches who have ever reached Regional Program (rank #1 of 925 by seasons-to-arrival).
Where each stint’s offense sat between run-first and pass-first, and how far it moved from one season to the next. The band is that stint’s real season-to-season range, not a fixed-width box.
Season-to-season pass-rate range for all 258 FBS coaching stints with at least three covered seasons, 2014–2025.
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.
0–1 against his rivals. Winless in 3 tries against Brian Kelly.
A statistical estimate of this coach’s contribution to team performance, separated from that season’s roster talent, returning production, and his coordinators — pooled across his whole head-coaching career.
Model fit as of 2026-09-04.
Fan claims · every quote verified verbatim
**Where was the upgrade in talent**? That was supposed to be Brown's magic touch and yet I admit they've signed a sparse few 4 stars and the one 5 star this year, overall it's been almost exactly the same - not a big enough upgrade to make a difference for a program.
Based on 1 comment from 1 poster across 1 thread · Jan 6, 2026 · via cuse
9th-best Syracuse tenure of 14 by the numbers.
Underperforms his recruiting talent on offense and performs about as expected for his recruiting talent on defense.
Followed Scott Shafer (2013–2015) · succeeded by Fran Brown (2024–2026).
| Season | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Record & result | |||||||||
| Record | 4–8 | 4–8 | 10–3 | 5–7 | 1–10 | 5–7 | 7–6 | 1–1 | |
| Postseason | — | — | W bowl | — | — | — | L bowl | L bowl | |
| Recruiting rank | #62 | #54 | #51 | #54 | #59 | #57 | #68 | #88 | |
| Style — pass rate | |||||||||
| Pass rate | 53.8 | 53.4 | 43.6 | 44.9 | 51.4 | 36.9 | 45.5 | 37.3 | |
| Coordinators | |||||||||
| OC | Sean Lewis / Mike Lynch | Sean Lewis / Mike Lynch | Mike Lynch | Mike Lynch | Sterlin Gilbert | Sterlin Gilbert | Robert Anae | Jason Beck | |
| DC | Brian Ward | Brian Ward | Brian Ward | Brian Ward | Tony White | Tony White | Tony White | Rocky Long | |
| Outcome — opponent-adjusted efficiency percentile | |||||||||
| Offense | 18 | 27 | 55 | 32 | 2 | 39 | 46 | 11 | |
| Defense | 10 | 17 | 60 | 27 | 47 | 47 | 77 | 50 | |
| Tendencies — play-by-play, neutral script (2021+ only) | |||||||||
| 1st-down pass% | 53.8 | 53.2 | 43.7 | 45.0 | 45.2 | 26.3 | 45.8 | 35.0 | |
| Red-zone pass% | 43.3 | 41.3 | 33.8 | 54.1 | 51.0 | 25.9 | 46.1 | 35.4 | |
| 4th-down go%opp. territory | 43.2 | 46.6 | 20.8 | 31.7 | 34.4 | 34.5 | 25.0 | 38.5 | |
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.
9 NFL Draft picks: Riley Dixon (2016), Zaire Franklin (2018), Chris Slayton (2019), Alton Robinson (2020), Sterling Hofrichter (2020), Andre Cisco (2021), Ifeatu Melifonwu (2021), Matthew Bergeron (2023) + 1 more
1 player-season honored (All-America / national award): Sean Tucker (2021)
8th-best Bowling Green tenure of 14 by the numbers.
Outperforms his recruiting talent, on both sides of the ball.
Followed Dave Clawson (2009–2013) · succeeded by Mike Jinks (2016–2018).
| Season | 2014 | 2015 | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|
| Record & result | |||
| Record | 8–6 | 10–3 | |
| Postseason | W bowl | L bowl | |
| Recruiting rank | #105 | #104 | |
| Style — pass rate | |||
| Pass rate | 49.6 | 52.3 | |
| Coordinators | |||
| OC | Sterlin Gilbert | Sean Lewis / Mike Lynch | |
| DC | Kim McCloud | Brian Ward | |
| Outcome — opponent-adjusted efficiency percentile | |||
| Offense | 32 | 97 | |
| Defense | 32 | 67 | |
| Tendencies — play-by-play, neutral script (2021+ only) | |||
| 1st-down pass% | 43.5 | 55.4 | |
| Red-zone pass% | 31.5 | 38.5 | |
| 4th-down go%opp. territory | 33.3 | 66.7 | |