Now
Career arc
Bowls and playoffs: 2-8
Wyoming’76LTexas’77L’78W’79L’80L’81W’82L’83L’84L’85L
Show all 10 games
1976Fiesta BowlL 7-41TexasND1977Cotton Bowl ClassicL 10-38
1978Sun BowlW 42-0
1979Sun BowlL 7-14
1980Astro-Bluebonnet BowlL 7-16
1981Cotton Bowl ClassicW 14-121982Sun BowlL 10-26
1983Cotton Bowl ClassicL 9-10
1984Freedom BowlL 17-55
1985Bluebonnet BowlL 16-24Stats
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.
0-2 against his rivals at Wyoming.
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.
18-11 against his rivals at Texas. Just 1-2 against Tom Wilson.
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.
1-3 against his rivals at Purdue. Winless in 4 tries against Don James.
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.
19-16 against his rivals. Just 1-4 against Bill Mallory.
Building the roster
Three numbers on how he actually stocks a roster, from signing day to draft day.
Followed him here
Wyoming→
Texas1977Texas→
Purdue1987Players 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
This coach's entire tenure (1987-1990) 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
The NFL pipeline
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.
At least 4 — the draft class following his 1987 season is missing from this table entirely; and his 1988, 1989, 1990 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.
| Year | Pick | Player | Pos | NFL team | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1991 | R3.16 | Steve Jackson | Defensive Back |  Houston Oilers | Estimated |
| 1991 | R5.07 | Scott Conover | Offensive Guard |  Detroit Lions | Estimated |
| 1990 | R5.24 | Calvin Williams | Wide Receiver |  Philadelphia Eagles | Estimated |
| 1989 | R4.07 | Jerrol Williams | Linebacker |  Pittsburgh Steelers | 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.
Career
Coaching career
The arc of his career is on Now.
Inheritor inherited a power and neither built it higher nor let it collapse · Steady no large move in either direction on our stature ladder
14th-best Purdue tenure of 21 by the numbers.
Followed Leon Burtnett (1982–1986) · succeeded by Jim Colletto (1991–1996).
3rd-best Texas tenure of 12 by the numbers.
Followed Darrell Royal (1957–1976) · succeeded by David McWilliams (1987–1991).
| Season | 1977 | 1978 | 1979 | 1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Record & result | |||||||||||
| Record | 11-1 | 9-3 | 9-3 | 7-5 | 10-1-1 | 9-3 | 11-1 | 7-4-1 | 8-4 | 5-6 | |
| Postseason | L bowl | W bowl | L bowl | L bowl | W bowl | L bowl | L bowl | L bowl | L bowl | — | |
| Outcome — opponent-adjusted efficiency percentile | |||||||||||
| Offense | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| Defense | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| Tendencies — play-by-play, neutral script | |||||||||||
| 1st-down pass% | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| Red-zone pass% | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| 4th-down go%opp. territory | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
38 NFL Draft picks: Earl Campbell (1978), Brad Shearer (1978), Alfred Jackson (1978), Russell Erxleben (1979), Johnny "Lam" Jones (1980), Johnnie Johnson (1980), Derrick Hatchett (1980), Steve McMichael (1980) + 30 more
Followed Fritz Shurmur (1971–1974) · succeeded by Bill Lewis (1977–1979).
| Season | 1975 | 1976 | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|
| Record & result | |||
| Record | 2-9 | 8-4 | |
| Postseason | — | L bowl | |
| Outcome — opponent-adjusted efficiency percentile | |||
| Offense | — | — | |
| Defense | — | — | |
| Tendencies — play-by-play, neutral script | |||
| 1st-down pass% | — | — | |
| Red-zone pass% | — | — | |
| 4th-down go%opp. territory | — | — | |
2 NFL Draft picks: Lawrence Gaines (1976), Aaron Kyle (1976)
All-time wins
Wins at programs this site tracks, 1936–present — one consistent count for every coach, not each program’s own historically reported total.
3rd all-time at Texas
Was he good?
Only one of the usual three angles is measurable for this era — raised the program.
-1.2 pts at Texas · #762 of 1290 · middle half