Now
Career arc
Bowls and playoffs: 4-4
1989Independence BowlW 27-24CSU1990Freedom BowlL 31-32
1992Independence BowlL 35-39
1994Rose BowlL 20-38
Kentucky
2006Music City BowlW 28-20
2007Music City BowlW 35-28
2008Liberty BowlW 25-19
2009Music City BowlL 13-21Report card
Below the median offense — 49th percentile.
Kentucky, every completed season graded against the whole field, then averaged.
Offense
Each season is his team’s percentile among every team with that stat (the share it beat), averaged over his completed seasons here; a mid-season takeover year and the season in progress aren’t graded. Letters: A+ 90th percentile and up, A 80, B+ 70, B 60, B− 50, C+ 45, C 40, C− 30, D 15, F below.
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.
18-17 against his rivals at Oregon. Winless in 5 tries against Darryl Rogers.
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.
3-11 against his rivals at Kentucky. Winless in 5 tries against Steve Spurrier.
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.
21-28 against his rivals. Winless in 5 tries against Steve Spurrier.
Signature games
These losses tie at the model's current max -- an editorial pick among a real tie, not a clean ranking.
Tags describe each game; they aren’t scores. The weighting that picks these games is still being tested.
How he plays
Run/pass mix, by field position
Called about what the situation called for.
2,963 run and pass snaps at Kentucky, 2004–2009, 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. Play-by-play starts in 2004, so his earlier seasons there aren’t in it.
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
Three numbers on how he actually stocks a roster, from signing day to draft day.
Roster ownership
Roster ownership
of his 2009 roster arrived on his watch — 111 of 111 players. Nobody is left from before he was hired.
This coach's entire tenure (2003-2009) 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.
Where he recruits
is his biggest recruiting state: 11 of 43 signees (26%) across his 2003–2009 tenure, drawn from 13 states in all. Next: GA (8).
51% of his signees come from KY and its 7 border states (TN 7, OH 2, IN 1, VA 1).
Off this map: 4 signees to the west (CA 3, TX) and 2 to the south (FL 2).
- median hometown distance
- 187 mi
- within 100 mi
- 33%
- within 500 mi
- 80%
- beyond 1,000 mi
- 4%
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.
The NFL pipeline
The NFL pipeline
players drafted into the NFL off his teams here. None can be traced to who brought them in — there’s no roster record for these players here.
| Year | Pick | Player | Pos | NFL team | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | R3.19 | Corey Peters | Defensive Tackle |  Atlanta Falcons | Estimated |
| 2010 | R4.07 | Trevard Lindley | Cornerback |  Philadelphia Eagles | Estimated |
| 2010 | R5.08 | John Conner | Fullback |  New York Jets | Estimated |
| 2009 | R6.34 | Myron Pryor | Defensive Tackle |  New England Patriots | Estimated |
| 2008 | R4.28 | Jacob Tamme | Tight End |  Indianapolis Colts | Estimated |
| 2008 | R4.29 | Keenan Burton | Wide Receiver |  St. Louis Rams | Estimated |
| 2008 | R6.32 | Andre' Woodson | Quarterback |  New York Giants | Estimated |
| 2008 | R7.17 | Steve Johnson | Wide Receiver |  Buffalo Bills | Estimated |
| Year | Pick | Player | Pos | NFL team | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | R3.28 | Vincent Burns | Defensive End | Indianapolis Colts | Estimated |
| 2004 | R7.43 | Derek Abney | Wide Receiver |  Baltimore Ravens | 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.
Steady no large move in either direction on our stature ladder
12th-best Kentucky tenure of 16 by the numbers.
Followed Guy Morriss (2001–2002) · succeeded by Joker Phillips (2010–2012).
| Season | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Record & result | ||||||||
| Record | 4-8 | 2-9 | 3-8 | 8-5 | 8-5 | 7-6 | 7-6 | |
| Postseason | — | — | — | W bowl | W bowl | W bowl | L bowl | |
| Outcome — opponent-adjusted efficiency percentile | ||||||||
| Offense | — | 17 | 21 | 58 | 80 | 11 | 25 | |
| Defense | — | 39 | 26 | 12 | 21 | 45 | 28 | |
| Tendencies — play-by-play, neutral script | ||||||||
| 1st-down pass% | — | 39.7 | 44.7 | 53.9 | 50.1 | 43.7 | 29.9 | |
| Red-zone pass% | — | 32.0 | 32.7 | 46.2 | 47.6 | 39.2 | 27.0 | |
| 4th-down go%opp. territory | — | 44.4 | 38.9 | 37.9 | 32.6 | 18.5 | 40.5 | |
9th-best Oregon tenure of 16 by the numbers.
Followed Don Read (1974–1976) · succeeded by Mike Bellotti (1995–2008).
| Season | 1977 | 1978 | 1979 | 1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Record & result | |||||||||||||||||||
| Record | 2-9 | 2-9 | 6-5 | 6-3-2 | 2-9 | 2-8-1 | 4-6-1 | 6-5 | 5-6 | 5-6 | 6-5 | 6-6 | 8-4 | 8-4 | 3-8 | 6-6 | 5-6 | 9-4 | |
| Postseason | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | W 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 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
24 NFL Draft picks: Fred Quillan (1978), Terry Dion (1980), Bryan Hinkle (1981), Reggie Brown (1982), Vince Williams (1982), Mike Walter (1983), Steve Brown (1983), Steve Baack (1984) + 16 more
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.
2nd all-time at Oregon
Was he good?
Only one of the usual three angles is measurable for this era — raised the program.
+10.7 pts at Oregon · #198 of 1290 · top quarter