There’s a narrative that has been pushed that no coach in school history has ever played a schedule like Neal Brown did. That from the start, the multiple Power Five nonconference foes dealt him a hand never before seen in program history.
That might well be true, from a pure “played more P5/P4 foes than anybody else.” A deeper dive into the numbers reveals, however, that many of those opponents weren’t that great, and I think we all know this from seeing Virginia Tech and Maryland and at times Pitt.
Let’s take a look, and end this idea.
Using TeamRankings.com, which offers everything from SOS to power rankings, neutral site rankings, conference ratings, etc. - and is close to ESPN’s rankings - here are the numbers:
The stats went back as far as the 2003 season, so we start there.
From 2003-2007, Rich Rodriguez faced schedules ranked 38, 68, 24, 22 and 4. That’s an average of 31.2.
In Stewart’s three seasons, the average was 47.3 (54, 48, 40).
In Holgorsen’s 8 years, the average SOS was 29.75. (40, 22, 56, 18, 27, 26, 30, 19)
In Brown’s six seasons, he has had schedules ranked 53, 48, 27, 20, 40 and 43.
That’s an average of 38.5 SOS.
That places Brown’s difficulty well behind that of Dana, solidly behind that of Rodriguez, and solidly ahead of Stewart.
Rodriguez had three seasons (from 2003-07) of schedules ranked in the Top 25.
Brown has had one in six years. Dana had 8 seasons, two of which were Top 25 SOS.
If you go Top 30, Brown has two, and Holgorsen has six.
6 of 8 in the top 30 for Dana. It’s not even comparable.
Every year from 20014-18, inclusive, WVU played a top 30 schedule. Neal’s first two years?
53rd and 48th.
His last two? 40th and 43rd - which tie for the 7th and 8th easiest schedules in the last 22 seasons.
If one looks at the past 30 years, which are all the data points available via that site, of the “easiest” 10 schedules Brown has four of them. In six years.
His winning percentage is well below that of the previous three WVU head coaches. Brown finishes at 51.7 compared to 59.8 (Holgorsen), 70 (Stewart) and 69.8 (Rodriguez).
Let’s cut the faux schedule outrage.
That might well be true, from a pure “played more P5/P4 foes than anybody else.” A deeper dive into the numbers reveals, however, that many of those opponents weren’t that great, and I think we all know this from seeing Virginia Tech and Maryland and at times Pitt.
Let’s take a look, and end this idea.
Using TeamRankings.com, which offers everything from SOS to power rankings, neutral site rankings, conference ratings, etc. - and is close to ESPN’s rankings - here are the numbers:
The stats went back as far as the 2003 season, so we start there.
From 2003-2007, Rich Rodriguez faced schedules ranked 38, 68, 24, 22 and 4. That’s an average of 31.2.
In Stewart’s three seasons, the average was 47.3 (54, 48, 40).
In Holgorsen’s 8 years, the average SOS was 29.75. (40, 22, 56, 18, 27, 26, 30, 19)
In Brown’s six seasons, he has had schedules ranked 53, 48, 27, 20, 40 and 43.
That’s an average of 38.5 SOS.
That places Brown’s difficulty well behind that of Dana, solidly behind that of Rodriguez, and solidly ahead of Stewart.
Rodriguez had three seasons (from 2003-07) of schedules ranked in the Top 25.
Brown has had one in six years. Dana had 8 seasons, two of which were Top 25 SOS.
If you go Top 30, Brown has two, and Holgorsen has six.
6 of 8 in the top 30 for Dana. It’s not even comparable.
Every year from 20014-18, inclusive, WVU played a top 30 schedule. Neal’s first two years?
53rd and 48th.
His last two? 40th and 43rd - which tie for the 7th and 8th easiest schedules in the last 22 seasons.
If one looks at the past 30 years, which are all the data points available via that site, of the “easiest” 10 schedules Brown has four of them. In six years.
His winning percentage is well below that of the previous three WVU head coaches. Brown finishes at 51.7 compared to 59.8 (Holgorsen), 70 (Stewart) and 69.8 (Rodriguez).
Let’s cut the faux schedule outrage.
