Since paterno has dropped and Bowden is the supposed new leader can we get a subsection in the record books for most d1 victories? It doesn't seem right that Bowden is ahead of Bryant when 150 or so of his victories are at Samford. That has always bothered me.
New all time wins leader question
- Thread starter ecra-joe
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Instead of worrying about Bowden having more wins than Bryant, let's just wait for Saban to get more wins than Bowden. :biggrin2:
Caught the smilie, but for kicks I ran the numbers - CNS would have to average 12 wins/season (what he's done for the last four years) for the next 19.33 seasons to pass CBB.
Wow.
He was a bit slower than some other HC's to "catch on," and then the start-overs and the year in the NFL didn't help...
It is still beyond belief to me that Coach Saban was an assistant for 23 years. That just doesn't even seem possible.
You would think that someone, somewhere would have offered him a HC job long before he got one.
I am not surprised at how many wins Saban or any other coach would need to pass CPB . What is interesting is the younger generation doesnt realize how good CPB was. I was lucky to be old enough to recall the 70's and that was a amazing run. I feel really blessed to see three of our finest coaches. We are very very lucky.
Don't forget that for most of CPB's head coaching career, the regular season was only 10 games, 11 if you went to a bowl (and there were MUCH fewer bowls - 10 to 13 bowls for most of his career). There were also no championship games. Regular seasons didn't lengthen to 11 games until 1970. Nowadays, six wins isn't a guarantee to even make a bowl game. It's batting .500. In the 60's, six regular season wins was almost a lock to get you to a low/mid-tier bowl game in post-season play, comparable to an 8-4 regular season of today. So what CPB did in his career, he did with fewer opportunities. What CNS has the potential to do in 10 years of perfect seasons would have taken CPB almost 13 years of perfect seasons. And CNS almost certainly STILL wont pass him, as successful as he's been. Makes it all the more impressive.
You want to hear something from out of this world?
Coach Bryant was only six plays from having SIX STRAIGHT unbeaten seasons
(1961-66). During that time frame here are the losses:
1962 - Ga Tech (7-6)
1963 - Florida (10-6), Auburn (10-8)
1964 - Texas (21-17)
1965 - Georgia (18-17), Tennessee (10-10)
Then consider that Georgia and Texas both won on horrific officiating calls that
would be overturned nowadays.
I mean folks - that's INSANE!!!
Even that great Nebraska team of 1994-97 got blown out by Arizona State in 1996 (19-0).
But then here's the even bigger kicker:
2 plays in 1972 (Auburn by 1, Texas by 4)
1 play in 1973 (ND by 1)
1 play in 1974 (ND by 2)
And the Tide wins three in a row again unbeaten.
Or
1977 - 1 play vs Nebraska
1978 - 2 plays vs USC
1980 - 1 play vs MSU, 1 vs ND
1981 - 1 play vs Ga Tech, 1 vs Texas, 1 vs USM
And you have four more titles.
We are talking out of the universe. Basically, look at it like this:
Alabama was 17 total plays away from winning THIRTEEN national titles in 20 years,
and an argument could be made that would have swayed the votes to win in 1975 had
we been three-time champion.
What this means is that even when Alabama lost (which was rare), we did not embarrass
ourselves. (Which no doubt is why the pasting USM gave us in 1982 was so shocking).
Coach Bryant was only six plays from having SIX STRAIGHT unbeaten seasons
(1961-66). During that time frame here are the losses:
1962 - Ga Tech (7-6)
1963 - Florida (10-6), Auburn (10-8)
1964 - Texas (21-17)
1965 - Georgia (18-17), Tennessee (10-10)
Then consider that Georgia and Texas both won on horrific officiating calls that
would be overturned nowadays.
I mean folks - that's INSANE!!!
Even that great Nebraska team of 1994-97 got blown out by Arizona State in 1996 (19-0).
But then here's the even bigger kicker:
2 plays in 1972 (Auburn by 1, Texas by 4)
1 play in 1973 (ND by 1)
1 play in 1974 (ND by 2)
And the Tide wins three in a row again unbeaten.
Or
1977 - 1 play vs Nebraska
1978 - 2 plays vs USC
1980 - 1 play vs MSU, 1 vs ND
1981 - 1 play vs Ga Tech, 1 vs Texas, 1 vs USM
And you have four more titles.
We are talking out of the universe. Basically, look at it like this:
Alabama was 17 total plays away from winning THIRTEEN national titles in 20 years,
and an argument could be made that would have swayed the votes to win in 1975 had
we been three-time champion.
What this means is that even when Alabama lost (which was rare), we did not embarrass
ourselves. (Which no doubt is why the pasting USM gave us in 1982 was so shocking).
I agree with your point about playing fewer games but you are off the mark on the bowl games. There were far fewer bowls in the 60's and 70's so in order to get in a bowl it was much harder during that time. Of coarse Bama made it in every year which makes Coach Bryants run even more impressive. Today more teams with 6-6 records get in than ever before.
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Now that's some good statistics that I'd never thought about. Just shows what a great coach we had in the late, 1950's, 1960's, 1970's and early 1980's.
I'm so glad Coach Bryant retired when he did, because the Barn coach I'm sure was using his age in getting Bo J., et al. JoePa should have retired before he turned 70 and Penn State would not be in the predicament that currently exists.
Actually, I'm not off the mark at all. The fact that there are more bowl opportunities in 2012 than there were 50 years ago in 1962 is EXACTLY my point. Nonetheless, since I was talking about opportunities for total wins, I was trying to make the point that because the regular season was shorter 50 years ago (10 games vs 12), it generally took equal or less total wins to get to a bowl, even though those equal or fewer wins were harder to achieve (6-3 in 1962 > 6-6 in 2012). Maybe I could have made my point more clearly, but I'm glad we're in agreement.
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