The Big 12's Winningest Football Coaches Since League Inception

Recently we saw an interesting analysis concerning Tim Griffin’s Big 12 Blog detailing Big Game Bob’s dominance over the rest of the league. I concede the argument to Oklahoma on the basis of Big 12 hardware, though the postseason letdowns are becoming increasingly brutal for Sooners fans to endure and obfuscate Bob’s league dominance.

I was more interested in how the rest of the list shook out after Stoops and Mack Brown. Obviously, you need to view it qualitatively since the numbers don’t adjust for tenure.

Snyder and Leach are No. 3 and No. 4 respectively and although that’s something I knew intellectually, it’s striking to see arguably the two most resource deprived schools in the league (I suppose Iowa St has an argument) acquitting themselves quite well. Leach wins with scheme and a contempt for orthodoxy, and Snyder won by building the best group of assistants in college football.

You might argue that Tech should succeed by virtue of sitting in the talent-rich state of Texas, but if by “in Texas” you mean Tech is 300+ miles from the first batch of athletes and 650 miles from the highest concentrations, I suppose I’ll agree. They’re less proximate to East Texas talent than half of the SEC and less proximate to Dallas talent than Little Rock.

See what I mean?

Kansas State is even more geographically godforsaken and though their academic standards open up some avenues for recruiting, there are plenty of places more desirable to play football that don’t check transcripts either.

Texas A&M is the great underachiever on this list even though good ‘ol RC checks in No. 5. Like UCLA, A&M football somehow manages to always be less than the sum of its parts. Unlike UCLA, they manage to do it while caring about football deeply.

You could argue from his record that Frank Solich got a raw deal, but he didn’t. Callahan was just a terrible hire. The Solich program was in massive decline and it was written all over the recruiting. Everyone can Larry Coker it for a while, but reality sets in with each graduating class.

What jumps out to you?

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This article was written by Scipio Tex of Barking Carnival.

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