At least according to Sagarin. I am sitting in a waiting room bored out of my mind so I decided to look at a statistical comparison of our most recent coaches, going back to Widenhofer. According to Sagarin, the average ranking of our team dating back to 1997 is 79.1. For coaches not named James Franklin, it’s 86.6. Here is how they stack up:
Franklin: 34.33
B. Johnson: 80
Mason: 87.75
Widenhofer: 88.2
Caldwell: 126
If you remove their first year (installing system, getting players to fit, etc.), it looks like this:
Franklin: 30.5
Mason: 77
B. Johnson: 77.71
Widenhofer: 92.5
Caldwell: 126
**Caldwell’s inclusion is not really fair as he just coached one year on an interim basis but I knew someone would probably pipe up about it.
Mason’s first year (120) really hurt him in overall rankings. But when I see silly posts that say he’s the worst coach we have ever had, etc., I find it useful to look at statistics and see if that’s accurate. In this case, he is not even the worst or 2nd worst coach of the last two decades. I would venture to guess that Dowhower’s #’s were abysmal but I could only find data going back to 1997.
I don’t think Mason is the long-term answer. I think his first year was horrific. To his credit, he seems willing to make off-season adjustments, but it has to translate to better performance and wins this year. For me, this one is make or break. 6-7 wins should be achievable for Vanderbilt annually. Without a commitment from the administration for facilities, support, marketing, funding, etc., Mason (and every other coach) is going into a fight with one arm tied behind his back. Just not sure it’s fair to say that he would be fired at every other school due to his record. I think his record would be better at every other school because he would have better resources across the board which would impact on-the-field performance, fan support, recruiting, etc. I am much more concerned about the admin support than I am the coaching at this point.
Franklin: 34.33
B. Johnson: 80
Mason: 87.75
Widenhofer: 88.2
Caldwell: 126
If you remove their first year (installing system, getting players to fit, etc.), it looks like this:
Franklin: 30.5
Mason: 77
B. Johnson: 77.71
Widenhofer: 92.5
Caldwell: 126
**Caldwell’s inclusion is not really fair as he just coached one year on an interim basis but I knew someone would probably pipe up about it.
Mason’s first year (120) really hurt him in overall rankings. But when I see silly posts that say he’s the worst coach we have ever had, etc., I find it useful to look at statistics and see if that’s accurate. In this case, he is not even the worst or 2nd worst coach of the last two decades. I would venture to guess that Dowhower’s #’s were abysmal but I could only find data going back to 1997.
I don’t think Mason is the long-term answer. I think his first year was horrific. To his credit, he seems willing to make off-season adjustments, but it has to translate to better performance and wins this year. For me, this one is make or break. 6-7 wins should be achievable for Vanderbilt annually. Without a commitment from the administration for facilities, support, marketing, funding, etc., Mason (and every other coach) is going into a fight with one arm tied behind his back. Just not sure it’s fair to say that he would be fired at every other school due to his record. I think his record would be better at every other school because he would have better resources across the board which would impact on-the-field performance, fan support, recruiting, etc. I am much more concerned about the admin support than I am the coaching at this point.
