Greatest Turnarounds in CFB History
It's no secret that up until three years ago – when Greg Schiano arrived in Piscataway -- the Scarlet Knights football program wasn't exactly setting the world on fire. Since joining the Big East in 1991, they are 49-106-1 with only two winning seasons. As little as five years ago, the team was 2-9 including blowout losses of 61-0 (Miami), 50-0 (Virginia Tech), 80-7 (West Virginia) and 42-0 (Pitt). But the team has steadily improved through Schiano's six years – including last year's 7-5 record and Insight Bowl appearance – and culminating in last night's triumph. The only other turnaround we can think of that matches the Scarlet Knights is Kansas State, which was one of the worst programs in the NCAA until 1989, when Bill Synder took over and led the team to back to prominence. His arrival at Florida State may predate most of our births, but Bobby Bowden deserves mention, as he took over the Seminoles in 1976 – at which time the team had won four games in the previous three seasons – and turned them into the powerhouse they are now. In 31 years at the helm, Bowden is 289-77-4, including two national championships (1993, 1999) and 12 ACC titles. You tell us if Greg Schiano has pulled off the greatest rebuilding job in college football history. If not, whose was better? Comments:I would suggest that Marshall University would qualify as as one of the greatest Turnarounds in CFB History. Since having their football team wiped out in a plane crash, they have had to rebuild the entire program. Just a few years ago after rejoining Div I, they reached the top ten, and had two Heisman Finalist in Chad Pennington and Randy Moss. That story of rebirth sounds pretty amazing to me.
Daniel Vinson, MU Class of '99 Charlotte, NC I agree. The turn-around of the Marshall football team which almost never made it after the crash. The movie about their comeback comes out December 22.
You have to consider the University of California for great turnarounds. From 1997-2001 Cal went 12-43. In 2001 Cal went 1-10, that single win coming against... Rutgers. The Bears did not go to a single bowl game during that period. (Even before that Cal went 7-15 from 1994-1995, then had Steve Mariuchi come in 1996, go 6-6, and be rewarded for his "turnaround" of the program with a job in the NFL)
Since Jeff Tedford took over the program in 2002, Cal has gone to three bowls, winning two, has become a nationally ranked team, and has a shot at going to the BCS bowl they should have gotten a couple of years ago. From 2002-2005 they have gone 33-17. An amazing turnaround for a program that had become a joke. Although not the best turnaround ever, I think the job Dan McCarney did at Iowa State deserves some attention. He turned that program from a perennial cellar dweller into a team that has gone to 5 bowl games in the last 7 years. Not too shabby.
as much as i hate to say it, bill snyder took a kansas state program that was the worst in the nation, and made it into a title contender. of course, 10 years later, snyder left the wildcats right where he found them, begging for big xii table scraps.
Sustainability is the key to deciding if a team belongs on a turnaround list - let's see if Rutgers can be a bowl team for more than one or two years. But they look like they might be on their way. Any turnaround list needs to have Wisconsin at or near the top. UW was a decent program in the 40s and 60s, but no one remembers. They were pretty lowly in the 70s and 80s. But over the last 15 years they've established themselves as a Big 10 power and perennial top-25 team. In 1990, who would have imagined them winning a Rose Bowl, let alone 3. They've played in 7 "New Year's Day" bowl games in the last 12 years, and are on their way to number 8 this year.
University of Wisconsin under Alvarez...from the outhouse to the penthouse...
When did Marshall leave D-I? Why wasn't Randy Moss at Notre Dame or Florida State? What about Dennis Erickson at Oregon State or George Welsh at Virginia?
George O'Leary took over a 1-win Georgia Tech team and won the ACC a few years later.
Miami was a doormat until Howard Schnellenberger took over. Barry Alvarez at Wisconsin definitely deserves consideration. They were a fixture at the bottom of the Big 10 for a long time before they won 3 Rose Bowls under Alvarez. The whuppin' they put on Auburn last year was pretty sweet too.
Jeff Tedford is overrated...see you in San Diego!
Pitt, Johnny Majors. 1-10 in 1973, Majors arrives in 1974, National Champs 4 years later at 12-0.
Hayden Fry at Iowa...
Bill McCartney at Colorado... Sonny Lubick at Colorado State... Howard Schnellenberger at Miami and Louisville... Joe Tiller at Purdue... Steve Spurrier at Florida... LaVell Edwards at BYU...
I'd have to say Barry Alvarez at Wisconsin. For at least now, it appears the program will be able to sustain the success.
Give the coach at Wake Forest some love... that used to be a guaranteed W on your schedule, now they are gonna win the ACC
what about when northwestern went to the rose bowl under gary barnett?
Virginia Tech was a program on probation that rarely saw a winning season when Frank Beamer took over in the 1980's. Now VT is a perennial power and always in the race for a conference championship.
No Sir, with out doubt Northwestern, because they actually had to play good teams. Big East is weak, any team with any kind of a D could win the big East. Northwestern is by far a better story.
Oregon State went through 28 consecutive losing seasons before finally breaking through in 1999. The next year they went 11-1 and won the Fiesta Bowl. This is a program that had their coach win back-to-back Pac-10 coach of the year awards in the late 80s because they won 4 games in each season.
I agree with the suggestion of Spurrier. What we're looking for here are teams that didn't do much, and then were built into permanent fixtures in the top 25. Alvarez and Schnellenberger (arguable at two schools) would probably also qualify. Marshall, KSU, Cal, etc. aren't perennial contenders. Florida, Miami and (arguably) Wisconsin are.
Don Read at University of Montana...the program has dominated D1-AA.
Michigan under Bo Schembechler. He took a Michigan team that was a national contender only a few times in the previous two decades and turned it back into the football powerhouse it was in the 1900s-1940s. Michigan would not be the winningest football team of all time if not for Bo Schembechler.
Steve Spurrier did a pretty good job taking Florida from a middle of the road team to the powerhouse it is now in his 12 years as coach there. Not to mention, he wasn't terrible at Duke before that and it looks like he's getting South Carolina moving now (much to the dismay of Gators fans who wouldn't have minded the Fun'N'Gun coming home to Gainesville)
just wait til next year when Schiano is doing the same thing at the U of Miami...
K-State was the worst football team in college football history. Bill Snyder took them to being number 1 in the nation a couple times and vying to be in the national championship. Rutgers is undefeated and still not getting much respect nationally. It's just not as hard to turn a team around when you play in a weak conference.
How bout Penn St. when Joe Pa got there or Fla. St when Bowden got there. :-)
Clearly Rutgers is one of the greatest turnarounds in history. They were lower than low. Kansas State is the gold standard for turnarounds and if Rutgers sustains this for a few years, they'll equal that. Northwestern is close behind.
how about Spurrier's work with Duke in the late 80s? A turnaround such as that does deserve some recognition.
The Jersey (nobody says Joisey here)Florida connection has long existed. We own time shares there,we retire there and our banks have branches in both states. When you combine the two you get fifteen million reasons why Rutgers has risen from the ashes. The little giant killers have arived and college foot ball will never be the same. Do we belong playing Ohio State for the national championship? Not yet, but not long. Gone are the days when the best football players from the garden state go to Notre Dame,Penn State,Iowa, and points west. R.U. Ready for some foot ball, YES
Northwestern's rebirth in the mid 90s has to be on the list. I think people have forgotten how bad they were. Even though this has been a down year, NU is no longer a blow-off game, and are capable of beating anyone who doesn't take them seriously.
Lou Holtz at South Carolina. He took a 1-10 team, went 0-11 in his first year and followed that with 8-4 and 9-3 years and back-to-back Outback Bowl wins over an Ohio State team who would win the national championship the next year.
If not confined to very recent history, how about the University of Washington prior to Don James?
Paul Johnson at Navy
Ara Parsegian at Notre Dame in 1964. From 2 - 7 to 9 - 1 in one season.
what bill sneider did at k-state was amazing. And it lasted for over a decade. I dont think what Rutgers did is in that ball-park--yet.
How about a little love for UCF? Sure, this year they're back to being abyssmal, but turning a 0-11 record in 2004 into a 8-5 2006 bowl season should be the highlight of George O'Leary's resume' (pun intended.)
One of the original 8 Colonial Colleges, Rutgers was the door mat for the Ivy League before becomming a major independant Rutgers 11-0 1976 Season was against a mostli Ivy & small school schedule. Rutgers has not only cracked the top ten for the first time every but they are also rated in the top 5 football programs academically, who else has done that?
The Hayden Fry coaching tree has turned around more progams than anyone:
Hayden Fry - Iowa Barry Alvarez - Wisconsin Bill Snyder - Kansas State Dan McCarney - Iowa State Bob Stoops - Oklahoma (Back to the old glory days) Kirk Ferentz - Iowa (Fry's last few years went down hill) Now you have Mike Stoops trying to do the same at 'Zona and Bret Bielema is following Alvarez with a one-loss year at Wisconsin. Fry may have been the best coach to never win a championship. LaVell Edwards at BYU and Steve Spurrier at Florida... both led their teams to National Championships after horrible histories...
Best turnaround? Let's see, IO have 4 chickens from this egg dozen I just got at Walmart.
Let them beat WVU or win a bowl game before annointing them. If this team loses to WVU and in a bowl, this blog gets dragged to the "recycle" icon on your desktop. No turnaround compares to what Snyder did at Kansas St. The university was seriously contemplating shutting that program down prior to his arrival. And K-State didn't just have a revival season, they established a pretty strong tradition that has endured. If Rutgers is still good in a decade, then there's an argument. For now, it's Snyder and K-State all alone.
What is amazing to me is that the Rutgers turnaround has come in this day and age (ESPN, Internet, etc.) Even 10 years ago, you could dump a ton of $ into a program and breath some life into it.
But now, ESPN shows only top teams, magazines only cover top teams and the Internet only covers top teams. Recruitng wise, it must be incredibly hard to compete with the Ohio States and Michigans and USCs and Notre Dames who get "free" advertising every week. Kirk Herbstreet /Corso are not talking up the MAC on Saturdays. Top candidates will go to top schools based a lot on their viewing patterns and images subliminally ingrained on their heads from watching TV. If instead of Notre Dame on TV every week, they showed Buffalo or Freson State, I guarantee those programs would gain better recruits and become stronger teams in 1-2 years. Granted this would never happen... That is why Rutgers story is so impressive. What is amazing to me is that the Rutgers turnaround has come in this day and age (ESPN, Internet, etc.) Even 10 years ago, you could dump a ton of $ into a program and breath some life into it.
But now, ESPN shows only top teams, magazines only cover top teams and the Internet only covers top teams. Recruitng wise, it must be incredibly hard to compete with the Ohio States and Michigans and USCs and Notre Dames who get "free" advertising every week. Kirk Herbstreet /Corso are not talking up the MAC on Saturdays. Top candidates will go to top schools based a lot on their viewing patterns and images subliminally ingrained on their heads from watching TV. If instead of Notre Dame on TV every week, they showed Buffalo or Freson State, I guarantee those programs would gain better recruits and become stronger teams in 1-2 years. Granted this would never happen... That is why Rutgers story is so impressive. Life blood of any great program is recruiting. Recruiting to LA (USC), Florida beaches (Miami, Florida, Florida State, UCF) is easy. Try recruiting a blue chip prospect to come to Manhattan, KS. That town is in the middle of nowhere with nothing and I mean nothing to do. The fact that Bill Synder took the only team to lose 500 games and made a perennial winner is nothing short of a miracle. But he did that with average high-school and junior college talent. Kansas State only had two first-round NFL picks in the Synder years. It's easy to turn around a program when you have top talent coming in year after year. What Synder did was pure coaching and hard work.
Northwestern '95. Given that this is year 1 of the 'turnaround' at Rutgers, they're exactly where Northwestern was that year, perhaps even a bit behind since NU had to beat Notre Dame, Michigan, Wisconsin and Penn State that season. Although Northwestern hasn't had quite the same success, they've gone on to win or share in three Big Ten titles SINCE that '95 season - pretty impressive considering the competition in the Big Ten. I'll be interested to see if Rutgers can continue some level of success - 6-7 win seasons with a periodic 9-10 win season.
Before most of you were born NU had 16 W's total in the five years before Bob Devaney came to town. His 1962 team went 9-2 with a bowl win and the school did not suffer another losing season for over FORTY YEARS!!
I am surprized that Arkansas was not mentioned,after two loosing seasons and now a possibile National Championship bid around the corner if they continue to win. !!!
Everyone needs to get off this Northern thing going on all the time.Any team that can go thru the SEC undefeated deserves the right to play for a National Title PERIOD !!!! Alabama won only 2 or 3 games in the 1955, 1956 and 1957 seasons total. Coach Paul Bear Bryant became the Head Coach in 1958 and proceeded on to coach the National Champions of 1961.
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