It's OK if you've lost 100 games and your name happens to be Bobby Bowden or Joe Paterno, the biggest winners among the 119 Division I-A coaches. It's another thing to lose 100-plus games and have a winning percentage well below .500. Such is the case for Alabama Birmingham's Watson Brown, left, who has a record of 91-142-2, and Kentucky's Rich Brooks, who is 100-134-4. Of the 10 coaches in I-A who have lost more than 100 games, Brown and Brooks are the only two with losing records. Minnesota's Glen Mason (117-114-1) is a threat to join this exclusive group, but the rest of the losers — for the most part — happen to be big winners. Other coaches with 100 losses: Florida State's Bowden (359-107-4); Penn State's Paterno (354-117-3); Virginia Tech's Frank Beamer (188-102-4); Air Force's Fisher DeBerry (165-101-1); San Jose State's Dick Tomey (161-118-7); Texas El Paso's Mike Price (145-130) and Florida Atlantic's Howard Schnellenberger (128-107-3).
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
It's a Lost Cause for Brown and Brooks
It's OK if you've lost 100 games and your name happens to be Bobby Bowden or Joe Paterno, the biggest winners among the 119 Division I-A coaches. It's another thing to lose 100-plus games and have a winning percentage well below .500. Such is the case for Alabama Birmingham's Watson Brown, left, who has a record of 91-142-2, and Kentucky's Rich Brooks, who is 100-134-4. Of the 10 coaches in I-A who have lost more than 100 games, Brown and Brooks are the only two with losing records. Minnesota's Glen Mason (117-114-1) is a threat to join this exclusive group, but the rest of the losers — for the most part — happen to be big winners. Other coaches with 100 losses: Florida State's Bowden (359-107-4); Penn State's Paterno (354-117-3); Virginia Tech's Frank Beamer (188-102-4); Air Force's Fisher DeBerry (165-101-1); San Jose State's Dick Tomey (161-118-7); Texas El Paso's Mike Price (145-130) and Florida Atlantic's Howard Schnellenberger (128-107-3).
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5 comments:
Looks to me that Mack's little brother sucks ass.
To be fair, Watson Brown had to build the UAB program from scratch in a state with two established powers. He's done pretty well considering that he can't get any players except ones that Alabama and Auburn don't want. And before that he was the coach at Vanderbilt -- enough said.
Mac stands up for Mack's bro!
I bet the next name to get to 100 losses is John L. Smith, currently at 128-78 (give him four years).
It takes a special person to come back from all those beatings...
Jim Leavitt of South Florida (in Tampa) has also built his program from the ground up, but he has done so to the tune of 61-39.
The USF situation isn't exactly equivalent. Florida has three major programs, but they also have about four times Alabama's population. Tampa was pretty much virgin territory (Gainesville is 100 miles away, while Tallahassee and Miami are over 200 miles), while Birmingham was and is Tide country. UAB had to play second-fiddle in its own stadium to Bama for several seasons before the Tide pulled out of playing in Birmingham. And it is and always will be easier to get people to move to Tampa than to Birmingham.
Which is one reason why Watson Brown is the best coach UAB can get. Still, three winning records in five isn't bad considering UAB's limitations. (I went to UAB for two years before graduating from Alabama.)
There's somebody somewhere better than Watson Brown. UAB has the added burden of having to be subject to the UA board of trustees, which is probably one of the biggest obstacles they face.
It might be harder to get people to go B'ham than Tampa, but look at how many great college programs are in tiny towns with jack all to do.
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