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Which Coaches Produce The Most NFL Talent?....The Numbers

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knoch11's picture
May 28, 2018 at 5:07pm
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Last week I presented the numbers behind the NFL Draft since it turned to a 7-round system 25 years ago. Some people were curious about what the numbers would look like if it were broken down further by coaches. This research is significantly more ambiguous by the manner in which I measured it. For example, who deserved greater credit? Urban Meyer for the players that won the 2006 championship, or Ron Zook for recruiting them (and later on, the Florida players recruited by Meyer, but drafted during the Muschamp era)?

The way I measured it is debatable, but it is consistent. I assigned the players by the coach during their final season. With that in mind, I will restate the scoring method by which I measure the draft. There are the three different manners by which I ranked the coaches, which I will define below.

Draft "Scoring":
1st Round: 7 Points
2nd Round: 6 Points
3rd Round: 5 Points
4th Round: 4 Points
5th Round: 3 Points
6th Round: 2 Points
7th Round: 1 Points

Ranking System #1: All Power-5 Coaches Since 1994
-317 different coaches have overseen the 65 programs, and in this system I measure purely by the draft numbers they accumulated during their tenure at that school.

Total Drafted Players:
#1: Bobby Bowden (Florida State): 99
#2: Phillip Fulmer (Tennessee): 90
T-#3: Mark Richt (Georgia) & Bob Stoops (Oklahoma): 85
#5: Frank Beamer (Virginia Tech): 84

Total Draft Score:
#1: Bobby Bowden (Florida State): 462
#2: Phillip Fulmer (Tennessee): 377
#3: Nick Saban (Alabama): 370
#4: Bob Stoops (Oklahoma): 367
#5: Mark Richt (Georgia): 341

Average Number Of Drafted Players (Coached 5+ Years At A Given School):
#1: Larry Coker (Miami): 8.00
#2: Lloyd Carr (Michigan): 7.62
#3: Nick Saban (Alabama): 7.00
#4: Pete Carroll (USC): 6.78
#5: Jim Tressel (Ohio State): 6.70

Average Draft Score (Coached 5+ Years At A Given School):
#1: Larry Coker (Miami): 40.00
#2: Urban Meyer (Ohio State): 34.33
#3: Nick Saban (Alabama): 33.64
#4: Lloyd Carr (Michigan): 31.87
#5: Jim Tressel (Ohio State): 29.20

Leaders By Round:
1st Round Picks:
Nick Saban (Alabama): 26
2nd Round Picks: Pete Carroll (USC): 17
3rd Round Picks: Bobby Bowden (Florida State): 18
4th Round Picks: Bobby Bowden (Florida State): 18
5th Round Picks: Frank Beamer (Virginia Tech)/Phillip Fulmer (Tennessee): 13
6th Round Picks: Barry Alvarez (Wisconsin)/Frank Beamer (Virginia Tech)/Phillip Fulmer (Tennessee)/Bob Stoops (Oklahoma): 12
7th Round Picks: Frank Beamer (Virginia Tech): 16

Leaders By Position Group:
QB (Drafted): Mike Bellotti (Oregon): 6
QB (Points): Mike Bellotti (Oregon): 27
RB/FB (Drafted): Phillip Fulmer (Tennessee)/Les Miles (LSU)/Joe Paterno (Penn State): 10
RB/FB (Points): Phillip Fulmer (Tennessee): 48
WR/TE (Drafted): Bob Stoops (Oklahoma): 20
WR/TE (Points): Bob Stoops (Oklahoma): 87
OL (Drafted): Kirk Ferentz (Iowa): 17
OL (Points): Kirk Ferentz (Iowa): 73
DE/DT/LB (Drafted): Bobby Bowden (Florida State): 38
DE/DT/LB (Points): Bobby Bowden (Florida State): 194
DB (Drafted): Frank Beamer (Virginia Tech): 25
DB (Points): Frank Beamer (Virginia Tech): 104
ST (Drafted): 9 Tied With 2
ST (Points): Jim Tressel (Ohio State): 11

Ranking System #2: Coaches That Oversaw More Than One Power-5 Program
-48 of said coaches have had their career run through multiple teams, to which I ranked their accumulative numbers of all of them.
NOTE: I did not include the players drafted while a coach was at a school outside of the Power-5, so neither Urban's Bowling Green numbers nor Sumlin's at Houston are included.

Total Drafted Players:
#1: Nick Saban (Michigan State/LSU/Alabama): 116
#2: Mark Richt (Georgia/Miami): 100
#3: Steve Spurrier (Florida/South Carolina): 86
#4: Les Miles (Oklahoma State/LSU): 82
#5: Mack Brown (North Carolina/Texas): 81

Total Draft Score:
#1: Nick Saban (Michigan State/LSU/Alabama): 525
#2: Mack Brown (North Carolina/Texas): 385
#3: Mark Richt (Georgia/Miami): 384
#4: Les Miles (Oklahoma State/LSU): 360
#5: Steve Spurrier (Florida/South Carolina): 339

Average Number Of Drafted Players (Coached 5+ Seasons Combined):
#1: Mark Richt (Georgia/Miami): 5.88
#2: Nick Saban (Michigan State/LSU/Alabama): 5.52
#3: Urban Meyer (Utah/Florida/Ohio State): 5.36
#4: Les Miles (Oklahoma State/LSU): 5.12
#5: Lane Kiffin (Tennessee/USC): 5.00

Average Draft Score (Coached 5+ Years Seasons Combined):
#1: Nick Saban (Michigan State/LSU/Alabama): 25.00
#2: Mark Richt (Georgia/Miami): 22.59
#3: Les Miles (Oklahoma State/LSU): 22.50
#4: Lane Kiffin (Tennessee/USC): 22.20
#5: Butch Davis (Miami/North Carolina): 20.10

Leaders By Round:
1st Round Picks: Nick Saban (Michigan State/LSU/Alabama): 31
2nd Round Picks: Nick Saban (Michigan State/LSU/Alabama): 22
3rd Round Picks: Les Miles (Oklahoma State/LSU): 18
4th Round Picks: Mark Richt (Georgia/Miami): 19
5th Round Picks: Mark Richt (Georgia/Miami): 15
6th Round Picks: Mark Richt (Georgia/Miami): 12
7th Round Picks: Mark Richt (Georgia/Miami): 18

Leaders By Position Group:
QB (Drafted): Nick Saban (Michigan State/LSU/Alabama): 6
QB (Points): John L. Smith (Louisville/Michigan State/Arkansas): 22
RB/FB (Drafted): Nick Saban (Michigan State/LSU/Alabama): 13
RB/FB (Points): Nick Saban (Michigan State/LSU/Alabama): 61
WR/TE (Drafted): Steve Spurrier (Florida/South Carolina): 24
WR/TE (Points): Steve Spurrier (Florida/South Carolina): 104
OL (Drafted): Ron Zook (Florida/Illinois): 22
OL (Points): Nick Saban (Michigan State/LSU/Alabama): 88
DE/DT/LB (Drafted): Nick Saban (Michigan State/LSU/Alabama): 37
DE/DT/LB (Points): Nick Saban (Michigan State/LSU/Alabama): 173
DB (Drafted): Nick Saban (Michigan State/LSU/Alabama): 21
DB (Points): Nick Saban (Michigan State/LSU/Alabama): 105
ST (Drafted): Bret Bilema (Wisconsin/Arkansas)/Nick Saban (Michigan State/LSU/Alabama): 3
ST (Points): Nick Saban (Michigan State/LSU/Alabama): 6
NOTE: Jimbo Fisher leads Special Teams Points (8), but has not officially coached a season at Texas A&M

Ranking System #3: Current Power-5 Coaches
-Strictly limited to the 65 coaches of schools in the major conferences, and the players drafted during their time there.

Total Drafted Players:
#1: Nick Saban (Alabama): 77
#2: Kirk Ferentz (Iowa): 66
#3: Bill Snyder (Kansas State): 52
#4: Dabo Swinney (Clemson): 48
#5: Urban Meyer (Ohio State): 40

Total Draft Score:
#1: Nick Saban (Alabama): 370
#2: Kirk Ferentz (Iowa): 267
#3: Urban Meyer (Ohio State): 206
#4: Dabo Swinney (Clemson): 202
#5: Bill Snyder (Kansas State): 189

Average Number Of Drafted Players (Coached 5+ Seasons At School):
#1: Nick Saban (Alabama): 7.00
#2: Urban Meyer (Ohio State): 6.67
#3: Dabo Swinney (Clemson): 5.33
#4: David Shaw (Stanford): 4.28
#5: Brian Kelly (Notre Dame): 4.12

Average Draft Score (Coached 5+ Seasons At School):
#1: Urban Meyer (Ohio State): 34.33
#2: Nick Saban (Alabama): 33.64
#3: Dabo Swinney (Clemson): 22.44
#4: David Shaw (Stanford): 20.00
#5: Brian Kelly (Notre Dame): 18.87

Leaders By Round:
1st Round Picks: Nick Saban (Alabama): 26
2nd Round Picks: Nick Saban (Alabama): 15
3rd Round Picks: Kirk Ferentz (Iowa): 12
4th Round Picks: Kirk Ferentz (Iowa): 11
5th Round Picks: Kirk Ferentz (Iowa): 12
6th Round Picks: Gary Patterson (TCU): 11
7th Round Picks: Bill Snyder (Kansas State): 10

Leaders By Position Group:
QB (Drafted): Mike Gundy (Oklahoma State): 3
QB (Points): Mike Gundy (Oklahoma State): 13
RB/FB (Drafted): Nick Saban (Alabama): 9
RB/FB (Points): Nick Saban (Alabama): 47
WR/TE (Drafted): Kirk Ferentz (Iowa): 11
WR/TE (Points): Dabo Swinney (Clemson): 42
OL (Drafted): Kirk Ferentz (Iowa): 17
OL (Points): Kirk Ferentz (Iowa): 73
DE/DT/LB (Drafted): Nick Saban (Alabama): 26
DE/DT/LB (Points): Nick Saban (Alabama): 129
DB (Drafted): Nick Saban (Alabama): 17
DB (Points): Nick Saban (Alabama): 91
ST (Drafted): 9 Tied With 1
ST (Points): Kirk Ferentz (Iowa)/Bill Snyder (Kansas State): 5

Sorry for the long read. Here is the link to the research, and there may be errors since I did everything manually. I did make a few corrections to my last post while looking all of this up. So if you find any errors, please let me know so I can correct it.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-zljirzghmXca0cgxvUqytep5dJtaCrd...

Also, here is the link to my previous post if there are any questions I didn't answer on this one in terms of how I perform my measurements.
https://www.elevenwarriors.com/forum/ohio-state-football/2018/05/93257/2...

If there is any other things of this nature that you'd like me to do research on, please tell me. My job obviously gives me a lot of free time.

This is a forum post from a site member. It does not represent the views of Eleven Warriors unless otherwise noted.

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