In the entire history of the SEC, there has been a grand total of 63 coaches who had no previous head coaching experience. Of those 63, 24 made a 2nd year improvement, that’s 38%. 62% either regressed, or maintained their win total. Of the 24 who made an improvement, only 9 did so by more than 3 games. It’s also interesting to note that 10 of the 24 coaches who improved were from Vanderbilt or Mississippi State. That’s nearly half from two perennial bottom-dwellers.

Furthermore, if you look at the “Big 6” SEC teams (UGA, Bama, Aub, Fla, LSU & Tenn), the numbers are even worse. There have been a total of 31 “Big 6” rookie coaches. Of those 31, only 9 made 2nd year improvement. That’s 29%. 71% of Big 6 coaches either regressed or treaded water in their 2nd year. Of the Big 6 coaches who did improve, only 3 did so by more than 3 games. Three - in the entire history of the SEC’s Big 6.

The detail is below.

Rookie SEC coaches first 2 seasons & win difference:

Bama 1st 2 yrs Win Diff
==== ========= ========
Frank Thomas 9-1, 8-2 -1
Red Drew 8-3, 6-4-1 -2
Ray Perkins 8-4, 5-6 -3
Mike Shula 4-9, 6-6 +2
Mike DuBose 4-7, 7-5 +3

Aub
===
Shug Jordan 5-5, 2-8 -3
Terry Bowden 11-0, 9-1-1 -2
Doug Barfield 3-8, 5-6 +2

Fla
===
Ray Graves 9-2, 4-5-1 -5
Galen Hall 9-1-1, 6-5 -3
Will Muschamp 7-6, 11-2 +4
Ron Zook 8-5, 8-5 0
Tom Lieb 5-5, 4-6 -1
Dutch Stanley 5-3-1, 6-3-1 +1

Georgia
=======
Vince Dooley 7-3-1, 6-4 -0.5
Mark Richt 8-4, 13-1 +5
Wally Butts 5-6, 5-4-1 0
Ray Goff 6-6, 4-7 -2
Johnny Grifith 3-7, 3-4-3 0

LSU
===
Charley McClendon 9-1, 7-4 -2
Bernie Moore 9-2, 9-1-1 0
Paul Dietzel 3-5-2, 3-7 0
Mike Archer 10-1-1, 8-4 -2
Bill Arnsparger 8-3-1, 9-2-1 +1
Jerry Stovall 7-4, 3-7-1 -4

Tenn
====
Phil Fulmer 9-2-1, 8-4 -1
Bill Battle 11-1, 10-2 -1
Doug Dickey 4-5-1, 8-1-2 +4
John Barnhill 8-2, 9-1-1 +1
Derek Dooley 6-7, 5-7 -1
Harvey Robinson 6-4-1, 4-6 -2


Ken
===
Blanton Collier 7-3, 6-3-1 -1
Charley Bradshaw 3-5-2, 3-6-1 -0.5
A D Kirwan 2-7, 6-2-1 +4
Mark Stoops 2-10, 5-7 +3
John Ray 2-9, 2-9 -0.5
Guy Morriss 2-9, 7-5 +5

Miss
====
Johnny Vaught 9-2, 8-1 -1
David Cutcliff 8-4, 7-5 -1
Ed Walker 3-5-1, 2-6-1 -1
Tommy Tubberville 6-5, 5-6 -1
Ken Cooper 3-8, 6-5 +3
Billy Kinard 10-2, 5-5 -5
Ed Oregon 3-8, 4-8 +1

MSU
===
Dan Mullen 5-7, 9-4 +4
Bob Tyler 4-5-2, 9-3 +5
Wade Walker 4-6, 6-2-1 +2
Rocky Felker 6-5, 4-7 -2
Sylvester Croom 3-8, 3-8 0
Ralph Sasse 8-3, 7-3-1 -1
Paul Davis 3-6, 7-2-1 +4
Charles Shira 1-9, 0-8-2 -1
Darrell Royal 6-4. 6-4 0
Murray Warmath 5-4, 5-2-3 0


Van
===
Red Sanders 3-6-1, 8-2 +5
James Franklin 6-7, 9-4 +3
Bill Pace 2-7-1, 5-4-1 +3
Gerry DiNardo 5-6, 4-7 -1
Woody Widenhofer 3-8, 2-9 -1
Derek Mason 3-9, 4-8 +1
Steve Sloan 5-6, 7-3-2 +2
Jack Green 1-7-2, 3-6-1 +2
Rod Dowhower 2-9, 2-9 0

USC
===
Brad Scott 7-5, 4-6-1 -3