Wednesday, June 22, 2005

Prez vs. Prez | by Jay

(The following is from our friend Jeff.)

There was a thread over on NDN a few weeks ago debating the hiring record of Monk vs. Father Ted as it relates to the football program.

I thought I'd take the discussion a bit further, look at all the ND presidents throughout history and compare the records of the football teams based on who was in charge when the hire was made. (For entertainment purposes only, of course.)

Here's what we've got (sorted by winning percentage):

President
Years / Coaches
Games
Wins
Losses
Ties
Pct.
John W. Cavanaugh 1908-1930 (Place thru Rockne)
200 171 19 10 .880
John J. Cavanaugh 1946-1953 (Leahy, postwar)
77 63 8 6 .857
John O'Hara 1941-1943 (Leahy, first time)
30 24 3 3 .850
Hugh O'Donnell 1944-1945 (McKeever, Devore)
20 15 4 1 .775
Andrew Morrissey 1894-1907 (Morison thru Barry)
107 74 25 8 .729
Charles O'Donnell 1931-1940 (Anderson, Layden)
90 63 22 5 .728
Ted Hesburgh 1954-1996 (Brennan thru Holtz)
474 329 137 8 .703
Edward Malloy 1997-2004 (Davie, Willingham)
97 56 41 0 .577

(It's embarrassing that a Morrissey is ranked lower than not one, but two Cavanaughs...but I digress.)

Despite Hesburgh's relatively low overall percentage (if you can call 70% low), Father Ted owns the all-time record for wins, and unless we see another 40-year tenure for a president at ND, this one's gonna stand up for time immemorial.

Also...check out that dropoff for you-know-who. Cough.

By the way, here's the record for wins according to the AD in charge at the time. Note that before Moose, Notre Dame didn't really have independent athletic directors; Rockne, Leahy, etc, all served as their own ADs.

Athletic Director
Games
Wins
Losses
Ties
Pct.
Krause 285 199 81 5 .707
Corrigan 189 130 56 3 .696
Wadsworth 60 35 25 0 .583
White 37 21 16 0 .568

Where's Dick Rosenthal, you ask? Well, he came in after Holtz was hired, and left before Davie, so technically he's never hired a coach at ND. That's not to minimize the great job Rosenthal did as AD; it's just that he doesn't qualify for this (narrow) study.

Finally, here's the backup data for all of this, just for the hell of it.

Coach First Last Years Games Win Loss Tie Pct. Prez AD
James L. Morison 1894 1894 1 5 3 1 1 .600 Andrew Morrissey
H.G. Hadden 1895 1895 1 4 3 1 0 .750 Andrew Morrissey
Frank E. Hering 1896 1898 3 19 12 6 1 .632 Andrew Morrissey
James McWeeney 1899 1899 1 10 6 3 1 .600 Andrew Morrissey
Pat O'Dea 1900 1901 2 20 14 4 2 .700 Andrew Morrissey
James F. Faragher 1902 1903 2 18 14 2 2 .778 Andrew Morrissey
Red Salmon 1904 1904 1 8 5 3 0 .625 Andrew Morrissey
Henry J. McGlew 1905 1905 1 9 5 4 0 .556 Andrew Morrissey
Thomas A. Barry 1906 1907 2 14 12 1 1 .857 Andrew Morrissey
Victor M. Place 1908 1908 1 9 8 1 0 .889 John W Cavanaugh
Shorty Longman 1909 1910 2 14 11 1 2 .786 John W Cavanaugh
Jack Marks 1911 1912 2 15 13 0 2 .867 John W Cavanaugh
Jesse C. Harper 1913 1917 5 40 34 5 1 .850 John W Cavanaugh
Knute Rockne 1918 1930 13 122 105 12 5 .861 John W Cavanaugh
Hunk Anderson 1931 1933 3 27 16 9 2 .593 Charles O'Donnell
Elmer F. Layden 1934 1940 7 63 47 13 3 .746 Charles O'Donnell
Frank W. Leahy 1941 1943 11 30 24 3 3 .800 John O'Hara
Ed McKeever 1944 1944 1 10 8 2 0 .800 Hugh O'Donnell
Hugh J. Devore 1945 1945 1 10 7 2 1 .700 Hugh O'Donnell
Frank W. Leahy 1946 1953 1 77 63 8 6 .818 John J Cavanaugh
Terry Brennan 1954 1958 5 50 32 18 0 .640 Ted Hesburgh Krause
Joe Kuharich 1959 1962 4 40 17 23 0 .425 Ted Hesburgh Krause
Hugh J. Devore 1963 1963 1 9 2 7 0 .222 Ted Hesburgh Krause
Ara Parseghian 1964 1974 11 116 95 17 4 .819 Ted Hesburgh Krause
Dan Devine 1975 1980 6 70 53 16 1 .757 Ted Hesburgh Krause
Gerry Faust 1981 1985 5 57 30 26 1 .526 Ted Hesburgh Corrigan
Lou Holtz 1986 1996 11 132 100 30 2 .758 Ted Hesburgh Corrigan
Bob Davie 1997 2001 5 60 35 25 0 .583 Edward Malloy Wadsworth
Tyrone Willingham 2002 2004 3 36 21 15 0 .583 Edward Malloy White
Kent Baer 2004 2004 1 1 0 1 0 .000 Edward Malloy White

So here's a good question: should Monk get credit for Charlie Weis? Or does Charlie represent the first Jenkins coach? Technically, Monk presided over the Weis hire, but given his opinion on the transition, it just wouldn't seem right. Give Charlie to Father Jenkins.