Above the Mendoza Line | by Jeff
With the win on Saturday, Charlie Weis managed to stay one step ahead of his two predecessors for at least one more week. Weis, Willingham, and Davie all won their 31st game, and Weis remains slightly ahead of DavieHam with a 20-11 record (vs 19-12 for the other two coaches). Both Davie and Willingham won their 32nd game but subsequently lost four of their next five. So, despite a disasterous season by most measures, Weis still has a very good chance at being ahead of both Davie and Willingham at the end of the season when comparing records after the same number of games.
Weis currently trails Davie in margin of victory (MOV), Weis is +133, while Davie was +148; Willingham was far behind at +31. However, the MOV for both Davie and Willingham dropped by at least 30 points over their next six games. So, Weis should have an opportunity to keep his head above the brackish water mark with a strong showing in the last half of the season.
| Coach | First 31 Games | Win Pct | MOV | Final Record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Knute Rockne * | 27-2-2 | .903 | +672 | .881 |
| Jessee Harper | 27-4 | .871 | +887 | .863 |
| Ara Parseghian * | 26-3-2 | .871 | +764 | .836 |
| Frank Leahy * | 25-3-3 | .855 | +501 | .855 |
| Dan Devine * | 24-7 | .774 | +398 | .764 |
| Elmer Layden | 21-7-3 | .726 | +213 | .770 |
| Lou Holtz * | 21-10 | .677 | +347 | .765 |
| Charlie Weis | 20-11 | .645 | +133 | ? |
| Terry Brennan | 20-11 | .645 | +97 | .640 |
| Hunk Anderson | 16-9-2 | .630 | +351 | .630 |
| Bob Davie | 19-12 | .613 | +148 | .583 |
| Ty Willingham | 19-12 | .613 | +31 | .568 |
| Gerry Faust | 17-14 | .548 | +247 | .535 |
| Joe Kuharich | 13-18 | .419 | -87 | .425 |
* Won National Championship
