All-Time Gopher Coaching Records

John Galt

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 28, 2011
Messages
11,557
Reaction score
2,570
Points
113
If Fleck wins 8 games during the regular season this year, he will have a career record at the U of 20-17 for a career winning percentage of 0.541. That would make him the 2nd winningest head coach for the football program since Bernie Bierman going back to 1950, and the highest winning percentage of any coach since that time with at least 2 full seasons as head coach.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnesota_Golden_Gophers_football

1932–1941, 1945–1950 Bernie Bierman 16 93–35–6 .716
1942–1944 George Hauser 3 15–11–1 .574
1951–1953 Wes Fesler 3 10–13–4 .444
1954–1971 Murray Warmath 18 87–78–7 .526
1972–1978 Cal Stoll 7 39–39 .500
1979–1983 Joe Salem 5 19–35–1 .355
1984–1985 Lou Holtz 2 10–12 .455
1986–1991 John Gutekunst 6 29–36–2 .448
1992–1996 Jim Wacker 5 16–39 .291
1997–2006 Glen Mason 10 64–57 .529
2007–2010 Tim Brewster 4 15–30 .333
2010 Jeff Horton 1 2–3 .400
2011–2015 Jerry Kill 5 29–29 .500
2015–2016 Tracy Claeys 2 11–8 .579
2017–present P. J. Fleck 2 12–13 .480
 


If Fleck wins 8 games during the regular season this year, he will have a career record at the U of 20-17 for a career winning percentage of 0.541. That would make him the 2nd winningest head coach for the football program since Bernie Bierman going back to 1950, and the highest winning percentage of any coach since that time with at least 2 full seasons as head coach.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnesota_Golden_Gophers_football

1932–1941, 1945–1950 Bernie Bierman 16 93–35–6 .716
1942–1944 George Hauser 3 15–11–1 .574
1951–1953 Wes Fesler 3 10–13–4 .444
1954–1971 Murray Warmath 18 87–78–7 .526
1972–1978 Cal Stoll 7 39–39 .500
1979–1983 Joe Salem 5 19–35–1 .355
1984–1985 Lou Holtz 2 10–12 .455
1986–1991 John Gutekunst 6 29–36–2 .448
1992–1996 Jim Wacker 5 16–39 .291
1997–2006 Glen Mason 10 64–57 .529
2007–2010 Tim Brewster 4 15–30 .333
2010 Jeff Horton 1 2–3 .400
2011–2015 Jerry Kill 5 29–29 .500
2015–2016 Tracy Claeys 2 11–8 .579
2017–present P. J. Fleck 2 12–13 .480

By your numbers he would be 4th as Bierman, Hauser and Claeys would all still be above a .541 winning percentage. He'd have to have 10 wins to eclipse both Hauser and Claeys.
 

By your numbers he would be 4th as Bierman, Hauser and Claeys would all still be above a .541 winning percentage. He'd have to have 10 wins to eclipse both Hauser and Claeys.

Try reading the post if you’re going to comment.
 

Try reading the post if you’re going to comment.

Yep. You qualified it:

2nd highest winning percentage after Bierman, and with at least two full seasons. That eliminates Bernie and Tracy.

He's also the winningest coach in Gopher history with a wife named Heather.
 


Yep. You qualified it:

2nd highest winning percentage after Bierman, and with at least two full seasons. That eliminates Bernie and Tracy.

He's also the winningest coach in Gopher history with a wife named Heather.

You also misquoted me. Try again.
 

Why didn't you add in who can run a 40 under 4.7 hand timed or some other qualifier to pump up PJ even more.

Why post a link to the entire list and then make qualifiers about who could be in your rankings?

He has done a nice job with the program and the final 4 games of this season have raised optimism about the program.
 
Last edited:


Not only is Tracy second in winning percentage behind Bernie...but he has the best winning percentage of all time among Gopher bachelor head coaches.

I'm rooting for PJ to win 8 or more games next year though.
 



Not only is Tracy second in winning percentage behind Bernie...but he has the best winning percentage of all time among Gopher bachelor head coaches.

I'm rooting for PJ to win 8 or more games next year though.

P. J. Fleck will climb toward the top of that list rapidly... and he'll do it without having to rely on any qualifiers. The ending to the 2018 season was no mirage. We are on an upward trajectory.
 

Agenda much? Maybe it was the subject title of "All-Time Gopher Coaching Records" that through people off. That implies that you're looking at, you know, the records of Gopher coaches across all time.
 





Agenda much? Maybe it was the subject title of "All-Time Gopher Coaching Records" that through people off. That implies that you're looking at, you know, the records of Gopher coaches across all time.

Fair point. I got lazy and didn’t want to go all the way back to the 1880s so I just included the link. There was one year we didn’t even have a coach. I figured no one on this board saw Gopher football before Bierman so to go back to his tenure in the 1940s was long enough.

Anyways, the point remains. PJ will be in rarefied territory with 8 wins.
 


If Fleck wins 8 games during the regular season this year, he will have a career record at the U of 20-17 for a career winning percentage of 0.541. That would make him the 2nd winningest head coach for the football program since Bernie Bierman going back to 1950, and the highest winning percentage of any coach since that time with at least 2 full seasons as head coach.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnesota_Golden_Gophers_football

1932–1941, 1945–1950 Bernie Bierman 16 93–35–6 .716
1942–1944 George Hauser 3 15–11–1 .574
1951–1953 Wes Fesler 3 10–13–4 .444
1954–1971 Murray Warmath 18 87–78–7 .526
1972–1978 Cal Stoll 7 39–39 .500
1979–1983 Joe Salem 5 19–35–1 .355
1984–1985 Lou Holtz 2 10–12 .455
1986–1991 John Gutekunst 6 29–36–2 .448
1992–1996 Jim Wacker 5 16–39 .291
1997–2006 Glen Mason 10 64–57 .529
2007–2010 Tim Brewster 4 15–30 .333
2010 Jeff Horton 1 2–3 .400
2011–2015 Jerry Kill 5 29–29 .500
2015–2016 Tracy Claeys 2 11–8 .579
2017–present P. J. Fleck 2 12–13 .480

If he had 4 more right now he'd be 2nd.
 

P. J. Fleck will climb toward the top of that list rapidly... and he'll do it without having to rely on any qualifiers. The ending to the 2018 season was no mirage. We are on an upward trajectory.

Things looked better, for sure. You may want to look at what happened the last time Rossi took over for Smith, and that may temper enthusiasm a bit. We had a good end of the year. If we have a good year next year (8+ wins) we're moving up. Anything less, we are not moving up.
 


I like PJ, but sometimes I wonder how much more I would like him if it weren't for John Galt?
 

Post World War II, Bierman's record wasn't that good, either: 29-24-1. So you have to go back before World War II to find some big winning records, like Spears, Williams and the 1932-41 Bierman. It's been a long time...
 

Post World War II, Bierman's record wasn't that good, either: 29-24-1. So you have to go back before World War II to find some big winning records, like Spears, Williams and the 1932-41 Bierman. It's been a long time...

Oh, c'mon now!

Warmath won a freakin' National Championship in 1960. That was pretty good, right? And he won a share of the B1G Title in '67.

I know, I know — it's still 50+ years ago; but let's not get too forlorn and pretend we have to go back to early Bierman days in order to see any excellence!

And I know people will say that 'the topic is coaches and their overall won-loss percentage'. But c'mon, folks... do we always have to be so darn Minnesota Morose?
 

Fair point. I got lazy and didn’t want to go all the way back to the 1880s so I just included the link. There was one year we didn’t even have a coach. I figured no one on this board saw Gopher football before Bierman so to go back to his tenure in the 1940s was long enough.

Anyways, the point remains. PJ will be in rarefied territory with 8 wins.

If an 8 win season and a .541 winning percentage is rarefied territory, what does that make 9 wins and a .579 winning percentage?
 


If an 8 win season and a .541 winning percentage is rarefied territory, what does that make 9 wins and a .579 winning percentage?

You forget it's 9* wins, therefore it's not as good.
 



You forget it's 9* wins, therefore it's not as good.

He doesn't have to apologize for it, but we didn't win a trophy game or beat a top 25 team.

I would bet most Gopher fans preferred this season's 7 wins that include wins over Wisky and Fresno St, and blowouts against Purdue and GT.
 


He doesn't have to apologize for it, but we didn't win a trophy game or beat a top 25 team.

I would bet most Gopher fans preferred this season's 7 wins that include wins over Wisky and Fresno St, and blowouts against Purdue and GT.

Certainly enjoyed the last 4 games this year more than any stretch in the 2016 year. Winning back the axe was also freaking awesome. The 7 wins this year were great and the Wisc win counts as 2. But the blow out losses to Maryland, Nebraska and Illinois were ugly. Not once in the 2016 season did we have a game where we were completely outmatched like those three games.
The games we did lose in 2016 were frustrating, because we were oh so close to winning each and every one of them.
I'd take another 9 win season just like '16 this coming year.
 

He doesn't have to apologize for it, but we didn't win a trophy game or beat a top 25 team.

I would bet most Gopher fans preferred this season's 7 wins that include wins over Wisky and Fresno St, and blowouts against Purdue and GT.

They beat Purdue pretty soundly in 2016.

You need to add more qualifiers to your initial post. We get what you're getting at, but you're getting sloppy.

*In two full seasons
*Where they beat GT by a lot
*Where they beat Fresno State
* Beating Purdue by 10+ doesn't matter
* Not counting Oregon State wins
 




Top Bottom