Early in the 2007 college football season I identified three capable, experienced new first-year coaches brought in to rescue troubled programs-Nick Saban at Alabama, Dennis Erickson at Arizona State and Mark Dantonio at Michigan State. Since the regular season has ended, it is time to evaluate their performance.

I created a new system to do so. The basis is the actual NCAA regular season team statistics for the 5 main offensive and 5 main defensive categories. These are Scoring Offense, Total Offense, Rushing Offense, Passing Offense, Pass Efficiency Offense, Scoring Defense, Total Defense, Rushing Defense, Pass Defense and Pass Efficiency Defense.

A numerical value (1 to 5) was then assigned for the 119 Division 1A schools. The Top 10 in each category got a "Great" rating of 5, the next 20 got a "Good" rating of 4, the next 59 an "Average" rating of 3, the next 20 a "Poor" rating of 2, and the bottom 10 a "Terrible" rating of 1. The Great and Good ratings represent the top 25% of the schools, the Average rating represents the middle 50%, and the Poor and Terrible ratings represent the bottom 25% of the schools.

Given this system, the best results were clearly produced by Dennis Erickson, followed by Mark Dantonio and then Nick Saban.

When Arizona State signed Dennis Erickson as its head coach, the Sun Devils won the lottery. Erickson is arguably among the 5 greatest current college football coaches in the country, and he has the performance record to back up my assertion. Before arriving at Arizona State, Erickson had:

1) Led Miami (FL) to a 63-9 record (.875 winning percentage) during a 6-year period that produced two national championships in 1989 (11-1) and 1991 (12-0). Erickson logged 32 straight home victories, part of the longest home winning streak in college football history as Miami won 58 straight from 1985 to 1994.

2) Engineered one of the biggest turnarounds in college football history at Oregon State, taking a team that had not had a winning season in 28 years to a 7-5 record his first year, and an 11-1 mark his second year, beating Notre Dame 41-9 in the Fiesta Bowl and ending the year ranked No. 4 in the AP Poll. He was named Pac 10 Coach of the Year, and the Sporting News National Coach of the Year.

3) Inherited a pathetic Washington State team and was 9-3 his second year, upsetting top-ranked UCLA and beating Houston 24-22 in the Aloha Bowl in 1988. The bowl victory was the first for Washington State in 57 years. He was named Pac 10 Coach of the Year.

4) Inherited a struggling Idaho program and instantly turned it into 4 consecutive winning seasons with a 32-15 record and two Division IAA playoff appearances.

5) Joined Lou Holtz as the only coaches in the past 20 seasons to win 3 games against No. 1 ranked teams in the AP Poll. He beat top-ranked UCLA, Notre Dame (snapping a 23-game winning streak for the Fighting Irish) and Florida (snapping a 16-game winning streak for the Siminoles).

So how did Erickson do in his first regular season at Arizona State? Not too shabby. He inherited a 7-6 team that had suffered an embarrassing 41-24 loss to Hawaii in the Hawaii Bowl, and promptly won his first 8 games, rising to No. 6 in the AP Poll before losing to Oregon.

The Sun Devils finished the season at 10-2 with a No. 11 ranking in the BCS Standings. Arizona State will face Texas (9-3) in the Holiday Bowl on Dec. 27. He was again selected as Pac 10 Coach of the Year this year, and also nominated for the 2007 Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award.

Erickson did start with some talent but the statistics highlight his coaching ability. On offense the Sun Devils were no more than Average in Scoring Offense, Total Offense, Rushing Offense and Passing Offense and Good in Pass Efficiency Offense. On defense they were Good in Scoring Defense, Total Defense, Rushing Defense and Pass Efficiency Defense and Average in Pass Defense.

Erickson is known as an offensive innovator but his greatest legacy is winning football games. He lifetime record is currently 158-67-1. Dennis Erickson was a better coach than either Nick Saban or Mark Dantonio this year.

Editor's Note: This is Part 1 of a 3-Part Series. Part 2 evaluates Mark Dantonio's performance at Michigan State.

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley