In a thread yesterday someone opined about the rarity of MSU coaches who have won 20 SEC games in a season so I took it upon myself to see just how many have. The guess was 4 or 5 and it turns out there were actually just 3 but there is a caveat. It was literally impossible to win 20 SEC games until 1975 because we did not play a minimum of 20 until then. After 1975 it was possible but very improbable until about 1996 because until then we played around 22-25 conference games. No idea why it was so variable. So technically there have been 7 coaches who could possibly have won 20 games and 6 who have coached a 30 game SEC schedule. Three of them just in the past 3 years. Of these 7, three coaches have won twenty SEC games in a season once each. They are:
Ron Polk 28 seasons: 1989, 20-5
John Cohen 8 seasons: 2016, 21-9
Chris Lemonis 1 season: 2019, 20-10
Shout out to Polk. While he did have the most opportunities by far (28) he did have a team that won 20 SEC games in a 25 game schedule.
On the flip side we have had two 20 game losers.
Ron Polk: 2009, 9-21
John Cohen: 2010, 9-29. 2011, 6-24. 2015, 8-22.
Kinda find it a bit disconcerting that the IB only coached 8 years and 3 of those were historically bad. Two were polk rebuilding years and the 3rd was the ball change year but still....
Ron Polk 28 seasons: 1989, 20-5
John Cohen 8 seasons: 2016, 21-9
Chris Lemonis 1 season: 2019, 20-10
Shout out to Polk. While he did have the most opportunities by far (28) he did have a team that won 20 SEC games in a 25 game schedule.
On the flip side we have had two 20 game losers.
Ron Polk: 2009, 9-21
John Cohen: 2010, 9-29. 2011, 6-24. 2015, 8-22.
Kinda find it a bit disconcerting that the IB only coached 8 years and 3 of those were historically bad. Two were polk rebuilding years and the 3rd was the ball change year but still....
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