Pop quiz: Who is the 2nd winningest HC in UH history?

Cougar Football
1

We all know Bill Yeoman is the most successful coach in UH history, but who has the most wins after Yeoman?

If you guessed Clyde Lee you’re a better (and older) Cougar fan than I.

Here are Cougar head coaches ranked by number of wins:

  1. Bill Yeoman, 160–108–8 (1962–86)
  2. Clyde Lee, 37–32–2 (1948–54)
  3. Kevin Sumlin, 35–17 (2008–11)
  4. Art Briles, 34–28 (2003–07)
  5. Harold Lahar, 24–23–2 (1957–61)
  6. Kim Helton, 24–53–1 (1993–99)
  7. Tom Herman, 22–4 (2015–16)
  8. Jack Pardee, 22–11–1 (1987–89)
  9. Tony Levine, 21–17 (2011–14)
  10. John Jenkins, 18–15–0 (1990–92)
  11. Major Applewhite, 15–11 (2016–)
  12. Bill Meek, 13–6–1 (1955–56)
  13. Dana Dimel, 8–26 (2000–02)
  14. Jewell Wallace, 7–14–0 (1946–47)
  15. David Gibbs, 1–0 (2014)
  16. Chris Thurmond, 0–1 (2007)

Interesting trivia, make what you will of it.

Major is a 6-6 season away from equaling Tony Levine’s record.
A 7-win season would tie him with Herman and Pardee for seventh most victories.
A 9-win season would tie him with Helton(!!!) for fifth most victories.

2

In recent times no coach has stayed here long enough to get to Lee’s win total.

2 Likes
3

What about based on winning %?

4

That would be David Gibbs with a 100% win rate

5

Based on win %.

Coach Win %
David Gibbs 1.000
Tom Herman 0.846
Bill Meek 0.675
Kevin Sumlin 0.673
Jack Pardee 0.662
Bill Yeoman 0.597
Major Applewhite 0.577
Tony Levine 0.553
Art Briles 0.548
John Jenkins 0.545
Clyde Lee 0.535
Harold Lahar 0.510
Jewell Wallace 0.333
Kim Helton 0.314
Dana Dimel 0.235
Chris Thurmond 0.000
OVERALL 0.546

Interesting to see that Major ranks just below Bill Yeoman in win %.

Major’s win % is better than the program’s overall win % (and so was Tony Levine’s).

Major and Tony Levine both had better win % than Art Briles or John Jenkins.

1 Like
6

Kim Helton almost killed the program. At least Dimel left some players for Art.

7

I always liked Chris Thurmond.

8

My hat’s off to him for the role he took on after Briles ran off with our coaching staff. He (with a little help from Case Keenum) nearly pulled off the bowl win against TCU.

Thurmond doesn’t deserve to be at the bottom of coaching wins list.

1 Like
9

Agreed. In this case, the record does not reflect the man.