Tale of the Coaching Tape: Nick Saban vs. Fielding Yost

During his first of five years at Michigan, Field Yost’s teams went 55-1-1, outscored opponents 2,821-42 and won the first Rose Bowl game, 49-0 over Stanford.

The school claims six national titles for Yost, but with at least two that opinion was in the minority. In 1903, the National Championship Foundation had Michigan at No. 1, but every other service opted for Princeton.

In 1904, the NCF again liked the Wolverines, while most others preferred Penn.

The 1918 title was basically a split between Michigan and Pittsburgh, and in 1923 Illinois was a much more popular selection.

Although there are some discrepancies about Yost’s career numbers, the NCAA has him at 196-36-12.

Overall, he had one losing season (1919) and went 42-10-2 in the Big Ten.

The school claims that 64 men who either played for Yost or coached under him as an assistant went on to become head coaches in college football.

Nick Saban vs. Fielding Yost

(Statistics through 2018 season)

Category Saban; Yost

Seasons 23 ; 25

Consensus national titles 6 ; 6+

Top five finishes 9 ; NA

Top 25 finishes 16 ; NA

Overall record 232–62–1; 196-36-12

Percentage 78.5 ; 82.8

Losing seasons 0 ; 1

CFP/Bowl record 14-10 ; 1-0

Percentage 58.3 ; NA

Conference titles 9 ; 10

Conference record 138-42-1; 42-10-2

Consensus All-Americans 41 ; 17

First-round draft picks 34 ; NA

Record against ranked teams 82-40 ; NA

Percentage 67.20 ; NA

Record against top 10 teams 42-21 ; NA

Percentage 66.67 ; NA

Ratios/percentages

National title seasons One every 3.8 seasons; 4.2

Consensus All-Americans 1.78 every season; .68

First-round draft picks 1.48 every season; NA

Average wins vs. ranked teams 3.57 each season; NA

Wins over top-10 teams per year 1.82 every season; NA

+ Four of the titles were split before the modern era of college football

The first college football poll was created in 1934. The first NFL draft was held in 1936.

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