Tag: All-time wins

Cowboys’ Mike McCarthy entering very rare air among all-time NFL head coaches

With 155 regular-season wins, the Cowboys coach is set to possibly surpass several legitimate legends during the 2023 campaign. | From @ToddBrock24f7

Quick, without Googling it, where does Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy rank among NFL head coaches in all-time regular-season wins?

The answer, despite the rumblings from some corners of the fanbase that have called for his dismissal after every one of his three seasons thus far in Dallas, may come as quite a surprise.

Entering his 17th season as a head coach, McCarthy’s regular-season record is 155-97-2.

Those 155 wins place him 20th all-time.

Seriously.

And, barring an utter catastrophe, the 59-year-old will likely move past a massive legend or two at some point during the 2023 season.

With three more wins, McCarthy will tie Bud Grant, the longtime Vikings coach who led Minnesota to four Super Bowl appearances.

Six victories will put him alongside Mike Holmgren, who is enshrined in both the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame and the Seattle Seahawks Ring of Honor.

If the Cowboys can get to 11 wins this upcoming season, McCarthy will move into 15th place beside the legendary Paul Brown, a coach so enmeshed within the fabric of the NFL that he has a team named after him… as well as another team’s home stadium.

Of the 19 head coaches ahead of McCarthy on the all-time wins list, eight already have a bust in Canton.

It’s rarefied air indeed.

But his ascension to the Top 20 has seen McCarthy pass many coaching greats along the way, even if it happened somewhat unceremoniously.

He overtook Joe Gibbs, Bill Cowher, and Marv Levy just last season; all three are Hall of Famers.

And McCarthy had already blown by the likes of Tony Dungy, Hank Stram, Mike Ditka, Dick Vermeil, Don Coryell, John Madden, Bill Walsh, and a guy named Vince Lombardi.

Of course, coaching wins are a longevity record more than a pure measure of prowess, with the men who manage to stay on the sidelines for the most seasons rising to the top of the list. But not all NFL seasons throughout history are created equal. In Lombardi’s first season in Green Bay, a regular season was just 12 games. So yes, McCarthy and his contemporaries are currently getting five extra shots per season to notch an additional W.

With regular-season wins piling up at a faster clip for today’s coaches, it’s perhaps no surprise that so many of the names around McCarthy on the all-time list are current. He, Pete Carroll, and Mike Tomlin are all within eight victories of one another. Sean Payton and John Harbaugh both trail McCarthy by three and eight wins, respectively.

The Cowboys have fallen painfully short of the ultimate goal the past two seasons, and that’s ultimately how teams and coaches are judged and remembered. McCarthy would be the first to agree. But walking off the field a winner 155 times is no small feat, and as McCarthy keeps adding to that total in 2023, he’ll put himself in increasingly exclusive company.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3]

[mm-video type=video id=01gsdcq59c7vfsbf18c9 playlist_id=01eqbwens7sctqdrqg player_id=01eqbvhghtkmz2182d image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01gsdcq59c7vfsbf18c9/01gsdcq59c7vfsbf18c9-92eeac079f963e493c3084eaa875bf4f.jpg]

Oklahoma Sooners vs. Baylor Bears All-Time Series History

Oklahoma gets set to host the Baylor Bears on Saturday on ESPN+. From @john9williams

Oklahoma and Baylor played one time in the early days of college football, back in 1901, and went 72 years before meeting on the gridiron again. Before the Big 12 was formed in 1996, the Sooners and the Bears only met five times, with the Sooners winning all five nonconference matchups.

Even during an era of football that is one of Oklahoma’s worst, the Sooners beat the Bears every time during the John Blake era. Oklahoma dominated the series until a fateful road trip to Waco in 2011 introduced the world to [autotag]Robert Griffin III[/autotag].

The Sooners were the No. 5 team in the nation at the time, and after the Sooners took a 24-17 early third-quarter lead, the Bears scored 21 unanswered points to go up 38-24. [autotag]Blake Bell[/autotag] scored two of his four rushing touchdowns in the fourth, the second with 51 seconds remaining in the game. It took [autotag]RGIII[/autotag] 43 seconds to march the Bears down the field for a last-minute touchdown to pull off Baylor’s first win over the Oklahoma Sooners ever.

Since 2011, the Sooners are 8-4 vs. the Bears, and the two sides have played some hard-fought games. Five of the 12 matchups have come down to 10 points or fewer, and even in the 2020 27-14 win, it was tightly contested for much of the game.

A historical look at the series between Oklahoma and Baylor via Winsipedia.

Oklahoma Sooners win totals against SEC members from least to most

Taking a look at the SEC teams the Oklahoma Sooners have had the most success against in their 125 year history.

The Oklahoma Sooners are one of the most successful programs in the history of college football. All-time they rank sixth in winning percentage at .726. Only Boise State, Ohio State, Alabama, Notre Dame, and Michigan have a higher all-time win percentage.

In it’s 125-year history, few programs can boast the amount of success the Sooners have had. Over the course of college football’s existence, the Oklahoma Sooners have been one of the most recognizable names in the sport.

And as the team looks to be embarking on a new path down toward the Southeastern Conference, the Sooners will play some familiar and unfamiliar teams.

With that, let’s take a look at the Oklahoma Sooners’ win totals against SEC members starting with the least.