Abe Martin

Head coach, 1953–1966

Headline rating: as head coach. Every role he has been rated in is below.

Chemistry

—

index in development

Seasons here—

Programs1

Stints1

Career path

Head-coaching stints since 1936; assistant roles since 2016

1953–1966TCUHead Coach

As head coach

Rating—Peak75Career76

1953–1966 · 14 seasonsRecord 74-64National titles 0Great seasons 1 (top ~7% of all teams that year)

Rating 73: his whole career, recent seasons weighted most, measured as how far his teams stood above their era, crediting him with half of what each program already was when he arrived (about the share that, historically, follows a coach to his next job), fading as the program becomes his own.
Peak 75: best five-season stretch, 1955–1959 at TCU (38-14, 4 top-10 seasons by team strength), taking over a good program.
Career 76 (#102 since 1936): total accomplishment over 14 seasons (74-64), 0 national titles, 1 elite season; full credit for the program he inherited.
All of it at one program (TCU) — unproven elsewhere; historically about half of a coach's lift carries to a new job.

Rating = who he is: his whole head-coaching career (since 1936), weighted toward recent years — how far his teams stood above their contemporaries, how much he lifted programs, his great seasons and titles. Form = the last two seasons. Career = the all-time ranking number.

Season	Team	Record	Season rank	vs contemporaries
1966	TCU	2-8	#61	-0.14 SD
1965	TCU	6-5	#27	+0.67 SD
1964	TCU	4-6	#69	-0.22 SD
1963	TCU	4-5-1	#34	+0.66 SD
1962	TCU	6-4	#31	+0.57 SD
1961	TCU	3-5-2	#41	+0.25 SD
1960	TCU	4-4-2	#30	+0.69 SD
1959	TCU	8-3	#7	+1.39 SD
1958	TCU	8-2-1	#9	+1.29 SD
1957	TCU	5-4-1	#31	+0.59 SD
1956	TCU	8-3	#10	+1.17 SD
1955	TCU	9-2	#1	+1.95 SD
1954	TCU	4-6	#25	+0.75 SD
1953	TCU	3-7	#32	+0.48 SD

Season rank = his team among all major-college teams that year; vs contemporaries = how far above the average team (in standard deviations).