Coaches / Head coach / Bernard Mertes
Career
57
not coaching now
Rating—recent
Peak55best 5 yrs
Career57whole career
confidence
Bernard Mertes
Head coach, 1955–1959
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
As head coach
Rating—Peak55Career57
1955–1959 · 5 seasonsRecord 15-34National titles 0Great seasons 0 (top ~7% of all teams that year)Career: too early to rank all-time (8+ seasons as a head coach)
- Rating 55: 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 55: best five-season stretch, 1955–1957 at Kansas State (10-19), taking over a losing program.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1959 | Kansas State | 2-8 | #78 | -1.16 SD |
| 1958 | Kansas State | 3-7 | #77 | -0.71 SD |
| 1957 | Kansas State | 3-6-1 | #64 | -0.53 SD |
| 1956 | Kansas State | 3-7 | #74 | -0.67 SD |
| 1955 | Kansas State | 4-6 | #70 | -0.59 SD |
Season rank = his team among all major-college teams that year; vs contemporaries = how far above the average team (in standard deviations).