Bill Walsh

Head coach, 1977–1994

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

Chemistry

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index in development

Seasons here—

Programs1

Stints2

Career path

Head-coaching stints since 1936; assistant roles since 2016

1992–1994StanfordHead Coach

1977–1978StanfordHead Coach

As head coach

Rating—Peak72Career69

1977–1994 · 5 seasonsRecord 34-24National titles 0Great seasons 1 (top ~7% of all teams that year)Career: too early to rank all-time (8+ seasons as a head coach)

Rating 71: 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 72: best five-season stretch, 1977–1992 at Stanford (27-10, 1 top-10 season by team strength), taking over an average program.
All of it at one program (Stanford) — 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
1994	Stanford	3-7-1	#53	+0.10 SD
1993	Stanford	4-7	#42	+0.22 SD
1992	Stanford	10-3	#8	+1.50 SD
1978	Stanford	8-4	#15	+1.32 SD
1977	Stanford	9-3	#40	+0.46 SD

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