Elmer Layden

Head coach, 1936–1940

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

Stints1

Career path

Head-coaching stints since 1936; assistant roles since 2016

1936–1940Notre DameHead Coach

As head coach

Rating—Peak78Career70

1936–1940 · 5 seasonsRecord 34-9National 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 78: 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 78: best five-season stretch, 1936–1938 at Notre Dame (20-5, 1 top-10 season by team strength), taking over an average program.
All of it at one program (Notre Dame) — 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
1940	Notre Dame	7-2	#21	+0.69 SD
1939	Notre Dame	7-2	#28	+0.60 SD
1938	Notre Dame	8-1	#3	+1.70 SD
1937	Notre Dame	6-2-1	#24	+0.79 SD
1936	Notre Dame	6-2-1	#13	+1.05 SD

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