Ron Dowhower

Head coach, 1979–1996

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

Chemistry

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index in development

Seasons here—

Programs2

Stints2

Career path

Head-coaching stints since 1936; assistant roles since 2016

1995–1996VanderbiltHead Coach

1979StanfordHead Coach

As head coach

Rating—Peak59Career61

1979–1996 · 3 seasonsRecord 9-23National 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 59: 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 59: best five-season stretch, 1979–1996 at Stanford and Vanderbilt (9-23).

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
1996	Vanderbilt	2-9	#76	-0.47 SD
1995	Vanderbilt	2-9	#83	-0.64 SD
1979	Stanford	5-5-1	#46	+0.40 SD

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