Bobby Ross
Now
Career arc
Bowls and playoffs: 4-2
1982Aloha BowlL 20-21
1983Florida Citrus BowlL 23-30
1984Sun BowlW 28-27
1985Cherry BowlW 35-18Georgia Tech1990Florida Citrus BowlW 45-21
1991Aloha BowlW 18-17
Report card
Below the median offense — 45th percentile.
Army, every completed season graded against the whole field, then averaged.
Offense
Each season is his team’s percentile among every team with that stat (the share it beat), averaged over his completed seasons here; a mid-season takeover year and the season in progress aren’t graded. Letters: A+ 90th percentile and up, A 80, B+ 70, B 60, B− 50, C+ 45, C 40, C− 30, D 15, F below.
Stats
Big games
Pick a job to see its years on their own.
The big-game ledger
How he does in the games that matter most — rivalry record, performance broken out by real opponent tier, one-score games, and his toughest historical matchup.
Winless in 4 tries against Pat Dye.
The big-game ledger
How he does in the games that matter most — rivalry record, performance broken out by real opponent tier, one-score games, and his toughest historical matchup.
Winless in 4 tries against Joe Paterno.
The big-game ledger
How he does in the games that matter most — rivalry record, performance broken out by real opponent tier, one-score games, and his toughest historical matchup.
2-3 against his rivals at Georgia Tech. Winless in 3 tries against Steve Spurrier.
The big-game ledger
How he does in the games that matter most — rivalry record, performance broken out by real opponent tier, one-score games, and his toughest historical matchup.
1-5 against his rivals at Army. Winless in 3 tries against Gary Patterson.
Signature games
Tags describe each game; they aren’t scores. The weighting that picks these games is still being tested.
The big-game ledger
How he does in the games that matter most — rivalry record, performance broken out by real opponent tier, one-score games, and his toughest historical matchup.
3-8 against his rivals. Just 1-5 against Dick Sheridan.
Signature games
Tags describe each game; they aren’t scores. The weighting that picks these games is still being tested.
How he plays
Run/pass mix, by field position
Called about what the situation called for.
843 run and pass snaps at Army, 2004–2006, his own games, one row per offensive coordinator. Each cell is how much more often he passed than the rest of FBS did in the same situation (field zone, down, distance, score, quarter, same season), in percentage points.
Pass rate, stint by stint
Where each stint’s offense sat between run-first and pass-first, and how far it moved from one season to the next, against the FBS-wide average of 41% pass. The band is that stint’s real season-to-season range, not a fixed-width box.
Season-to-season pass-rate range for all 449 FBS coaching stints with at least three covered seasons, 2004–2025.
Building the roster
Three numbers on how he actually stocks a roster, from signing day to draft day.
Followed him here
Maryland→
Georgia Tech1987Players who transferred from his old program to his new one through the portal in the same year he made the move. Name-matching across data sources misses some, so every count is a floor, not an exact number.
Roster ownership
Roster ownership
of his 2006 roster arrived on his watch — 32 of 32 players. Nobody is left from before he was hired.
This coach's entire tenure (2004-2006) predates 2021, when transfer-portal tracking begins in this database. Portal usage cannot be measured for this tenure at all -- this is not the same as '0% portal'.
“His own” means the player arrived while he was head coach; “inherited” means a predecessor brought him in.
Where he recruits
is his biggest recruiting state: 3 of 18 signees (17%) across his 2004–2006 tenure, drawn from 12 states in all. Next: PA (3).
28% of his signees come from GA and its 5 border states (AL 2).
Off this map: 1 signee to the west (NM).
- median hometown distance
- 622 mi
- within 100 mi
- 0%
- within 500 mi
- 50%
- beyond 1,000 mi
- 0%
The map counts signed recruits across his tenure; the distance figures cover his current roster, transfers and walk-ons included. Two different groups, kept separate on purpose.
Career
Coaching career
The arc of his career is on Now.
Steady no large move in either direction on our stature ladder
15th-best Army tenure of 17 by the numbers.
Followed John Mumford (2003) · succeeded by Stan Brock (2007–2008).
| Season | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Record & result | ||||
| Record | 2-9 | 4-7 | 3-9 | |
| Postseason | — | — | — | |
| Outcome — opponent-adjusted efficiency percentile | ||||
| Offense | 66 | 31 | 1 | |
| Defense | 33 | 26 | 21 | |
| Tendencies — play-by-play, neutral script | ||||
| 1st-down pass% | 35.0 | 30.3 | 35.5 | |
| Red-zone pass% | — | 27.0 | 30.2 | |
| 4th-down go%opp. territory | — | 37.5 | 25.0 | |
5th-best Georgia Tech tenure of 14 by the numbers.
Followed Bill Curry (1980–1986) · succeeded by Bill Lewis (1992–1993).
| Season | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Record & result | ||||||
| Record | 2-9 | 3-8 | 7-4 | 11-0-1 | 8-5 | |
| Postseason | — | — | — | W bowl | W bowl | |
| Outcome — opponent-adjusted efficiency percentile | ||||||
| Offense | — | — | — | — | — | |
| Defense | — | — | — | — | — | |
| Tendencies — play-by-play, neutral script | ||||||
| 1st-down pass% | — | — | — | — | — | |
| Red-zone pass% | — | — | — | — | — | |
| 4th-down go%opp. territory | — | — | — | — | — | |
5 NFL Draft picks: Willis Crockett (1989), Calvin Tiggle (1991), Marco Coleman (1992), Mike Mooney (1992), Ken Swilling (1992)
3rd-best Maryland tenure of 21 by the numbers.
Followed Jerry Claiborne (1972–1981) · succeeded by Joe Krivak (1987–1991).
| Season | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Record & result | ||||||
| Record | 8-4 | 8-4 | 9-3 | 9-3 | 5-5-1 | |
| Postseason | L bowl | L bowl | W bowl | W bowl | — | |
| Outcome — opponent-adjusted efficiency percentile | ||||||
| Offense | — | — | — | — | — | |
| Defense | — | — | — | — | — | |
| Tendencies — play-by-play, neutral script | ||||||
| 1st-down pass% | — | — | — | — | — | |
| Red-zone pass% | — | — | — | — | — | |
| 4th-down go%opp. territory | — | — | — | — | — | |
15 NFL Draft picks: John Tice (1983), Mark Duda (1983), Gurnest Brown (1983), Pete Koch (1984), Ron Solt (1984), Boomer Esiason (1984), Dave D'Addio (1984), Willie Joyner (1984) + 7 more
3rd-best The Citadel tenure of 4 by the numbers.
Followed Red Parker (1966–1972) · succeeded by Art Baker (1978–1981).
Selector agreement
The AP and Coaches’ polls split on the national champion in 1 season of this coach’s career — shown as each selector’s own pick, not a single consensus title.
Was he good?
Only one of the usual three angles is measurable for this era — raised the program.
+6.3 pts at Maryland · #333 of 1290 · middle half