Bruce Arians

Head coach, Temple, 1983 to 1988

College career27-39

Program liftNo. 506tied · of 1,290 tenures since 1937

Now

Career arc

Stats

Big games

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.

Just 1-5 against Jack Bicknell.

One-score games

11-14

44.0% · margin ≤8

Against Blue Bloods or better

1-10

9.1%

The toughest matchupNemesis

vs. Jack Bicknell1-5

6 meetings, 1983–1988

’83 L’84 L’85 L’86 L’87 L’88 W

Performance by opponent class

Blue Blood

1-10 9.1%

Power Program

2-6 25.0%

National Program

6-14 30.0%

Regional Program

14-7 66.7%

Building the roster

Two numbers on how he actually stocks a roster, from signing day to draft day.

1Roster ownership
2The NFL pipeline

Roster ownership

This coach's entire tenure (1983-1988) 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.

The NFL pipeline

at least6Drafted

players drafted into the NFL off his teams here (a floor — see the note below). None can be traced to who brought them in — there’s no roster record for these players here. 2 went in the first round.

At least 6 — the draft class following his 1987 season is missing from this table entirely; and his 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1988 seasons predate the modern 7-round draft, so this table’s pre-1994 pick counts are a floor, not a full count, for those seasons.

0 roster-verified · 6 estimated

Most recent picks first

Year	Pick	Player	Pos	NFL team	Note
1987	R1.19	Paul Palmer	Running Back	Kansas City Chiefs	Estimated
1987	R6.05	Willie Marshall	Wide Receiver	Green Bay Packers	Estimated
1986	R1.09	John Rienstra	Offensive Guard	Pittsburgh Steelers	Estimated
1986	R6.20	Lloyd Yancey	Offensive Guard	Dallas Cowboys	Estimated
1985	R3.05	Anthony Young	Defensive Back	Indianapolis Colts	Estimated
1984	R7.05	Kevin Ross	Defensive Back	Kansas City Chiefs	Estimated

A pick counts toward his tenure when the player’s final college season was one he coached, a checkable rule rather than a claim about who developed the player. A blank note means the player is on a verified roster and arrived on his watch. “Estimated” means no roster record, so the final season is assumed to be the year before the draft.