Followed Barry Alvarez. Paul Chryst inherited a Power Program I Wisconsin and won with it.
His real stature score, season by season, across every program he’s coached — so a stretch that stays in one tier the whole way can still climb or sink on the line, not just flatten out. Node color marks the tier reached. Which program a stretch belongs to is carried by the shaded lane behind it.
Reached Power Program in his 4th career season — faster than 37% of the 395 FBS coaches who have ever reached Power Program (rank #215 of 395 by seasons-to-arrival).
Where each stint’s offense sat between run-first and pass-first, and how far it moved from one season to the next. The band is that stint’s real season-to-season range, not a fixed-width box.
Season-to-season pass-rate range for all 258 FBS coaching stints with at least three covered seasons, 2014–2025.
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.
15–4 against his rivals. Winless in 3 tries against James Franklin.
A statistical estimate of this coach’s contribution to team performance, separated from that season’s roster talent, returning production, and his coordinators — pooled across his whole head-coaching career.
Model fit as of 2026-09-04.
Fan claims · every quote verified verbatim
Not having Jonathan Taylor and Braelon Allen also hurts us. They really smoothed over a lot of cracks that were showing near the end of Chryst’s tenure
Based on 1 comment from 1 poster across 1 thread · Sep 13, 2025 · via CFB
4th-best Wisconsin tenure of 14 by the numbers.
Performs about as expected for his recruiting talent on offense and outperforms his recruiting talent on defense.
Followed Barry Alvarez (1990–2014).
| Season | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Record & result | |||||||||
| Record | 10–3 | 11–3 | 13–1 | 8–5 | 10–4 | 4–3 | 9–4 | 4–3 | |
| Postseason | W bowl | W bowl | W CFP | W bowl | L bowl | W bowl | W bowl | W bowl | |
| Recruiting rank | #41 | #35 | #39 | #45 | #29 | #25 | #15 | #44 | |
| Style — pass rate | |||||||||
| Pass rate | 45.0 | 32.9 | 34.1 | 34.7 | 36.4 | 40.8 | 34.6 | 39.4 | |
| Coordinators | |||||||||
| OC | Joe Rudolph | Joe Rudolph | Joe Rudolph | Joe Rudolph | Joe Rudolph | Joe Rudolph | Joe Rudolph | Bobby Engram | |
| DC | Dave Aranda | Justin Wilcox | Jim Leonhard | Jim Leonhard | Jim Leonhard | Jim Leonhard | Jim Leonhard | Jim Leonhard | |
| Outcome — opponent-adjusted efficiency percentile | |||||||||
| Offense | 29 | 75 | 81 | 85 | 89 | 17 | 38 | 51 | |
| Defense | 93 | 84 | 98 | 81 | 90 | 96 | 98 | 79 | |
| Tendencies — play-by-play, neutral script (2021+ only) | |||||||||
| 1st-down pass% | 37.1 | 22.7 | 24.5 | 25.3 | 30.9 | 30.7 | 29.0 | 27.7 | |
| Red-zone pass% | 44.6 | 23.7 | 28.5 | 41.0 | 26.1 | 40.0 | 24.6 | 30.5 | |
| 4th-down go%opp. territory | 13.3 | 13.7 | 12.9 | 20.5 | 44.2 | 40.9 | 33.3 | 28.6 | |
Barely touches the portal — recruits and develops his own.
Brings in bigger-than-position-typical players than most.
Recruits older, more experienced transfers than most.
31 NFL Draft picks: Melvin Gordon (2015), Robert Havenstein (2015), Joe Schobert (2016), Derek Watt (2016), T.J. Watt (2017), Ryan Ramczyk (2017), Vince Biegel (2017), Nick Nelson (2018) + 23 more
1 player-season honored (All-America / national award): Leo Chenal (2021)
15th-best Pittsburgh tenure of 23 by the numbers.
Followed Todd Graham (2011–2011) · succeeded by Pat Narduzzi (2015–2026).
| Season | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Record & result | ||||
| Record | 6–7 | 7–6 | 6–6 | |
| Postseason | — | — | L bowl | |
| Recruiting rank | — | — | #44 | |
| Style — pass rate | ||||
| Pass rate | — | — | 33.6 | |
| Coordinators | ||||
| OC | — | — | Joe Rudolph | |
| DC | — | — | Matt House | |
| Outcome — opponent-adjusted efficiency percentile | ||||
| Offense | — | — | 82 | |
| Defense | — | — | 1 | |
| Tendencies — play-by-play, neutral script (2021+ only) | ||||
| 1st-down pass% | — | — | 28.3 | |
| Red-zone pass% | — | — | 29.1 | |
| 4th-down go%opp. territory | — | — | 28.2 | |
4 NFL Draft picks: Aaron Donald (2014), Tom Savage (2014), Devin Street (2014), T.J. Clemmings (2015)