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Josh Holliday’s first 100 games

Josh Holliday > Gary Ward?

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Since we like to have fun with numbers that usually don’t relate to anything significant[1. I blame ESPN for this. Sorry, but I don’t think LeBron is the first player with 34 points, 9 rebounds, 6 assists and 2 blocks and a broken pinky toe since… contributes anything worthwhile to our level of sports comprehension] I felt it was time to compare coach Josh Holliday to some of OSU’s famous head coaches. Here’s how they stack up over their first 100 OSU games:

Henry Iba: 66-34
Gary Ward: 64-36
Tom Holliday: 70-30
Frank Anderson: 62-38
Josh Holliday: 70-30

As you can see, Holliday is better through 100 games than all of them except his old man, who also happened to start his OSU coaching career 70-30. Coach Iba took seven years to reach 100 games, because the ‘30s. And not even legendary Coach Ward had a better record through a centenary of games.

We can dive a little deeper and look at each of their conference records through 100 games:

Henry Iba: 0-0[1. OSU didn’t join a conference until 1947 when it was a part of the Missouri Valley Conference.]
Gary Ward: 18-12
Tom Holliday: 30-17
Frank Anderson: 24-18
Josh Holliday: 24-17

Of course, this is comparing apples and oranges. Iba never coached a conference game; Ward was part of the Big Eight (and would later go on to win 17 consecutive Big Eight Titles); Tom Holliday dealt with an 11-team and then a 10-team Big 12 (Colorado never had a team, and Iowa State dropped its team in 2002); Frank Anderson started in the 10-team Big 12 before Nebraska left in 2011; and Josh Holliday gets the 9-team Big 12 which is what we see (and are currently leading) today.

But here’s the one everyone cares about: how did these guys do against OU in the first 100 games? Ask and you shall receive:

Henry Iba: 9-15
Gary Ward: 2-4
Tom Holliday: 2-2
Frank Anderson: 2-1
Josh Holliday: 3-2

If OU and OSU think they play each other a lot now, imagine what the late 1930s were like! This all goes to show that while 100 games is a small sample size, I think we have the right guy for the job. He’s got a better win percentage through 100 games than all of our best coaches, we finished second in the Big 12 last season, and Bedlam baseball is relevant again following two memorable games this season.

Let’s just not rush into offering a 10-year contract, OK Holder?

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