It's not supposed to be as smooth as Jim Harbaugh made it look. He inherited a god-awful program in 2007, improved them by leaps and bounds basically every year, and left having made them an at least temporarily elite power. We now have six years of F/+ ratings to look at, and the difference between Stanford's minimum rating (2006) and their maximum rating (2010) is easily the highest in the country in that time period. Only Texas, with their 2010 collapse, comes close.
| Teams With Biggest Difference Between Max And Min F/+ Ratings (2005-10) |
|||
| Team | MAX | MIN | DIFF |
| Stanford | +27.9% (2010) |
-14.4% (2006) |
42.3% |
| Texas | +38.4% (2005) |
-1.6% (2010) |
40.0% |
| Louisville | +26.5% (2006) |
-9.8% (2009) |
36.3% |
| Kansas | +13.8% (2007) |
-21.0% (2010) |
34.8% |
| Washington State | +4.7% (2006) |
-29.3% (2009) |
34.0% |
| Auburn | +32.1% (2010) |
-0.9% (2008) |
33.0% |
| Temple | -3.4% (2009) |
-35.1% (2006) |
31.7% |
| Cincinnati | +16.9% (2009) |
-14.7% (2005) |
31.6% |
| Boise State | +30.5% (2010) |
-0.8% (2005) |
31.3% |
| Hawaii | +15.0% (2006) |
-16.0% (2009) |
31.0% |
| Alabama | +36.2% (2009) |
+6.4% (2007) |
29.9% |
| Washington | +7.8% (2007) |
-21.5% (2008) |
29.4% |
| Notre Dame | +21.2% (2005) |
-8.1% (2007) |
29.3% |
| Ole Miss | +17.3% (2008) |
-11.9% (2005) |
29.2% |
| Florida | +38.3% (2008) |
+9.2% (2010) |
29.1% |
| Rutgers | +20.3% (2006) |
-8.1% (2010) |
28.4% |
| Texas A&M | +13.2% (2010) |
-14.8% (2008) |
28.0% |
| Rice | +1.3% (2008) |
-26.4% (2009) |
27.7% |
| Penn State | +30.0% (2005) |
+2.3% (2010) |
27.7% |
| Michigan | +24.2% (2006) |
-3.5% (2008) |
27.7% |
Kudos to Washington and rice, by the way, for pulling off what no one else on the above list could: experiencing their highs and lows in consecutive seasons.
So what about the other side of the spectrum? Which teams have been, for better or worse, the most consistent programs of the last six seasons?
| Teams With Smallest Difference Between Max And Min F/+ Ratings (2005-10) |
|||
| Team | MAX | MIN | DIFF |
| Marshall | -5.5% (2008) |
-12.5% (2010) |
7.0% |
| Clemson | +17.1% (2009) |
+9.9% (2008) |
7.2% |
| Western Kentucky | -14.6% (2010) |
-21.8% (2009) |
7.2% |
| Indiana | -4.1% (2007) |
-11.4% (2008) |
7.3% |
| Southern Miss | +4.2% (2005) |
-3.3% (2007) |
7.5% |
| Arizona | +9.1% (2007) |
+1.3% (2005) |
7.8% |
| UL-Lafayette | -10.6% (2008) |
-18.6% (2009) |
7.9% |
| Tulane | -13.7% (2006) |
-22.0% (2009) |
8.2% |
| Kent State | -11.9% (2010) |
-20.2% (2005) |
8.3% |
| East Carolina | +3.0% (2008) |
-6.5% (2005) |
9.5% |
What? Southern Miss on a "consistency" list? Well I never. As for BCS teams ... Clemson's been consistently good-not-great, Arizona's been consistently solid, and Indiana's been consistently ... Indiana.