Record of current Top 25 HCs during their first 21 games

[Jens1893]

https://www.reddit.com/r/CFB/comments/3r7k60/record_of_current_top_25_coaches_through_their/

HCMM went 6-15 during his first 21 at CU

Missouri Gary Pinkel 8 13 0.381
Arizona Rich Rodriguez 14 7 0.667
Georgia Tech Paul Johnson 16 5 0.762
Oregon Mark Helfrich 18 3 0.857
1 Ohio State Urban Meyer 21 0 1.000
2 Baylor Art Briles 7 14 0.333
3 Clemson Dabo Swinney 12 9 0.571
4 LSU Les Miles 17 4 0.810
5 TCU Gary Patterson 17 4 0.810
6 Michigan State Mark Dantonio 13 8 0.619
7 Alabama Nick Saban 15 6 0.714
8 Notre dame Brian Kelly 13 8 0.619
9 Stanford David Shaw 17 4 0.810
10 Iowa Kirk Ferentz 3 18 0.143
11 Florida Jim McElwain 7 1 0.875
12 OSU Mike Gundy 10 11 0.476
13 Utah Kyle Wittingham 11 10 0.524
14 Oklahoma Bob Stoops 16 5 0.762
15 Memphis Justin Fuente 9 12 0.429
16 Michigan Jim Harbaugh 6 2 0.750
17 Florida State Jimbo Fisher 14 7 0.667
18 Houston Tom Herman 8 0 1.000
19 Mississippi Hugh Freeze 13 8 0.619
20 Toledo Matt Campbell 14 7 0.667
21 North Carolina Lary Fedora 12 9 0.571
22 UCLA Jim Mora 15 6 0.714
23 Temple Matt Rhule 7 14 0.333
24 Mississippi State Dan Mullen 12 9 0.571
25 Texas A&M Kevin Sumlin 17 4 0.810

 

[Alfred91]

That's a lot of apples and oranges.

Some guys came in with the cupboard stacked, like Urb, Les Miles, and possibly Harbaugh.
Some guys started out against lesser competition than they're going against now, like Whittingham and Patterson.

I'd say the only guys who even came close to walking into the situation MM came into were Ferentz, Briles, and maybe Pinkel/Mullen.

Of course, there's a lot of guys who came into that kind of situation who aren't on that list, because they failed.