The entire careers of five great coaches -- Jud Heathcote, Mike Montgomery, Stu Morrill and Blaine Taylor -- cannot be compared to what Wayne Tinkle has accomplished in a mere six years at UM. Wait another 10 years. But when comparing what Tinkle has already notched at UM, the only thing he has not done is lead his team to a win in NCAA post-season play (which Heathcote & Larry Krystkowiak have done). Surely this thread will continue past Thursday, when we'll have more info! Regardless, Tinkle's already done what none of the other five did (three NCAA appearances and FOUR total), and that's enough in my book to rank him tops. And that's not even considering the integrity of Tinkle's program on all levels.
Montgomery's tenure at UM could be compared to the current situation of Randy Rahe, I suppose. He earned his "winning" fame at Stanford. Heathcote, Morrill and Krystkowiak were similar in that their tenures were brief, and it's significant that both Heathcote and Morrill had their greatest accomplishments after leaving Montana. Taylor, an excellent coach by virtue of his record, had his obvious distractions at UM and recently with his departure from Old Dominion... which can't be overlooked in my book of greats.
Krystkowiak is Tinkle's only true measure by virtue of what they've built in a relatively short time, and the verdict's still out... though Montana did have one of its NCAA wins under Krysko.
Brandenberg is not part of this discussion in my book.
Dahlberg was an acknowledged superb coach (from what I heard & read... but watched his teams in only two seasons & was obviously too young) but it would take more study to make accurate comparisons.
