GRIFF COOMER
Est. 1999
LAST SEASON
Finally, after a brutal five-year stretch where Griff, Griff, voted most likely to have truck nuts on his Toyota Corolla, failed to qualify for a playoff spot, he managed to finally secure a postseason invite. Of course, things didn’t look good in week one. Not only did Griff lose, but he lost to a team that would not qualify for the postseason and he only scored 896 points. He had to be thinking, “not again.”
Yet, what we would witness over the course of the season was one of the oddest teams in league history. The next three weeks, Coomer would produce three straight games where he topped 1,700 (twice producing weekly high scores). He was back! Not quite. Over the next month, he would win just one game, fail to top 1,000 three times, including a 681-pt effort in week five and two weekly low scores. Even at 4-4, the playoffs seemed like a trip too far.
Well, Griff got his act together. He would finish the season strong, winning five of his final six games, topping 1,400 in all five wins, including a 1,973 effort in week 10. He would finish third in scoring and second in the standings. His best finished finish since 2015. There was even talk of him being a threat to Colby. Unfortunately for him, he wasn’t, as Griff was upset in the quarterfinals, falling to 7-seed Matt.
CAREER
Now, I know what we’re all thinking…how can I put a guy who is one of only two people to miss the playoffs five straight years among the top-six? It wasn’t easy, trust me. It is extremely difficult to miss the postseason five straight years. At least when Eric did it, he was a kid. Yet, as always, this remains a career rankings and prior to 2016, Coomer’s career rivaled mine and Bob’s at that time.
In his first 17 seasons in this league, Griff not only made it to the playoffs 14 times, but he did it with 14 winning seasons (only once settling for a 7-seed; never an 8-seed). The three times he failed to qualified for the playoffs, his opponents scored the most points that year. In fact, through seventeen years, Griff never finished among the bottom four in scoring. Never. He had one scoring crown (finishing second in points three times) and a pair of top seeds (twice finishing second).
Best yet, Griff didn’t just get to the show, he performed while there. He won his first six career quarterfinals games and by 2015, he was still a solid 10-4 in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals, he was even better, going a stunning 8-2 in that second postseason weekend. By 2015, he had reached eight championship games. That’s eight out of 17 total title games. His only real issue was winning those bad boys. He lost four of the league’s first six title games, before beating Colby in 2005. A decade later (and two finals defeats between), he won it a second time over Colby again.
At that moment, I was on the verge of putting him over Bob in career rankings. At that moment, it all went south. Despite having what appeared to be stud keepers, Griff missed the playoffs in 2016. The following year, he only won six, which got him only a 7-seed and a quarterfinals exit. Then came the brutal half-decade (2017-2022) where not only did Griff not make the playoffs, but he didn’t even really come close. He didn’t even finish in 9th place and the man who finished 8th or better in scoring every single season, finished 9th or worst for six straight years. Until he finally rebounded this past season. The question is, is this a rebirth or was last year a fluke?
NUMBERS DIVING
Griff is 188-180 for his career. His .511 winning percentage is the fifth best. He averages 1,311 per contest, which is only 8th best. His average finish in the standings is 6.32, which is fifth best, while his average finish in scoring is 6.20, which is 6th best. Missing the postseason five-straight years has hurt. He’s now made it to the playoffs in 16 of his 25 seasons. That’s 64% of his seasons and that’s better than just three people. In the postseason, he’s 20-14 overall. His .588 win percentage is fourth best. He averages 1,385 per game, which is 6th best. Overall, he’s 10-6 in the quarterfinals, 8-2 in the semifinals (the league best) and 2-6 in the finals. His eight trips to the title game are the second most in league history.
In 2013, he scored 2,087 points in a quarterfinals win over Colby. That remains the fourth most points scored in the postseason. Griff and Colby’s combined 3,586 points scored in that game and that remains the fifth most in the playoffs. In the 2005 title game, he crushed Colby, 1,882-739. The 1,143-point victory is the largest ever in the title game and third largest in postseason history. In fact, Griff owns three of the top-12 playoff ass-kickings in league history. In 2015, Coomer’s championship squad scored 5,142 points in the playoffs. That is the 10th most ever scored in three playoff games.
When it comes to starts to a season, Griff’s best start was 2020, when he started the year 4-0. He finished 9-4 that year. However, in 2007, he failed to secure a win in his first seven games, one of just three people to begin a season losing their first seven.
Overall, Griff has played 368 total games. He has topped 1,500 in 23.10% of those games. That is just the 9th best among active league members. Meanwhile his opponents have hit 1,500 in 26.36% of his games, which is 7th best. In terms of touching a grand, Coomer’s squads have failed to score 1,000 in 15.76% of his games. That’s the fifth worst percentage in the league. His foes have failed in 19.84%, which is the league’s most, meaning Griff has faced the highest percentage of opponents who failed to score at least 1,000.
As for weekly highs, Griff does that in 8.68% of his games, which is fifth best; while his foes do it 9.58% of the time, which is the second most. Coomer scores the weekly low in 6.29% of his games, which is the fourth least, while his opponents produce weekly lows in 6.29% of his games, which is the 5th lowest in the league.
For his career, Griff has produced two 8-game winning streaks, first in 2005-2006 and then again in 2015. Those are tied for the 13th longest streaks in league history. On the flip side, he has produced a six-game losing streak a total of six times. His worst were a pair of nine-game losing streaks in 2006-2007 and then in 2020 (both are tied for 3rd longest). Griff is the only person in league history to have two 9-game losing streaks for his career.
When it comes to hitting 1,000, he once did it for 31 straight games (2014-2016), which is tied for 6th longest, while he once scored over 1,250 in 11 straight games, which is the 7th longest streak. He also twice in his career failed to score at least 1,500 in 25 straight games. First in 2018-2021, then started again that same year (2021-2023). He and Eric are the only two people to do this twice in a career. The 25-straight weeks without 1,500 is tied for 5th longest streak.
As for weekly highs and lows…Griff once went 56 weeks without a weekly low score, which is the 4th best in league history, but Griff’s failure to secure weekly highs for long stretches has proven to be one of the league’s most stunning stats. He once went 59 weeks without a weekly high score (2000-2005), which is pretty incredible considering how much winning he was doing back then. Yet, nothing is going to top his 88-week stretch without a weekly high score that began in 2016 and ended this past season. The current longest streak without a weekly high belongs to Matt. It would take him nearly four years to catch Griff’s record.
On to single game numbers that matter. Griff has topped 2,000 just three times. His best game was in 2011, when he scored 2,155 against Molly. That’s the 21st highest scoring game by a single team. She scored 1,795 in that defeat, so the two combined for 3,950 points, which is the third most combined points scored in a game. Oddly enough, of the top-20 single score games, Coomer has been the loser of six of those games.
Griff has been the victim of three of the top-nine ass-kickings in league history. His worst was a 2,207-873 defeat to Matt. The 1,334-point difference is the fifth largest ever. His biggest ass-kick was that playoff game over Colby by 1,143 points. That’s the 13th largest in league history. Griff does not have a game among the top-20 lowest scoring games. His lowest scoring game was 605 points. However, he and Don once battled it out in a game Griff won 692-505. The 1,197 combined points is the third lowest game by two teams.