In 2016 Maryland, Rutgers, and Illinois all had new coaches. Minnesota also had a first year coach after removing the interim tag from Tracy Claeys. To have a quarter of the league all with a new coach was jarring. Last year’s carousel appeared to be less hectic with Purdue firing Darrell Hazell mid-season. Then it became a whirlwind when in the bowl season Minnesota cut ties with Clayes and Indiana let Kevin Wilson go because of some sort of combination of player safety complaints and what the president called “philosophical differences”. Still with me? Good.
So this means SIX schools have first or second year coaches. Michigan, Nebraska, and Wisconsin all have third year coaches. James Franklin is on his fourth year at Penn State. This means over 70% of the Big Ten coaches have yet to see their first recruiting class graduate. Urban Meyer feels like the old school coach entering year six. Mark Dantonio and Pat Fitzgerald look like a grizzled vets entering year 11 and 12. Kirk Ferentz is a fossil as he enters year 19. So four coaches with 5+ years experience. This my friends, is not 1985* anymore.
As always, lower the number equals colder the seat.
1 – Urban Meyer, Ohio State
Probably the coldest seat in the entire nation, too. In addition to a national title and an extra CFP trip, he is 61-6 overall. He isn’t going anywhere any time soon.
2 – Jim Harbaugh, Michigan
The beloved alum is 20-6 (13-4) in two season with the Wolverines. Despite not knocking off OSU or winning the league yet his recruiting classes have been outstanding and Michigan fans feels like it is a matter when, not if, he takes UM to the CFP.
3 – Paul Chryst, Wisconsin
Another beloved alum that is crushing it. Chryst is 21-6 (13-4) with the Badgers. He already has a divisional title to his name and two major bowl victories over USC in the Holiday and Western Michigan in the Cotton. Unlike his two predecessors, Chryst is more of a direct line to the godfather of Wisconsin football, Barry Alvarez.
4 – James Franklin, Penn State
In addition to some extremely impressive recruiting victories, Penn State had a magical season last year going 11-3 (8-1) and winning the Big Ten. The only reason I can’t put him higher is his overall league record is still just 14-11 so until he starts stringing successful seasons together like the top three guys, Franklin won’t be as much of a lock.
5 – Kirk Ferentz, Iowa
After the North Dakota State fiasco there were more than a few irate Iowa fans but the team finished strong and stunned Michigan to go 8-5 and nearly won the division, finishing 6-3 in conference. There is some renewed interest now that Greg Davis has retired so the offense might be better. Still, he has lost five straight bowl games and even with the 2015 12-2 (8-0) Rose Bowl run he is just 46-32 (29-20) since the last bowl victory. That is below his career winning percentage at Iowa, even with the single season win mark in 2015.
6 – Pat Fitzgerald, Northwestern
After five straight bowl games from 2008-2012, Fitz probably had one of the coldest seats in the league. Since that run though he had down seasons in 2013-2014 going just 10-14 (4-12). The 2015 club rallied with a 10-win season and last year they improved after some early struggles to finish 7-6 but being a fan favorite as a player wears off after a while so Fitz is safe, but just not as safe as he was in the past.
7 – Mark Dantonio, Michigan State
He has three league titles and took Sparty to the CFP……but, he is coming off a 3-9 (1-8) season and his program had a rough off-season with several players and a staff member dismissed because of sexual assault. I think Dantonio needs some time and wins to feel as safe as he did in 2015.
8 – D.J. Durkin, Maryland
He’s young (39), he’s highly acclaimed for his work on defense, he’s touted as an up-and-coming great coach, he’s recruiting well with the Terps, and in his first season got them to a bowl game. From afar, it feels like UM Fans are really close to going all in on Durkin. Maybe an upset or two or an 8-9 win season will do the trick.
9 – Mike Riley, Nebraska
His first season was a 5-7 clunker before a bowl win prettied up the mark slightly to 6-7 (3-5). They were vastly improved last year going 9-4 (6-3) but the Huskers were not expecting to be 15-11 (9-8) through two years with Riley. Not helping the cause is Riley’s age (64), his close friendship with administrators (will they chose friendship over victories if the wheels fall off), and his good but not great run at Oregon State (is he really a good coach?). A monster season this year will do wonders for Riley…i.e. look at James Franklin’s ranking.
10 – Lovie Smith, Illinois
His run with the Bears makes Smith a popular figure in Illinois. The problem is he looked over his head at times in working with college aged kids en route to a disjointed 3-9 (2-7) debut season. Worse, he is known for being a defensive specialist and UI’s defense struggled to live up to the hype last year. Helping Smith is Illinois’s track record at being patient with coaches. Since 1990, Lou Tepper was given five years (best year was 7-5), Ron Turner had eight years (finished 22 games below .500), Ron Zook lasted seven (finished 20 games below .500 in league play), and Tim Beckman had 3 full years and would have had at least four if a player misconduct investigation hadn’t doomed him. This school just doesn’t do anything rash with their firings.
11 – Chris Ash, Rutgers
Ash is similar to Durkin in terms of reputation and age but there are two strikes hurting Ash. The first, and most obvious is, going winless in league your first year is a good way to create a lot of doubters. The second is the most popular coach in the history of Rutgers, Greg Schiano, is pretty young (51) and agonizingly close, coaching at Ohio State.
Fresh Face Watch:
All of these coaches are in their first year and are in order of probable success this season because it is unimaginable for any of these programs to dump a coach after just one go around.
1 – P.J. Fleck, Minnesota
Fleck has the most head coaching experience of the first year folks (4 years to 3 for Jeff Brohm and one game for Tom Allen) and inherited a team as good, if not better than, Indiana. Plus while Brohm took a good WKU outfit and made them great, Fleck built his own thing at Western Michigan so his program building experience is also an additional check over these two.
2 – Tom Allen, Indiana
Dude has turned around tons of defenses, including Indian’s last year, so he has some of the Durkin/Ash hype. He also takes over a solid club that should be able to make a bowl in his first season. The one reservation about Allen is how fast he can learn to be an effective head man because outside high school, he has zero experience running a program.
3 – Jeff Brohm, Purdue
This ranking reflects the state of Purdue football and not Brohm’s ability to coach. He was fantastic at Western Kentucky, winning an average of 10 games a year, two league titles, and two bowls (left before the 2016 bowl) but this team lags so far behind the rest of the league in talent. Only Rutgers is even comparable in terms of the lack of depth combined with the lack of power five caliber players.
….For some random information, keep reading!…
*1985 Coaches:
- Bo Schembechler, Michigan, 17th Season
- Davis McClain, Wisconsin, 8th Season
- Hayden Fry, Iowa and Earle Bruce, OSU, 7th Season
- Mike White, Illinois, 6th Season
- Dennis Green, Northwestern, 5th Season
- Leon Burtnett, Purdue, 4th Season
- George Perles, MSU, 3rd Season
- Bill Mallory, Indiana and Lou Holtz, Minnesota, 2nd Season
Sorta counts:
- Joe Paterno, Penn State, 20th Season
- Tom Osborne, Nebraska, 13th Season
- Bobby Ross, Maryland, 4th Season
- Dick Anderson, Rutgers, 2nd Season
More 1985 tidbits:
- Iowa won the Big Ten with one of the most famous kicks in school history (Houghtlin over Michigan) in a #1 vs #2 game (Iowa was the top ranked team, fyi)
- Maryland won the ACC yet lost to Penn State (by 2), Michigan (20-0), and Miami (29-22) to prevent any national title hopes. They smoked Syracuse in the second and final Cherry Bowl…Detroit would later get another bowl, though.
- Michigan had their highest finish ever under Bo (#2)
- Nebraska lost to OU for the Big 8 title then lost to Michigan in the bowl game. The OU loss blocked NU from playing for a national title (they were #2 at the time)
- Illinois lost the Peach Bowl to Army. It would be Army’s last bowl victory until 2010
1985 National Title:
So this was bonkers. It was still the old bowl system. When the bowls were played #1 Penn State was facing #3 Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl. #2 Miami faced #8 Tennessee in the Sugar.
The Caines had beaten OU in the regular season but had lost to Florida. Florida was ineligible for the post season or a SEC title because of probation. Florida was good but had a weird season with a tie to a two-win Rutgers team and a loss (when #1 in the nation) to 17th ranked Georgia so they were out. This let Miami stay in the hunt.
Oklahoma remained lurking around a title thanks to beating number 2 Nebraska and number 17 Oklahoma State late in the season. Penn State was 11-0 and had wins over the 7th ranked Terps and 10th ranked Crimson Tide. The rest of their schedule was weak, with just West Virginia (7-3-1) as a foe with a winning record.
Both the Sugar Bowl and Orange bowl were played on January first. The Sugar Bowl went horribly wrong for Miami. The Volunteers lost to that same Florida team, had two ties (10th ranked UCLA and an eventual nine-win Georgia Tech club), but also beat then number one ranked Auburn (still finished with a good record) and then 10th ranked Alabama (still finished with 9 wins). Frankly between two ties and a single score loss, UT was a only handful of plays away from playing for a national title themselves. Their defense dominated and UT won going away, 35-7. Miami was out.
That let third ranked Oklahoma have a shot if they could pull off the upset. The game was a sloppy one. The Sooners had five fumbles, but only lost one. Penn State had two fumbled and lost one, too. The difference was in the passing game, or lack there of, for Penn State. Oklahoma picked off four Nittany Lion passes en route to a 25-10 final victory.
Tl;dr – Oklahoma beat Penn State for the national title
Big Ten and Counting 