The Detroit News Big10 Coaches ower Rankings
SIAP and double sorry, I can’t link story but here are the rankings.
1. Ryan Day, tOSU
2. James Franklin, PSU
3. Paul Chryst, Wisconsin
4. Pat Fitzgerald, NW
5. Jim Harbaugh, Good Guys
6 Kirk Ferentz, Iowa
7. P.J. Fleck, Minnesota
8. Tom Allen, Indiana
9. Jeff Brohm, Purdue
10. Greg Schiano. Rutgers
11. Lovie Smith, Illinois
12. Mel Tucker, Michigan State
13. Scott Frost, Nebraskq
14. Mike Locksley, Maryland
A lot of weight given to division titles which helped some of the coach’s rankings in the West.
Power Rankings
Was this ranking done before or after Lovie's beard disappeared? That beard was worth at least 2-3 wins per year. Surprised he never hid the gunner on punt returns in it to give him a 15-20 yard head start.
Bwahaha, Fitzgerald...
I do not understand why Pat Fitzgerald continues to get this kind of respect. He is slightly above .500 in his time at Northwestern. Is is simply because he is a Northwestern grad and seems to be a good guy? And do former stops not factor into this ranking? PJ fleck has proven to be a good coach in a previous stop, and in 3 years took a program, that even in it's own state, no one cares about and go to 11 wins.
fitz does more with less, and does it clean. he deserves the respect. they are recruiting one of my sons and they are requiring a 3.3 GPA and 1200+ SAT. this son has the grades, not sure he's going to ever get to sit for an SAT though.
I think he does a good job given the circumstances as well, but if playing .500 ball in the Big Ten is enough to put you at 4th in the coaching power rankings, that is a pretty big knock to the Big Ten.
Congrats on your sons recruitment!
Is that really doing more with less? Or just doing what he should given the talent he gets? Plus playing in the west gives him a few more winnable games each year.
XM - Congrat’s on having a son being recruited by NW. For the grades and the sports!
I think many people are too young to remember just how bad NW used to be. For a long period of time they were in the conversation with Columbia as worst football program in the country. For 30+ years their goal was to not finish last again in conference, I have no idea how Fitz would do at Michigan, Oklahoma, Alabama, etc. I do know what he has basically sustained at NW is a miracle for that program.
Idk if you look at all the "elite" or "great" coaches of our time. They absolutely crushed it at a school like NW.
Bill Snyder - KSU
Urban - Utah
Harbaugh - Stanford
Fitz has not done that at NW. His best season still has 3 Ls.
+1, agree.
Another thing - the 2 previous coaches at Northwestern won the B1G at least once. So Northwestern had a certain level of success even prior to Fitzgerald.
I know it's become more difficult to win the B1G since the divisions and Championship game (Randy Walker's 2000 title came in a 6-2 season where 3 teams tied for the top), but Fitzgerald still hasn't done it even once.
Snyder/Urban/Harbaugh truly did elevate K-St/Utah/Stanford to a level they never achieved before. Not so much for Fitzgerald.
Somehow I don’t consider KSU and Utah in the same class academically as NW.
Best of luck to your son! To be recruited for D1 football is great, but such a prestigious school is even better
I have zero doubt sending my son to play for Pat Fitzgerald. And NW is a pretty sweet place.
Good luck!
Fitzgerald is a perfectly fine college coach. He's got a ceiling but generally keeps the floor for NW reasonably high. I wouldn't want him to coach a bigger program because he doesn't strike me as a great gameday coach but he's probably the best NW can get. He does strike me as a bit of a putz but that may just come with the NW brand.
Good point on Fitzgerald - +1. A glass ceiling but a reasonably high floor.
NW was pretty bad in 2019, but that was the Wildcats' first 3-or-less win season in Fitzgerald's 14 years as Head Coach.
Certain B1G programs wish they could say the same. Cough Illinois cough Rutgers cough Maryland cough Purdue. They've all had 3 or more such seasons in the 2006-2019 era. Many of those seasons being truly awful seasons.
Shoot, even Mark Dantonio had a 3-win season before Fitzgerald did. :-)
Anyway, it's a credit to Fitzgerald that he has kept NW consistently above that level.
That's a pretty bad look for Scott Frost, being ranked below a coach who hasn't even coached a single game in the B1G and didn't exactly light it up at Colorado ... and Greg Schiano.
I feel like they need to swap Fitzgerald w/ Harbaugh and then move Fleck up right behind him.
All you need to know about the quality of this list is summed up in "2. James Franklin".
James Franklin has been the 2nd most successful coach in the Big Ten since Harbaugh has been here. That's not an opinion, that's fact.
7-6
11-3
11-2
9-4
11-2
AVERAGE S&P+ RATING, 2015-2019
2) OSU, 28.5
7) UM, 21.4
9) PSU, 19.7
12) Wisconsin, 19.0
Ehh, it's debatable.
Frankin does, however, have one B1G Championship. But that team lost to UM by 40. So, again, ehh.
Who cares about S&P ratings? Who cares if they backslid into the B1G title? (they only got it b/c UM couldn't handle business at Iowa or OSU)
They still have one!!!
Something UM hasn't done since.... I don't even remember at this point. 2004?
It never fails on here, anytime the Franklin vs Harbaugh debate comes up someone has to scurry off to get the S&P rankings like it will somehow prove Brian and most of the rest of this blog were correct for the laughing at Franklin they did / still do. This isn’t a 'Harbaugh sucks' take by the way because I don’t feel that way, but I do think the flack Franklin took wasn’t really fair either.
When do we put up the "Better S&P than Penn State" banner? I bet they're real jealous of us compared to their three AP top ten finishes and Big Ten title.
Everyone wants to say they lucked into that Big Ten title, but they took care of all their business after losing to us and beat OSU at home, something we can't do. In fact we've been blown out twice by OSU at home. They also managed to beat Iowa at Iowa in 2017, something we also can't do.
No, not really. Not at all.
Between Harbaugh and Franklin...
- Who has beaten Ohio State? A: Franklin
- Who has won a Big Ten Title? A: Franklin
- Who has managed an 11 win season? A: Franklin (3 times, Harbaugh 0 times)
- Who has made it to the Rose Bowl? A: Franklin
- Who has a better bowl record at their current respective schools? A: Franklin (3-3, Harbaugh 1-4)
- Who is currently winning the h-2-h matchup? A: Harbaugh (3-2)
In literally every measurable that truly matters at the end of the day with the lone exception of head-to-head matchups, Franklin has out-performed Harbaugh thus far. And he did that while trying to revive a program from far deeper depths than what Hoke lowered us to and therefore arguably had a more difficult mountain to climb. What on earth is there left to debate?
Your number 6 should be number one, since you are putting them head to head. You still prove your point without dropping the most important point to last.
You are mistaken. For a coach the best metric for comparison is national championships.
Since neither has sniffed one, the next best metric is conference championships.
Jimmy's right where he, and his "M"ediocre program, should be.
Doesn’t mediocre mean not very good or of average quality? I agree he isn’t where we all hoped but mediocre is laughable. Just like your understanding of the words you choose to apply and use.
"Mediocre" sure fits his time at Michigan as its head coach...given the talent he has had at his disposal. Jimmy's teams have never beat a team they were not supposed to beat, never beat OSU, never won a division championship. Jimmy's tenure a Michigan sure looks pretty darn "mediocre" to me, but if your definition of "mediocre" differs...well.
If you had to rank Michigan as a program where would you rank them? Certainly have to be top 25. Does top 25 qualify as mediocre? I think you need to brush up on some vocabulary because yours is mediocre
An average finish of 3rd in your division out of 6 teams...definition of mediocre.
-1 for putting a t in front of osu.
I think we have all seen 2-6 really shit their pants at times.
Think at this point, HB won't gain any respect without multiple big game wins over more than one season. IMO
1. This list is by the virtual MSU employee Charboneau, who easily excuses MSU failings and just as easily crabs about UM.
2. I'm glad you're doing the "tOSU" thing too. Maybe we can make it a thing, which "THE osu" requires.
Is it hyperbole to think that high level - top to bottom - the Big Ten currently has a really good set of coaches?
I don't think so. I'd say that over the past 5-7 years or so the Big Ten has had some of the best head coaches in the country. The problem is the schools up here can never get the talent necessary to win at the levels the West Coast teams or the SEC have done.
OSU has all the talent it needs to win at an SEC level. The problem is the rest of the conference can’t catch up to them and get on their level, minus one year blips like PSU in ‘16 or MSU in ‘13 and ‘15.
Also, which West Coast teams are you referring to? The PAC-12 has been down for the last 4-5 years.
I've said this many times before here --- but I've never understood the love Paul Chryst gets from some.
Yes, 52-16 over his 5 years in Madison, and three West Division titles. But outside of the Orange Bowl win vs. Miami in 2017, he's never really won THE big game. He has blown multi-touchdown halftime leads in multiple B1G Championship games.
The only thing Pat Fitzgerald has done over Harbaugh is not have to play OSU every year
Harbaugh should be 7th behind Fleck.
I'd be curious to dig deeper beyond titles and wins to see an argument for Chryst and Franklin over JH. JH is 3-2 vs Franklin including two blowout wins and the only road win in the series. Franklin's only conference title was 2016 and essentially won because UM didn't get the 4th down coin flip call over OSU. While Chryst has won more games and division titles than JH, it's essentially only because he plays in the west. While neither Chryst or JH have a win over OSU, Christy is also 0-3 vs PSU where JH is 3-2. Chryst's combined record vs OSU, PSU, & UM is 2-8. Personally I'd give Chryst, Franklin, & JH a tie.
Here is my list:
1. Ryan Day, tOSU
2. Jim Harbaugh, Good Guys
2 (tie). James Franklin, PSU
4. Paul Chryst, Wisconsin
5. P.J. Fleck, Minnesota
6. Kirk Ferentz, Iowa
7. Pat Fitzgerald, NW
8. Tom Allen, Indiana
9. Jeff Brohm, Purdue
10. Greg Schiano. Rutgers
11. Lovie Smith, Illinois
12. Mel Tucker, Michigan State
13. Scott Frost, Nebraskq
14. Mike Locksley, Maryland
Before I get blasted for my tie, here is my reasoning. Yes, Franklin has beaten OSU.....once. For those who needs a memory refresh. PSU won on a block FG return for a TD late in the 4th quarter. Yes, all the credit in the world for wining the game, but my point is that 1 key play the ball bounced the right way for PSU while 1 key play did not go Michigan's way in 2016 (50/50 call on the most critical play). That's the difference between winning a BIG TEN title and not. If some people want to put Franklin on a pedestal for that fortunate bounce. Fine. To me, for anyone to act like there is a huge gulf between Franklin and Harbaugh is mind boggling. I get it that everyone is frustrated that we have not beaten OSU, let alone get 1 fortunate play to turn a game. But I will not separate the two just because the margin of difference between the two comes down to a couple of plays over a 5 year span.......
How about Franklin's two other seasons with 11 wins besides that one?
Is this a ranking of talent or results? I certainly think Harbaugh is a better coach than Franklin, but even with that, Franklin unquestionably has the better results...