Athletic Ranks the 40 College Football Hires in the Big Ten since 1999
Thought this could lead to some interesting debate on a quiet board day.
The top 10 is:
1. Meyer
2. Tressel
3. Dantonio
4. Ferentz
5. Fitzgerald
6. Franklin
7. Chryst
8. Day
9. Bielema
10. Harbaugh
I'd have had Chryst ahead of Franklin personally...
Day seems a little low to me? I understand that he inherited a lot from Meyer, but I guess we'll see where that program is in 3 or 4 more years.
Otherwise, seems like a pretty reasonable list to me.
April 11th, 2021 at 12:22 PM ^
Chryst is 0-2 against Franklin. Franklin has a Big Ten Championship (beat Chryst head to head); Chryst doesn't. Plus Chryst took over a better situation. In the 4 years (basically a recruiting cycle) prior to Chryst's arrival, Wisconsin averaged 9.75 wins/year and had 2 Big Ten Championships. Penn State averaged 7.75 wins, had no recent championships, and was on reduced scholarships.
Given all this, Chryst has to at least beat Franklin once before his overall body of work equals Franklin.
fair enough...i let my dislike of Franklin affect my pov
Not sure about Day yet but for those that keep claiming he inherited Meyer's elite recruits - while correct. he did - need to take a look at Day's classes so far - they're better than Meyer's. If OSU gets 2021 JT Tuimoloau (a very good possibility), they'll finish the 2021 Composite at 94.77 / per player which is just behind Alabama's 95.00. Both classes are mind boggling and broke Meyer's 2017 record of 94.59. And the scary part, the 2022 OSU class should be even better.
But the real scary part is the string of 5-star QBs Day is getting to Columbus. And he actually knows how to develop star HS QBs into excellent college QBs - unlike our situation
The top 5 seem more or less accurate.
DJ Durkin should be dead last for causing the death of a player.
Tim Brewster should be second to last because he took over a middling program and ran it straight into the ground.
Jerry Kill should be ranked higher because he's the one who had to clean up Brewster's mess.
Bill O'Brien should be ranked higher because he took over a program that had spent decades secretly digging its own grave, and he managed to save it from certain death.
Chris Ash shouldn't be dead last because Rutgers has pretty much always been terrible.
Tom Allen should be ranked higher for what he's done the past two seasons with a program that had historically been a B1G doormat.
Jim Harbaugh should be ranked lower based on results vs. hype.
Brady Hoke should be ranked lower for the Shane Morris fiasco.
Where is Tom Allen on this list?
Ohio St. Has 3 coaches on this list, only one of which anyone had heard of before he was made the coach.
Why can’t Michigan do this? Are there things in the AD that are in the way of coaches reaching their potential at M? Is M afraid that even in 2-3 tries they can’t find a Jim Tressel or a Mark Dantonio? At the very least those types can be their short-term answer until they close on the next Meyer type.
Secondly, the argument of, “Harbaugh is the best answer we can come up with now” is not good enough. Ohio St. was willing to turn it all over to Jim Tressel because what they had without him was just short of where they wanted to be. Go looking until you find it.
Ferentz would be arguably #1 on a list of people that have maximized their income based on middling expectations at best.
April 11th, 2021 at 10:24 AM ^
Ferentz has been HC for 22 seasons, and has two conference co-championships from almost 20 years ago, and one division championship in 2015. If this survey had been done in 2009, then putting Ferentz up in the top five would make sense, but taking the entirety of his Iowa career into consideration, that seems a bit high to me.
I don't think Day should be on this list. He gets handed keys to a well oiled machine... What did he build?
April 11th, 2021 at 10:39 AM ^
Is Kevin Day Tom Osborne following Bob Devaney, or is he Frank Solich following Tom Osborne? Only time will tell.
And is Jim Harbaugh a 21st century Bennie Oosterbaan—the alumni player hero HC who starts off well but sees the program gradually decline into second-tier status?
That would imply that Brady Hoke is another Fritz Crisler. I'm going to disagree with that one.
2020 aside, Harbaugh has been a clear upgrade over his two predecessors. It's just that fans have wanted him to be even more of upgrade than he has been.
April 11th, 2021 at 11:04 AM ^
Ouch... #10
April 11th, 2021 at 11:21 AM ^
Not sure I would add Harbaugh to the top -10. He is outside looking in to me. Bo Pelini should get some consideration.
April 11th, 2021 at 12:17 PM ^
Bo Pelini is not included in this list since Nebraska was not a Big Ten school when he was hired there. Pelini was hired as HC in 2008 and Nebraska joined the B1G in 2011.
April 11th, 2021 at 11:35 AM ^
Does it bother anyone else that the top 3 are rivals? Why can't UM do better? :/
April 11th, 2021 at 12:54 PM ^
Ferentz? He hasn't had more success than Fry. I'd put Fitzgerald over him.
Anyone able to last over 20 years in the same job has to be doing pretty well.