Now that I have your attention with the headline, I am here to tell you those are not my words, but those of staff of CollegeFootballNews.com which is really Scout.com.
The rankings are a bit misleading as everyone will automatically think this is a top 12 of coaching abilities. However, if you read the fine print, the CFBN article is about ranking the coaches that you’d want to build your program. Here’s is the CFBN list;
1. Bo Pelini-Nebraska
2. Jim Tressel-Ohio State
3. Bret Bielema-Wisconsin
4. Brady Hoke-Michigan
5. Kirk Ferentz-Iowa
6. Danny Hope-Purdue
7. Mark Dantonio-Michigan State
8. Jerry Kill-Minnesota
9. Pat Fitzgerald-Northwestern
10. Kevin Wilson-Indiana
11. Ron Zook-Illinois
12. Joe Paterno-Penn State
I understand why Jo Pa is 12th, he’s on his last leg and you would never start over with a guy that is 84 years old.
However I take exception with the top 3 on the list and here’s why. Pelini, Tressel and Bielema never had to rebuild programs. They made adjustments but never had to build from the bottom up.
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| Bo Pelini |
Pelini-He had the right boss in place. He had the facilities in place. He won nine games his first season so I can make the argument that the talent was in place. What Pelini had to change was a culture and that wasn’t that hard. Bo can coach but he didn’t start from scratch in Lincoln.
Tressel-It’s Ohio State
Bielema-Again here’s a guy who inherited a gold mine. His first season as head coach at Wisconsin the Badgers were 12-1, this means Barry Alvarez left his successor plenty of talent to work with. 2008 was a drop off at 7-6 but Bielema has bounced back with 10-3 and 11-2 seasons.
If you look at the list of 12, there is really only one coach who has “built” a program in the Big 10 and that is Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz. This is not disrespect to Hayden Fry but Fry left the Iowa program the way he found it, with not much talent.
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| Kirk Ferentz |
In his first year at Iowa Ferentz went 1-10 overall and win less in the Big 10. In year number two, improvement but still a disappointing 3-9 overall and 3-5 in the Big 10. Now the record speaks for itself. 53-43 at Iowa, a couple of Big 10 titles, a BCS bowl win and an overall bowl record of 6-3. That my friends is building program from the ground up.
So here is the HuskerHawkeye.com list of Big 10 coaches you would want to build a program with.
1. Kirk Ferentz-Iowa
2. Mark Dantonio-Michigan State
3. Bo Pelini-Nebraska
4. Jim Tressel-Ohio State
5. Brady Hoke-Michigan (He worked Magic at SDSU)
6. Jerry Kill- Minnesota (Southern Illinois and Northern Illinois)
7. Bret Bielema-Wisconsin
8. Ron Zook-Illinois (He can recruit)
9. Pat Fitzgearld-Northwestern
10. Danny Hope-Purdue
11. Kevin Wilson-Indiana (Great Assistant unproven as a head coach)
12. Joe Paterno-Penn State (Time to retire not rebuild)
If you are interested in reading more from CFBN here is their list of the top 15 coaches to build a program. Can’t say that I argue with their number 1.
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