Who Are Other Examples of Highly Successful Alums Who Went Back to their College to Coach?

Submitted by alum96 on

I know Jim is going to be* completely in his own class in terms of a highly successful alum with both playing success (NCAA + NFL) + coaching success (NCAA+NFL) returning to coach his alma mater but what are the other somewhat similar examples in say the past 30 years?   Ignore the coaching aspect, but lets limit to simply guys who were "successful" NCAA player + a modicum of NFL success - who went back to be HC at the same school he played at?  There have to be some good examples.

The one guy who is MOST similar to Jim that I can think of is Spurrrier.  He was a hell of a CFB player, he unfortunately was stuck at expansion Tampa for much of  his NFL career, he made Duke into an SEC contender as a coach in just 3 years (Duke!), and was a successful pro coach in the USFL.   So that is pretty damn good company - even Florida was a ho hum 6-7 win program for decades until Spurrier took over coaching them.

So who were highly successful college guys (lets say 2 year starters) who got a sniff of pro playing time (say a few years in the NFL) and then eventually went back to coach their college team?

EDIT - so far the board has come up with Kingsbury (Texas Tech), Gregg (SMU), and Majors (TN).

*99% chance

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michelin

December 27th, 2014 at 4:10 PM ^

While Meyer improved from his immediate predecessor's record, Spurrier was the one who made the big leap.  Meyer benefitted from that.

It reminds me a little of how Bo helped UM make a big leap back into national prominence and Carr benefitted from that, getting credit for a national title. 

But there were two big differences.  One was that UM did have a longer history of great teams than Fla did.  Also, Carr gave most credit for UM's rise to Bo.  Meyer, by contrast, continued to brag about his achievements with Fla as if they were entirely his own.  He never gave Spurrier the credit he deserved.

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BursleyHall82

December 27th, 2014 at 4:48 PM ^

I know that OP said "the last 30 years," but if we want to push it back 80 years, Harry Kipke has to be in the discussion. Former U-M All-American who won two national championships as a coach. I'd take that from Harbaugh.

By the way, JH would become the sixth former U-M player to coach the team, joining Gustave Ferbert, Tad Weiman, Kipke, Bennie Oosterbaan and Bump Elliott.

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