Athlon Ranks B1G Football Coaches (Hoke 2nd)

Submitted by Everyone Murders on

Athlon ranks Hoke 2nd only to newcomer Urban Meyer.  Commence the wails of righteous indignation from E. Lansing that Mark Dantonio is ranked under Hoke.

Article is here http://www.athlonsports.com/college-football/ranking-big-tens-college-football-coaches .

1. Urban Meyer (OSU)

2. Brady Hoke (Tremendous!)

3. Mark Dantonio (MSU)

4. Pat Fitzgerald (NU)

5. Bret Bielema (Wis)

6. Kirk Ferentz (Iowa)

7. Bo Pelini (Neb)

8. Jerry Kill (MN)

9. Tim Beckman (IL)

10. Danny Hope (Purdue)

11. Bill O'Brien (PSU)

12. Kevin Wilson (IU)

MadMonkey

April 3rd, 2012 at 9:59 AM ^

I just want to make sure they are qualified (e.g., their ranking is high enough) to make this ranking.  

Oh, that's right!  Anyone can make a ranking about anything.  Never mind.

RakeFight

April 3rd, 2012 at 1:05 PM ^

So, just because you have a health problem, you should give up on all of your dreams and aspirations?  And, an accomplishment in the face of significant adversity shouldn't be valued any more than the same accomplishment without having to deal with any adversity? 

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

Lionsfan

April 3rd, 2012 at 11:05 AM ^

It's Minnesota. In order for a RR-esque season to happen, the past few years had to have been good/great and then go sucky. I'm very interested to see what he's going to do over the next couple of years there for them

FrankMurphy

April 3rd, 2012 at 5:22 PM ^

Tim Brewster didn't just leave the cupboard bare, he left that program in a state of full-blown disarray. Given the mess that Kill inherited, his 3-9 record was actually mildly surprising since it includes wins over Iowa and Illinois along with close road losses to USC and MSU. If you watched Minnesota at all last year, you noticed that they improved as the season went on (unlike Rich Rod's 3-9 team, which pretty much quit on him by the end of the season). Also, Kill has a pretty solid track record from his stints at Northern and Southern Illinois. 

VermontMichiganFan

April 3rd, 2012 at 10:06 AM ^

Any Meyer is not a good coach comment is just silly.

Sure argue Hoke may be better- and arguement may be made.  But Meyer has a NC, success everywhere he's been, and is a terrific recruiter and will be great at OSU- maybe not te best- but becasue he hasn't coached in the Big Ten yet means nothing about how good of a coach he is. 

LB

April 3rd, 2012 at 10:09 AM ^

 

Many factors play into just how successful a coach is at any school.

It then goes on to rank a coach who does not have an "is at any school" in regards to the Big 10. In fact, prior success was the very last thing mentioned, and then they follow that up by letting us know that Yost and Bo, among others, were not Michigan Men.

I find it hard to take this seriously. We can and do find better content here almost daily. I'll put this right up there with the other rags putting together fluff and nonsense in the hopes of garnering a click and comment or two.

 

a2_electricboogaloo

April 3rd, 2012 at 10:22 AM ^

I don't always read superflerous coach rankings, but when I do, I prefer Athlon Sports.

Seriously though, what is this website?  I've never actually heard of it before.  Is it just a Bleacher Report redux or have I been missing out on an additional news source for a while now?

UMFootballCrazy

April 3rd, 2012 at 11:01 AM ^

Seriously.  Please tell me you are not that clueless or ignorant.  Athlon has been producing sports annuals since before the internet.  There pre-season previews and rankings used to be one of the main ways that you prepared for the college football season.  When the Athlon pre-season guide hit the shelf it meant that football season was almost about to start and it was how you briefed yourself on every team in college football.  There would be a multi-page spread for the top 25 teams and one page write ups for the rest of D1 football.

a2_electricboogaloo

April 3rd, 2012 at 12:26 PM ^

I will begrudgingly admit ignorance here.  I honestly hadn't heard (or at least recognized) the name before.  I'm on the younger end of the MGoBlog spectrum (Current UM student), for the duration of my college football I have subsisted off the internet (blogs and such) and ESPN for my pre-season needs.  I just kind of assumed with the asinine "Brady Hoke was born in Ohio and thus is not a Michigan Man" comment (and the generally stupid nature of the list, in my opinion) that they didn't really know what they were talking about.

I will respectably remove myself  from your lawn now.

Kermits Blue Key

April 3rd, 2012 at 10:23 AM ^

Wow, that's a great question. A tough one, though; what does one gauge his response on? Physical prowess? Keen deductive skills? The ability to banter well with super villains? 

lunchboxthegoat

April 3rd, 2012 at 10:24 AM ^

I have all sorts of problems with this list. How can you say that Dantonio (zero BCS bowls, zero AP top 10 finishes)  and Fitzgerald (zero BCS bowls, zero top 25 finishes) are ahead of Beilema (2 BCS bowls, 4 AP top ten finishes) and Kirk Ferentz (2 BCS bowls, one win, 4 AP top ten finishes). Frankly it should be Meyer, Ferentz, Bielema, Hoke, then whomever. I realize that Ferentz isn't lighting the world on fire but in a conference with some unproven coaches he's done pretty damn good. 

exmtroj

April 3rd, 2012 at 10:34 AM ^

Probably because Ferentz and Bielema have likely peaked already. Bielema has made a habit out of losing big games with dumbfounding decisions and is starting to rely a little too much on QB senior transfers instead of recruiting new QB's, and Ferentz sort of had a great-ish season once with Stanzi. Hoke and Meyer have a high potential for major future success in the B1G and on the national level

gopoohgo

April 3rd, 2012 at 10:25 AM ^

I'm fine with these rankings.

Urban being ranked tops with his body of work at Utah, Florida is correct.

Hoke taking Michigan to a Sugar Bowl win in his first year, with the recruiting success he has had is a fine #2.

Stopped looking at the list after Hoke.  I think we will truly be back to the Big2 in the next few years

exmtroj

April 3rd, 2012 at 10:49 AM ^

It might be pre-mature to rank Meyer #1 since we haven't seen how he will perform in this situation (beside the revolutionary garden hose policy). The impending coaching war between Hoke and Meyer, the sky high expectations of every person in the state of ohio, the inescapable fact that he outright quit on his last team (coincidentally around the time that Saban came on the scene and gave him his first truly equal SEC coaching rival), and the difficulty for the spread to take hold in the B1G.



I'm not saying he won't win big at ohio, but any mention of his titles has to be grouped in with what I just mentioned. As of right now, I would put Bielema or Dantonio at the top of the list, slight edge to Dantonio

TheGhostofYost

April 3rd, 2012 at 10:53 AM ^

I will never understand the love for Kirk Ferentz.  He is one of the most overrated and overpaid coaches in the game.

justingoblue

April 3rd, 2012 at 11:07 AM ^

He's winning at a .593 clip at Iowa, that's pretty impressive. Hayden Fry was only marginally better at .613, and he's a hall of famer with a ton of respect in the football world.

He's also only one bowl win behind Fry, and one Big Ten championship back as well, even forgetting that Fry had nineteen years and Ferentz has had eleven.

TheGhostofYost

April 3rd, 2012 at 11:10 AM ^

His last seven seasons are

7-5, 6-7, 6-6, 9-4, 11-2, 8-5, 7-6.  Are those results worth 3 million per year?  I realize he had a nice run in the early 2000s, but he's done just about nothing lately.

justingoblue

April 3rd, 2012 at 11:18 AM ^

Iowa probably shouldn't be paying him three million, but he's won two conference titles (and an Orange Bowl in 2009) at...Iowa. If he has a winning record with a 2009-like season when the cards align, that's a pretty damn good coaching job, IMO.

Pat Fitzgerald could be the best coach in the conference and we would probably never know it because Northwestern has a ton of institutional roadblocks that seperate it from M/PSU/UNL/Ohio. Context matters a lot, and Iowa isn't anyones ideal coaching situation.

justingoblue

April 3rd, 2012 at 12:45 PM ^

I made no claim that Ferentz was the top coach in the Big Ten at the moment, let alone that Fry could claim to be the best all time because he did a better job than Ferentz does. I said that Ferentz did a "hell of a job" keeping Iowa respectable each year with a big season in the cards every four or five years, which I think is true given Iowa's place on the Big Ten foodchain.

I went on to say that Fitzgerald could be the best coach in conference, but we would never know because he has his hands tied behind his back in a lot of ways. Pacquiao will never beat Klitschko, but he could be the better boxer.

FrankMurphy

April 3rd, 2012 at 4:43 PM ^

Keep in mind that most of Hayden Fry's accomplishments are from before the 85 scholarship limit brought more parity to the league. Given the fact that he had to go up against Bo and Woody during an era in which there were few restrictions aimed at leveling the playing field, Fry's record is probably more impressive than it seems now. I'm not saying you're wrong, just that differences in the landscape between now and Fry's time are a factor to consider in comparing Ferentz's record with Fry's. 

C-BusWolve

April 3rd, 2012 at 12:51 PM ^

I don't understand how not having coached a game in the Big Ten excludes Meyer from being the top coach. I definitely don't know how anyone can rank him 6th, as one assanine list did in this thread. Under this logic, Nick Saban wouldn't be the best coach in the Big East if he chose to bolt Bama for UConn (he would be by a landslide). I hate OSU as much as the next guy but let's not be silly here. The guy has won a ton everywhere he has been and I have no problem with him being ranked #1 at this point, new guy or not.

Soulfire21

April 3rd, 2012 at 2:25 PM ^

At first I was all... "THE HELL, MEYER HASN'T COACHED YET" ... but the author is correct.  He has the most complete resume of any B1G coach and deserves to be on top.  Hoke will just have to earn that spot.

FrankMurphy

April 3rd, 2012 at 4:33 PM ^

Danny Hope sucks ("junior high school, no class asshole"); he should be ranked last. I might swap Bielema and Fitzgerald. Other than that, it seems like a pretty reasonable list. 

HELLE

April 3rd, 2012 at 7:47 PM ^

"Considering he was born in Ohio, Hoke isn’t necessarily a “Michigan Man.” "



Yeah, neither was Bo, Yost and a slew of others. Don't wait for the Pulitzer.



I appoligize, normally I don't get this fired up on here.