Athlon Ranks B1G Football Coaches (Hoke 2nd)
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)
Bielema looks dumb as a rock sometimes but he still takes very average recruiting classes and makes them into B1G contenders almost every year
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.
Jerry Kill at 8? I didn't realize his previous records were so good. He really had a RR-esque first season for Minny.
I hope this doesn't seem too harsh and I always get killed for it on this board, but I hate when people boost other peoples accomplishments because they did it while overcoming some health issues.
but don't you think the threat of keeling over at any point takes a toll on your psyche in an already stressful environment? On top of that, any hour he spends with a doctor is an hour away from Minnesota football.
That's kind of my point here. It is his own stupid choice to keep running out there knowing he could. Why should that help boost his accomplishments? If anything it is a poor choice on his part. That's my opinion and I am kind of an odd fellow.
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.
Somebody came to the door collecting money for the Special Olympics, and His Dudeness was like, "I don't get it."
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
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.
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.
Poor Danny Hope, placed behind Tim Beckman (who hasn't yet coached a B1G game).
He's still too high. He should be ranked dead last.
Danny Hope is not "poor" anything. He just sucks.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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?
Mallrats auto-plus one. I would give you another because its Brodie, but I can't. :(
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.
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
That the scandal at Penn State never happened, and Joe Pa was still coaching, where would you guys say he ranks on that list?
At least six feet under Kevin Wilson...
What is Kevin Wilson doing standing on a grave?
Good one!
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
I will never understand the love for Kirk Ferentz. He is one of the most overrated and overpaid coaches in the game.
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.
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.
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.
By this rationale, Hayden Frye is the best coach in Big Ten History, given that his career record at Iowa, over a longer period, is better than Ferentz's.
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.
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.
It's so weird seeing an unfamiliar name next to "PSU". I completely forgot the guy's name.
I did a double-take at that too. It'll be even weirer this fall watching Penn State take the field behind some random middle-aged dude who doesn't even wear glasses.
Wasn't Bielema putting it to Erin Andrews? Thats worth something.....
I cannot wait to see OSU fans when Meyer loses 2 of the first 4 games!
Fitzgerald is underrated. What he is able to consistently do at Northwestern ... Northwestern ... is amazing.
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.
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.
lol at having hoke higher than MD
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.