Playing careers of College Coaches ranked

Submitted by BursleysFinest on

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/14927022/ranking-fbs-college-football-coaches-players-1-129

ESPN, has a cool article, ranking all current college coaches' playing careers.  Obviously our favorite Khaki wearing weirdo is 1st. (Spurrier may have been some competition there)

Was Fitzgerald really that good as a player? I have no memory of him at NW.

 

 

WolverineHistorian

March 9th, 2016 at 11:48 AM ^

Fitzgerald had some key tackles on Brian Griese in the 4th quarter of that 1995 game where Northwestern beat us for the first time in 36 years.   

I've never had the stomach to go back and look at that game but whenever we play Northwestern now, ESPN broadcasters will look for any excuse to bring that 95 game up. 

Naked Bootlegger

March 9th, 2016 at 11:20 AM ^

I grew up in the era where Northwestern was an irrelevant football program (70's-80's).   Northwestern's revival in the mid-90's was, quite frankly, pretty cool to watch - except when losing to them while scoring over 50 points.   Fitzgerald was the main defensive cog in the Northwestern revival era.  He was a premiere MLB who would've excelled at any B1G school. 

Space Coyote

March 9th, 2016 at 11:22 AM ^

Two-time Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year, consensus All-American, and Bronko Nagurski Trophy and the Chuck Bednarik Award winner. That means two-time in each of those things, 1995 and 1996. He's a college football hall of famer. He possibly had the best college career of any current coach.

So yes, he was good.

Farnn

March 9th, 2016 at 11:25 AM ^

It's very rare for great athletes to become great coaches. When so much comes naturally to you, it can be hard to teach those who aren't great athletes. Plus, you probably didn't need to be as technically sound as average players. Michin has not one but two head coaches who were amazing players in Harbaugh and Berenson.

Space Coyote

March 9th, 2016 at 11:49 AM ^

And I agree with what you said, but you also are late to the game if you had a successful playing career. In other sports it seems coaches can quickly move up the ranks (basketball comes immediately to mind, but probably also baseball and soccer to some degree), but football isn't at all like that. Football tends to take longer than most other sports, because there are more layers to coaching at any level (grad assistant, scout, assistant position coach, position coach, coordinator, head coach). If you start when you're 35 with no experience, it may take you 15 to 20 years to even make it to the head coaching level, so you're already 50 or 55.

What Harbaugh did is by far the exception to the rule. He got a head coaching gig almost immediately because he helped out his dad while still a pro and had tons of coaching connections to help him get a small time job. He then had success at a small school and made a huge jump all the way to Stanford that is rare. So that's two rare things that happened (immediately a head coach, and then a huge jump). The fact that he made another pretty large jump to be the head coach in San Fran is even more remarkable. Very, very few have those types of jumps in their football career path, let alone 3 of them.

Morto

March 9th, 2016 at 11:30 AM ^

Could someone explain to me why Pat Fitzgerald didn't get drafted though? If he had that good of a college career, you'd think he might've gotten at least a chance at the next level.

Space Coyote

March 9th, 2016 at 11:38 AM ^

Northwestern's scheme was built around Fitzgerald being clean, and stuffing ball carriers between the tackles. At the time, that's what most offenses were. The few short passes and outside runs were uncommon enough to pick on Fitzgerald's limited athletic ability. But with the way the NFL had developed by then (a lot of West Coast Offense) he couldn't be covered enough with his limited athletic ability.

Fitzgerald was essentially the definition of a classic Big Ten MLB. He could get off blocks and had a nose for the football that very few had. But he couldn't run with NFL players, and when the opponent not only gets faster, but also bigger and better, he just wasn't good enough for the next level. Classic example of a great at one level not transitioning to being great at the next level.

RationalBuckeye

March 9th, 2016 at 11:55 AM ^

Akron, specifically. Lower D1 attendance in the nation before last year, with one of the biggest, newest non-P5 stadiums in the country. Even with a bowl eligible team no one really showed up. They allow anyone remotely affiliated with the school to come for free in hopes of luring literally anyone to come

PopeLando

March 9th, 2016 at 11:40 AM ^

Can't disagree with the top 2. I think Harbaugh wins almost by default, because he's the only person to transition from a recent sucessful NFL career to head coach so quickly. Eventually, we might see somebody like Mike Vrabel near the top of this list (I don't like the guy but he was good). If Mike Hart ever makes head coach, he's in the top 15 easily.

Actually, I think this deserves a good job to ESPN. Tracking down all that info probably wasn't easy, and then ranking it when so many of those guys had meh careers..not bad. Not bad at all.

RED DAWN

March 9th, 2016 at 1:02 PM ^

 Actually, I think this deserves a good job to ESPN. Tracking down all that info probably wasn't easy, and then ranking it when so many of those guys had meh careers..not bad. Not bad at all.

Not really they write it once and recycle it year after year.  I remember the list with Hoke and his Ball State playing days on it.  

WolverineHistorian

March 9th, 2016 at 11:58 AM ^

Interesting.  Bret Bielema was a starting defensive lineman and team captain at Iowa in 1992. 

When we played Iowa at the big house that season, we ran for 487 yards in a 52-28 win.  I may have to go back and look at the game to see if there are any frustrated shots of him.  Yeah, I hate him that much. 

M-Dog

March 9th, 2016 at 12:03 PM ^

Harbaugh is the only guy that was a top star in the NFL and college.  

And now he's a star coach, in both the NFL and college.

The man wins at every damn thing.