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

schreibee

December 27th, 2014 at 2:31 PM ^

I think that reply may have missed the point of the OP. Carroll played for College/University of the Pacific, which dropped football some time ago. Forgotten where Saban played but believe it was a similar smaller school.

So the one next in line after the Old Ball Coach in my mind is Johnny Majors. NC at Pitt, then left for Tennessee, where he'd had a celebrated college career.

Others?

bwlag

December 27th, 2014 at 2:26 PM ^

I was going to say Pat Fitzgerald, but apparently he went straight from playing at Northwestern to coaching. Anybody know why he didn't pursue an NFL playing career?

justingoblue

December 27th, 2014 at 2:41 PM ^

Went to the internets and found this.

 

Yea, well I didn’t have a choice, I got cut. Yea, the Cowboys cut me, and then I worked out for the New Orleans Saints. We were coming out of training camp, so we had just been beating the crap out of each other playing football, and the first thing they have us do is there’s a physical, and you pass the physical, and then they have you bench press 225, do a vertical, and run a 40 yard dash. Well my fastest 40 yard dash was a 4.82 when I had been training for it for three months, let alone coming out of training camp all beat up. I know I ran poorly, and Coach Ditka was here with the Bears when we had our run and all that stuff, and he put his arm around me and said “I know you had a great career at Northwestern, but I think it might be time you want to think about using that degree.” And that statement resonated with me, I mean here’s somebody I had the utmost respect for, I thought “Maybe he’s right.” So I came back home, I came up and saw Coach Barnett, and we sat down, and I said “I just got a sour taste in my mouth right now, and I kind of feel like I’m beating my head against a wall. I’m a great football player, I’m not a great athlete, I had my shot, it didn’t work, I got cut right there at the end, and I’ve got this taste in my mouth from football that I just don’t like.”

http://www.thepigskinproject.com/?p=82

gustave ferbert

December 27th, 2014 at 2:27 PM ^

Bear Bryant. . . .

 

"Mama called me home."

I didn't read your post fully, however I still stick by it, because Bryant had offers to do whatever he wanted and he still went home.. . .

bacon

December 27th, 2014 at 3:58 PM ^

After looking around for a while I think Forrest Gregg and Jim Harbaugh may be the only former players to become NFL head coaches and then go back to be head coach for their college. Herm Edwards and gary kubiack started as position coaches and then went on to be head coaches. Al Groh was an NFL coach and left for Virginia too, so maybe 3? Harbaugh maybe the most significant as Forrest Gregg took over smu right after the death penalty.

alum96

December 27th, 2014 at 2:51 PM ^

Definitely!  I am just trying to figure out just how rare this is.  Even if Jim was a mediocre NFL coach this would be nearly unprecedented for a guy who was a stud in college and "good" in pros to go back to coach his college team.  Then throw in a guy who was a stud NFL coach and he is basically 1 of 2 guys (although Jim did it in a better league than Spurrier did).  But even excluding that we are talking about half a dozen guys the past 30-40 years.

#PerfectStorm

Auerbach

December 27th, 2014 at 2:40 PM ^

I honestly wouldn't be surprised if Peyton Manning were coaching 5 years from now, and and Tennesee seems to have an opening at head coach every few years. 

bacon

December 27th, 2014 at 2:49 PM ^

Didn't necessarily have NFL careers, but alumns that had success at HCs of their college:

David shaw at Stanford.
Rich Rod at WVU
Frank Beamer at VATech

Edit: I'm not sure how successful they need to be to be highly successful alumns that went back. None were as well known before as they are now. Most highly successful NFL players don't become head coaches. A lot are tv analysts though.

turtleboy

December 27th, 2014 at 2:44 PM ^

Bennie Oosterbaan didn't go pro, but he declined offers to for religious reasons. Still he was a star player, and later successful coach for his alma mater. Troy Calhoun played and coaches for Air Force, and coached in the nfl

WolverineHistorian

December 27th, 2014 at 2:53 PM ^

Spurrier's Florida teams in the 90's were insanely good. And no matter how good or bad their opponents were, they always seemed to win games by scores like 52-7, 63-13, 48-0, 57-6, etc. The media was insanely in love them. I remember Gameday once featuring an entire segment to the Gator chomp.

That kind of success would be a dream. Spurrier won the Heisman and Harbaugh finished 4th, I believe. But Harbaugh had NFL success and Spurrier didn't so we'll call it a draw.

I'm getting waaaaaaay ahead of myself but it's nice to dream.




Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad

alum96

December 27th, 2014 at 2:58 PM ^

Yes I watched one of those 30 for 30 specials on Spurrier or maybe it was SEC Storied.  You dont appreciate how good this guy was until you do the research.  People of a certain age (below 40) probabl assume Florida was always good due to Spurrier and Meyer.  They were basically an Illinois type program for decades until Spurrier showed up.  Further the SEC was basically a running conference until he showed up.  He even turned Duke around in 3 years.  Guy was a stud player and coach.  Even South Carolina he has been winning 10-11 games a year while Holtz (who was also a great coach) could not.

WolverineHistorian

December 27th, 2014 at 3:33 PM ^

Florida had never won a conference title in the history of their program until Spurrier arrived as coach in the 90's. Then it seemed like they won the conference 8 of the next 11 years.

Florida State and Miami were kind of like that too. FSU before Bobby Bowden was an easy win for any opponent. Miami was so bad for so long they considered dropping the football program altogether but then became national title contenders every year in the 80's when they found every possible convict in the state who was a good athlete.