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Big Ten follows SEC’s lead, chases big-name coaches in return to glory
By Ethan Levine
Published:
The Big Ten was once seen as one of the best leagues in the world of college football.
Traditional powers like Ohio State, Penn State and Michigan reigned supreme. Legendary coaches like Joe Paterno, Bo Schembechler, Woody Hayes and Hayden Fry were at the pinnacle of their careers. The Big Ten claimed national championships left and right, setting a standard of excellence for other conferences across the country.
But the once-powerful conference has fallen behind the times in recent years. Michigan and Penn State are no longer what they once were, nor are new additions to the conference like Nebraska. The Big Ten has had fewer ranked teams than most other power conferences of late, and at the lack of depth in the league has harmed the perception of its top teams.
The Big Ten is no longer the pace-setter in the world of college football. That role now belongs to the SEC. Programs like Alabama, Auburn and LSU routinely dominate the college football landscape, and coaches like Saban, Miles, Richt and Spurrier are legends in their own right.
However, without many of us realizing it, the Big Ten has begun closing ground on the SEC in an attempted return to its glory days.
What is the Big Ten’s recipe to reclaiming success? To accumulate the best coaches college football has to offer — just like the SEC did at the start of its recent stretch of dominance.
It all began in late 2011 when former Florida coach Urban Meyer closed the book on his brief retirement to take the coaching job at Ohio State. Since arriving in Columbus, Meyer has posted a record of 36-3 with the Buckeyes, including a 24-0 record in regular season Big Ten contests.
There’s no arguing the hire has worked out for OSU.
Meyer joins Michigan State coach Mark D’Antonio among the league’s elite coaches. D’Antonio has resurrected the Spartans since arriving at MSU in 2007, winning more than 70 percent of his games including three division titles and two conference crowns.
His name is not as iconic as Meyer’s in the world of college football, but his record is not far behind the Buckeyes’ head man.
Penn State got in on the act last offseason, plucking James Franklin from Vanderbilt to lead the Nittany Lions. Franklin took a Vanderbilt program lagging far behind the rest of the SEC in resources, tradition and facilities, and led the Commodores to back to back nine-win seasons in the best conference in America.
Now he’ll try to further Penn State’s rebuilding (and rebranding) efforts in the aftermath of the Jerry Sandusky nightmare. If there was ever a man suited for the task at hand, it’s Franklin.
Ohio State and Michigan State were both top 10 teams this season, and it’s only a matter of time before Franklin begins crowding them at the top.
Now try and imagine Michigan adding Jim Harbaugh to the mix. The same Harbaugh who revived a Stanford program dormant since the days of John Elway. The same Harbaugh who took over an NFL team and reached three straight conference championship games right off the bat.
There are few men who can teach the game of football as well as Harbaugh has proven he can throughout his career. Michigan may be at its lowest point in a generation, but a coach like Harbaugh could use UM’s resources to return the Wolverines to glory sooner than later.
Meyer, D’Antonio, Franklin and perhaps Harbaugh as well — those are four men who could be leading four of the nation’s scariest programs just 2-3 years from now. That’s certainly one way to put the Big Ten back on the map.
Alabama saw the value in breaking the bank to attract a premier head coach, hiring Nick Saban to run the Tide after a failed experiment in the NFL. LSU followed that path by replacing Saban with Les Miles went Saban left to coach in the pros. The rest of the SEC soon followed suit, resulting in a run of seven straight national titles from 2006-12.
The Big Ten is hoping to mirror that same path to the top of the college football world. Coaches like Meyer and Harbaugh are more than capable of matching what coaches like Saban and Miles have done, and if given time there’s no reason to believe they won’t.
It’s not going to happen overnight, but the Big Ten is picking itself back up off the mat. And when it does, the rest of the college football world better be ready for a fight.
A former newspaper reporter who has roamed the southeastern United States for years covering football and eating way too many barbecue ribs, if there is such a thing.
