Ranking Best Big Ten Football Head Coaching Matchups for 2016 Season
With the calendar turning to June, satellite camps have officially started, which means the start of the college football season is merely three months away.
And when it comes to the mounting anticipation for the 2016 campaign, the Big Ten finds itself with no shortage of intriguing matchups to look forward to, as the conference looks to build on the recent momentum it's found in the past few seasons.
But while the Big Ten can certainly claim some of the nation's top talent, the coaches are the ones who have truly made the conference what it's become of late.
Between a three-time national champion, a two-time league champion, the most talked-about coach in the country and the reigning National Coach of the Year, to name a few, you'd be hard-pressed to find a conference with a deeper roster of prominent coaches than what currently exists in the Big Ten.
And in just a matter of months, those coaches will be squaring off against each other in an effort to capture this year's conference crown.
Let's rank this year's best Big Ten head coaching matchups, based on the intrigue that each respective battle will bring.
10. Chris Ash vs. D.J. Durkin
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Anytime you get a matchup between two first-time coaches in college football, there's a certain level of excitement that can be expected.
And when you add the parallel paths Chris Ash and D.J. Durkin have followed to wind up the head coaches of rival programs—Ash at Rutgers, Durkin at Maryland—the intrigue only increases.
After all, in order to find the last time Ash and Durkin squared off as rivals, you'd only have to go back to last November, when Ash was the defensive coordinator at Ohio State and Durkin was serving in the same role at Michigan. The similarities, however, don't stop there, as both coaches have previously served as assistants under Urban Meyer—Ash having done so with the Buckeyes and Durkin during stints at Florida and Bowling Green.
Now for the first time, both defensive coordinators find themselves running their own programs, both of which endured struggles in 2015. But come the final week of November, the new coaches of the Scarlet Knights and Terrapins will close their first seasons as head coaches against each other in a game that could go a long way toward determining how each views his debut campaign.
9. Kevin Wilson vs. Mike Riley
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Do you like offense?
If so, the October 15 matchup between Indiana and Nebraska might be for you.
With two of the conference's most offensive-minded head coaches, Kevin Wilson and Mike Riley, squaring off, there should be no shortage of yards gained and points scored when the Hoosiers and Cornhuskers meet in Bloomington next fall.
Last year, Indiana and Nebraska ranked first and second, respectively, in offense in the Big Ten, and neither the Hoosiers nor Huskers should see much drop-off in the coming year.
As far as the coaching matchup itself is concerned, it's a big year for both Wilson, who will look to maintain momentum from last year's 6-6 regular season, and Riley, who's looking to bounce back from his 5-7 debut in Lincoln.
And with their meeting coming in the fourth week of the Big Ten slate, the matchup between last year's top two offenses in the Big Ten could be prove to be a swing game for both teams in 2016.
8. Kirk Ferentz vs. Pat Fitzgerald
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If Kevin Wilson vs. Mike Riley is the premier offensive coaching matchup in the Big Ten, the matchup between Iowa's Kirk Ferentz and Pat Fitzgerald just might be its defensive counterpart.
Only you wouldn't know it based on last year's game, which saw the Hawkeyes score 40 on the Wildcats, jumpstarting their run to a 12-0 regular season. But even with its poor performance against Iowa, Northwestern still managed to finish the season ranked 13th in the nation in total defense while putting together its own respectable 10-2 regular-season campaign.
"We know who we are," Fitzgerald said, per InsideNU.com's Henry Bushnell. "And we've embraced that here through Big Ten play. And some games it's been better than others, but we know exactly who we are, and we've stuck to that formula."
Ferentz, meanwhile, has long been one of the Big Ten's top head coaches, a former NFL assistant who helped oversee a defense that ranked sixth nationally as recently as 2013.
Headlined by cornerback Desmond King and linebacker Josey Jewell, the Hawkeyes defense should once again be one of the conference's best in the coming year, making the battle between Iowa and Northwestern a must-watch for fans of defense-first football.
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7. Mark Dantonio vs. Paul Chryst
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When it comes to exciting matchups in the opening week of the Big Ten schedule, there may not be a more intriguing battle than the one slated between Michigan State and Wisconsin.
After not meeting in the 2015, this year's showdown between the Spartans and Badgers will mark the first game between head coaches Mark Dantonio and Paul Chryst, whose teams combined for a 22-5 record a year ago.
When Dantonio and Chryst meet in East Lansing on September 24, it should make for an interesting contrast in coaching philosophies. Both former Big Ten assistants, Dantonio has built his reputation on defense, while Chryst's coaching career has come on the offensive side of the ball.
Despite their apparent strengths, however, both have also shown the ability to run balanced programs, with Wisconsin ranking first in the Big Ten in defense in 2015 and Michigan State trailing just Ohio State on offense in 2014.
It will require strong efforts on both sides for either team to beat the other in 2016 in what should be the premier game of the conference's opening weekend.
6. Lovie Smith vs. Jim Harbaugh
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The last time Lovie Smith squared off against Jim Harbaugh, it was on Monday Night Football, with Harbaugh's San Francisco 49ers getting the best of Smith's Chicago Bears by a score of 32-7.
This year, Smith will get his shot at revenge at the former 49ers head coach when his new Illinois team heads to Ann Arbor to take on Harbaugh's Michigan squad on October 22.
It may not possess the glitz and glamor of Monday Night Football, but the rematch between Harbaugh and Smith will be an interesting battle between two of only seven coaches to have ever wound up in the college ranks after having coached in a Super Bowl.
Neither team may possess a pro-caliber roster just yet, but Harbaugh's pro-style offense should make for an intriguing matchup with Smith's defense-first approach.
As proved to be the case four years ago, Harbaugh appears to have the talent advantage heading into his second go-round with Smith. But based on their resumes alone, the battle between the two recent NFL head coaches is one of the Big Ten's must-watch games in 2016.
5. Urban Meyer vs. Paul Chryst
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In his four years at Ohio State, two of Urban Meyer's most definitive games have come against Wisconsin.
First, there was the 2012 matchup, which saw the Buckeyes keep their undefeated regular season alive with a 21-14 overtime victory in Madison. Then there was the 2014 Big Ten Championship Game, where Ohio State and a third-strong quarterback named Cardale Jones clinched a spot in the inaugural College Football Playoff with a 59-0 beatdown of the Badgers.
After Wisconsin fell off the Buckeyes' schedule in 2015, the two programs will meet back up in Madison on October 15. The matchup will mark the first meeting between Meyer and Chryst, who had already left to become the head coach at Pitt the last time OSU came to town.
How the two offensive-minded yet generally balanced head coaches will attempt to match each other could make for another instant classic in the Buckeyes-Badgers vault. It will also present Chryst with one of his toughest challenges yet as a head coach, as he'll have to make the most of his bye week to prepare for Ohio State following games against Michigan State and Michigan to open Wisconsin's Big Ten schedule.
But if this series has taught us anything throughout its history, it's to expect the unexpected when the Buckeyes and Badgers battle.
4. Jim Harbaugh vs. Kirk Ferentz
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In his first season coaching in the Big Ten, Jim Harbaugh found himself taking part in several high-profile matchups.
One coach, however, who eluded the Harbaugh hype train in 2015 was Kirk Ferentz, as the Wolverines and Hawkeyes never crossed paths due to scheduling and U-M's failure to get to the Big Ten title game.
But with Michigan's November 12 trip to Iowa City to take on Iowa in a prime-time matchup, the first Harbaugh-Ferentz battle is upon us. And by that point in the season, Big Ten title game implications could very well be in play in the premier cross-divisional game of the 2016 Big Ten slate.
As for the coaching matchup, both Harbaugh and Ferentz possess pro pedigrees, as well as proven track records in the college ranks.
It may be coming a year later than originally possible, but between the talent, stakes and coaches on each sideline, the first Harbaugh-Ferentz showdown should prove to be worth the wait.
3. Mark Dantonio vs. Jim Harbaugh
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When it comes to rivalry games between two of the conference's top teams, the stakes are always high.
But now that Harbaugh has been infused into Michigan's rivalry with Michigan State, the battle for the Paul Bunyan Trophy not only features two of the Big Ten's fiercest fanbases, but two of its fiercest coaches as well.
In the coaching matchup most likely to end with a blow by handshake, we're still waiting for our first memorable moment between the two head coaches, but the same can't be said about the game itself. In fact, the first Harbaugh-Dantonio showdown featured one of college football's most memorable plays in 2015, with Jalen Watts-Jackson's last-second, improbable blocked punt return sealing a Spartans victory.
This year, the Wolverines will head to Spartan Stadium for a game that should once again give the winning team control over its destiny in the Big Ten East and leave the loser playing catchup.
How many more memorable moments will occur—and who they'll come from—remains to be seen, but so far we're 1-for-1 when it comes Harbaugh-Dantonio instant classics.
2. Mark Dantonio vs. Urban Meyer
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Since Meyer arrived in the Big Ten in 2012, only one coach in the conference can claim to have beaten the three-time national champion head coach.
And Dantonio's done it twice.
Michigan State's first upset over Ohio State came in the 2013 Big Ten Championship Game, when the Buckeyes were on the cusp of clinching a spot in the BCS title game, and the Spartans' victory in Columbus last season brought an end to Meyer's quest for a fourth title. In total, both of Michigan State's past two wins over Ohio State have come with the Buckeyes riding winning streaks of 24 and 23.
But the rivalry between the Spartans and Ohio State has hardly been lopsided, with the Buckeyes winning in East Lansing in 2012 and 2014. In essence, you won't find a rivalry in the Big Ten that's had more on the line in recent years than the one between Meyer and Dantonio, and this year's matchup at Spartan Stadium on November 19 shouldn't be any different.
1. Urban Meyer vs. Jim Harbaugh
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Despite the anticipation leading up to it and both teams' still having an outside shot at winning the Big Ten East, the first Harbaugh-Meyer matchup was hardly a classic, with Ohio State winning a lopsided battle by a score of 42-13.
But in the years to come, one-sided affairs should be the exception and not the rule in the still-young rivalry between two of college football's most prominent head coaches.
On the one side, you have Meyer, whose three national titles and .851 career winning percentage speak for themselves. On the other, you have Harbaugh, an elite recruiter with an NFL pedigree who has garnered more attention than any other coach in college football since arriving in Ann Arbor in 2015.
Add them to what's already college football's most intense rivalry, and you have all the makings of what could be another "10-year war."
Perhaps 2016 will be the year that decade-long battle begins, as both the Buckeyes and Wolverines should be two of the country's best teams in the coming year—and years to come.
Ben Axelrod is Bleacher Report's Big Ten lead writer. You can follow him on Twitter @BenAxelrod. Unless noted otherwise, all quotes were obtained firsthand. Recruiting class rankings courtesy of 247Sports' composite.
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