College Football 2011: 8 Non-SEC Coaches Who Would Thrive Under SEC Pressure
Since the inception of the BCS for the 1998 season, the Bowl Championship Series has crowned 13 champions.
Of those 13 teams, seven of them have been from the SEC.
Beyond the SEC, the rest of the automatic qualifying conferences have one apiece, except for the Big 12, which has two. If you subscribe to the idea that USC wasn't the true champion after the 2005 season, the Pac-10 doesn't have any BCS championships.
The point is simply this: The SEC, over the past decade or so, has been the preeminent Division I-FBS conference in the nation. Nothing short of winning 10-plus games per year is considered a success these days. Bowl games, and arguably BCS bowl games, are seen as lowly consolation prizes. The singular goal year in and year out in the SEC is very simple: Win the BCS championship.
With such a lofty expectation every season and programs constantly under the watchful microscope of alumni, boosters and athletic directors, there are few coaching gigs more demanding that of the SEC.
Coaches have melted under the intense heat. But a select few have thrived.
That begs the question: Which current non-SEC coaches would use that heat to burn a path to BCS championships?
Butch Davis—North Carolina
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Sure, 2010 didn't quite turn out the way Tar Heel nation would have hoped. Yes, UNC lost to LSU because it seemed like half the team was suspended. Yes, UNC lost to Miami, Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech and NC State. And, yes, three standout players were ruled permanently ineligible by the NCAA at the end of the season for accepting gifts from agents.
But they also beat Virginia at Virginia for the first time since 1981. They also won for the first time ever at Doak.
When the media began to whip up stories calling for Davis' firing, one needed to look no further than UNC's own football establishment for support. The students, alumni and boosters led a strong movement of support for Davis. In October, Public Policy Polling released the results of a poll in which Davis had an approval rating among UNC fans of 41 percent. His disapproval rating was only 20 percent. Only 14 percent thought he should be fired, and 57 percent said he should keep his job.
Such overwhelming support for a coach of a team overloaded with NCAA rules violations would probably only be matched by the indoctrinated disciples of the church of Ohio State. Or perhaps any number of SEC schools.
While Davis' numbers at UNC have yet to really sparkle, it's clear that he has some command of the art of coaching. He did, after all, win three ACC titles at Miami, and had a 4-0 bowl record while finishing No. 2 in the polls in his final season (2000) at The U. He's also led UNC to three consecutive bowl appearances at UNC in his first four years.
True, 28-23 probably wouldn't land you too many SEC job offers, but if Davis were to find his way to the South, it's 6-to-5 and pick 'em if his team would eventually compete for a BCS title.
Frank Beamer—Virginia Tech
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Frank Beamer might be one of "those" coaches. You know, the kind who pretty much has an entire style of football named after him.
Wait a tick. He already is one of those coaches.
Beamer brought his philosophy of football scoring to Virginia Tech in 1987. The Hokies haven't been without his leadership since. In the college football world, 24 years is several coaching lifetimes.
During the past two-and-a-half decades, Beamerball has become a way of life at Virginia Tech. No longer is the offense relied upon to score every point. The defense and—as opposing coaches know full well—the special teams are called upon to contribute to the scoreboard tally as well.
In fact, since Beamer's first season as the head Hokie, a player from every defensive position has scored a touchdown. Just think about that. Nose tackles scoring touchdowns.
Beamer has also brought championships to Virginia Tech. Since moving to the ACC in 2004, Tech has won four ACC championships and five divisional titles. Prior to the ACC years, Beamer led the Hokies to three Big East championships.
Put that all together, and you have a head coach who is 46-10 in the ACC and has a 198-95-2 overall record.
There are quite a number of SEC programs that wouldn't mind numbers like that.
Gary Pinklel—Missouri
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Coach Pinkel has completely transformed Missouri football.
In the early years of the last decade, Missouri football was an "also-ran" in the Big 12 North. In fact, in Pinkel's first season at Mizzou, the Tigers finished tied for fourth in the North Division. Year two saw the Tigers slip to fifth.
Since then, however, it's been a steady climb to the top of the North.
Since 2005, the Tigers have finished no worse than second in the division. While conference titles still elude Pinkel's Tigers, it's possible that with the departure of Nebraska for the Big Ten, Colorado for the Pac-10 and the resulting death of the Big 12 Championship Game, Missouri may benefit from a conference record standing championship format.
By the way, Pinkel has led the Tigers to seven bowl appearances in 10 years, including a 2008 Cotton Bowl dismantling of Arkansas.
Three conference division titles in the last four years is a nice way to enter a new decade. Mizzou is 22-10 in the Big 12 over that stretch. If there's one thing that keeps a coach in his position in the SEC, it's winning.
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Kirk Ferentz—Iowa
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If there are two conferences that don't seem to get along, it's probably the SEC and Big Ten.
Let's face it: These two big boy conferences play two different styles of football, and necessarily so.
Fast and flashy doesn't always work well in the snow-covered fields in Ann Arbor and Minneapolis in November.
Big and bruising doesn't fare well against the nation's top speedsters in Alabama and Georgia in September (or a dome stadium any time of the year).
And while the argument may possibly never be settled (given the SEC's refusal to play the Big Ten in Big Ten country any time after about the third week in September), there is one thing that even SEC-lovers can acknowledge: Kirk Ferentz is one heckuva coach.
Ferentz got his start at Iowa under Iowa legendary coach Hayden Fry. Ferentz left to assume the head coaching position at Maine. After a lackluster 12-21 record with the Black Bears, Ferentz moved on to the NFL as a line coach.
In 1999, Ferentz returned to his coaching roots at Iowa, being named the new head coach. The first two years of the Ferentz era at Iowa weren't anything to write home about. A combined 4-19 and 3-13 in the Big Ten wasn't exactly what Iowa football fans were hoping for.
The next 10 years, however, were exactly what Hawkeye nation wanted.
In the past 10 years, Iowa has won two Big Ten co-championships and has been to nine bowl games (6-3), including two BCS bowls (1-1). Iowa has also finished the year ranked in the Top Ten four times over that span.
It should also be noted that the one season during the last decade that Iowa did not go to a bowl game, they were eligible to do so at 6-6, but were not selected after a shocking season-ending loss to the MAC's Western Michigan.
While Iowa's style of football isn't well suited for competition in the SEC, Ferentz record over the past 10 years is: 85-41.
Ferentz also has one other quality that SEC programs and fans alike would find attractive. He has frequently stated he has absolutely no interest in leaving his team for the NFL or any other college football program. In fact, his current contract runs through 2015.
If, for some reason, Ferentz has a change of heart, he could make a nice addition to the SEC coaching community.
Bob Stoops—Oklahoma
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Oklahoma is a college football program that just seems to win all the dang time.
Both in the Big 12 and across conference lines, the Sooners under Bob Stoops are one tough opponent.
Over his 12-year tenure at OU, Stoops has led the Sooners to 11 top two finishes in the Big 12-South, and the 12th season (2009) was a "shocking" third-place finish.
Stoops' Sooners have also dominated the Big 12 Championship Game, winning seven of the last 11.
Coach Stoops also led the Sooners to the one thing on every SEC fan's mind—a BCS title—in 2000.
The Sooners have never missed a bowl game under Bob Stoops, and of those 12 bowl appearances, eight have been BCS bowls.
Coach Stoops is also 129-31 overall (or 130-30, if you count USC's win being vacated in the 2005 Orange Bowl) and 78-18 in conference.
Are there any SEC programs that can match that? The answer is simple: No. (Florida comes closest with 117 wins over the same span).
Bob Stoops does two things that would guarantee him a long coaching career in the SEC: win games, win championships.
Mark Dantonio—Michigan State
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Sorry, Sparty, but let's face facts. MSU is not what most people would consider a national powerhouse in the world of college football.
There is, however, an abundance of enthusiasm in East Lansing about the Spartans. And for the first time in a long time, we're not talking about the basketball Spartans.
While State's basketball program has steadily climbed into the top echelon of national college basketball powerhouses, the football Spartans muddled through mediocre season after mediocre season.
Promising starts, many of them 4-0 or better, were followed up by winless stretches of four or five games. Every time State lost a game, people in Michigan could be heard lamenting, "Here they go again." And they were usually correct.
Michigan running back Mike Hart wasn't completely off the mark when he (in)famously called the Spartans U-M's "little brother."
Well, there comes a time when that little brother grows up and begins to challenge big brother. That time came in 2008. Since then, Dantonio and MSU are 3-0 against the Wolverines.
Dantonio's real test comes in 2011: Will he be able to build on MSU's 2010 Big Ten championship success, or will it be the same old Spartans?
Hey, even a heart attack after a stunning Mad Hatter-esque play call in overtime to beat Notre Dame couldn't keep Dantonio and the Spartans down in 2010. With that kind of gritty success, there are a number of SEC teams that would be lucky to have Dantonio.
Brian Kelly—Notre Dame
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Is there anything Brian Kelly can't do?
We're probably all about to find out.
Can Kelly take a once proud dynastic football program, rally the sons of Notre Dame, shake down a little thunder and march them on to victory?
Only time will tell.
But if there is one thing about Brian Kelly that isn't up for much debate, it's his past successes.
A quick recap of BK's coaching career:
He was hired by Tom Beck as a graduate assistant at Grand Valley State in 1987. In 1991, Beck left GVSU for Notre Dame to become Lou Holtz's offensive coordinator, and Kelly became head coach at GVSU. In 13 seasons at GVSU, Kelly was 118-35-2, never finished below third in the conference standings, won five conference titles and two Division II National Championships.
In 2004, Kelly was hired as Central Michigan's new head coach. In his first year, he suffered his first, and to date only, losing season as a head coach, going 4-7. By 2006, CMU was champion of the MAC and headed to a bowl game. Kelly even managed to eke out a winning record with the Chippewas, going 19-16.
Cincinnati hired Kelly away from CMU with the lure of a bigger national stage (namely, a BCS AQ conference) and a bigger paycheck. Kelly stepped up onto the next rung of the coaching ladder, and led Cincy to a record of 34-6, back-to-back Big East titles in 2008 and 2009 and finished the 2009 regular season 12-0.
It didn't take a football genius to figure out that an undefeated Big East team will always lose out to undefeated Big 12 and SEC teams when it comes time for BCS bowl selection time, so when Notre Dame came calling, Kelly packed up and moved to South Bend. After all, since his days at Grand Valley State, Kelly had never made a secret of the fact that Notre Dame was his dream coaching job.
In 2010, Kelly completed his first season at Notre Dame, going 8-5, capping off the year with an impressive win over the University of Miami in the Sun Bowl.
Kelly isn't only a great coach, he's a great recruiter. More than that. He's a stellar recruiter. Kelly not only recruits well, he surrounds himself with like-minded coaches and equally impressive recruiters. Kelly brought on board his former recruiting director and defensive coordinator for Grand Valley State, Chuck Martin, as Notre Dame's recruiting director and defensive backs coach. Martin, incidentally, replaced Kelly at GVSU as head coach in 2004 and went 74-7 winning five conference championships and two national titles of his own over six years. It's a little amazing Martin wasn't snatched up by another FBS program, and was still available to join Kelly's staff.
It's easy to see why a lot of smart people are betting their smart money on Kelly and the Irish.
Because of Kelly's "take charge" attitude, his insistence that he surround himself with people of his choosing who, as he puts it, "do things the right way," Brian Kelly is perhaps one of the small handful of coaches who would not only thrive in the SEC, but would thrive at any program in the nation.
Joe Paterno—Penn State
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If you stripped away the mountain of broken records that Joe Paterno has accumulated over his 45-year career at Penn State, you would still have a man who has done something better than any other coach in history: consistently win football games to the point where you absolutely cannot be fired.
He's the only FBS coach ever to reach 400 wins, and with today's culture, he may very likely be the only coach ever to reach that mark.
He's led Penn State to 37 bowl games, and many of them came before the modern era of "everybody gets a ribbon [bowl game]" mentality.
In those 37 bowl games, he's 24-12-1. He's won three Big Ten titles since Penn State joined the conference in 1993.
He's had 21 10-plus win seasons.
His Nittany Lions have finished the season ranked in the Top 25 in 35 of his 45 seasons, and 18 of those seasons were Top 10 finishes.
He has won two national titles and has five undefeated years.
Beyond the football field, Paterno is a strong believer in the idea of "student-athletes." He has always maintained that academics is the most important aspect of college, and Penn State has consistently maintained above-average academic marks when compared to other Division I-FBS programs. In fact, Penn State graduates 78 percent of its football players. The NCAA Division I-FBS average is 67 percent.
On top of all this, Paterno has donated over $4 million of his own money to academic, not athletic, activities at Penn State.
Clearly, Paterno will never leave Penn State, nor do most at Penn State want him to leave. But in a theoretical world, Joe Paterno would not only survive in the SEC, he would make that conference a better place—as he does Penn State and the Big Ten—simply by his mere presence.
There are several other coaches who could have taken Paterno's place on this list. However, it's just hard to ignore the living legend that is JoePa. Just consider this one more honorific in a career that will likely never be matched.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
