Athlon sports ranks the Big Ten coaches so you don't have to.

[zoogs]

He's saying Franklin doesn't have an impressive amount of wins over FBS teams finishing above .500.

I disagree, because he was at Vanderbilt. I do agree it's still a projection that Franklin will succeed at Penn State -- you just don't know. He's certainly promising, but Bo should have a better resume than either Franklin or Andersen at this point. They're just two of the top challengers at the #3 spot.

 

[Count 'Bility]

James Franklin at #3? Maybe for recruiting. This guy has 4 total wins in his HC career against FBS schools that finished their season with an above 500 winning percentage. His signature wins are:
2011-None

2012-Ole Miss(7-6) NC State(7-6)

2013-Georgia(8-5) Houston(8-5)

I am not saying Pelini is #3 but Franklin certainly isn't.

So that win in 2013 against Georgia isn't a very big deal?

Well, it's not a big deal for us, so why in the hell could it be for him?

 

[zoogs]

...having one famous player in the NFL...

OK, this is perhaps not quite fair. Alfonzo Dennard has been a revelation and a starting cornerback for the New England Patriots' much-revamped secondary, and Prince Amukamara is well coming into his own as one of the top young corners in the league. And Lavonte David? Alex Henery? It's not just Suh.

 

[The Dude]

It's obvious why Kill, Fitz, Andersen, and Franklin get props for overachieving at sh**ty programs. It shouldn't come as a big surprised that Pelini gets dinged for routinely underachieving at one of the nation's premier programs.

 

[Junior]

I guess I would have BP at around 5. You could probably interchange Kill, Fitz, BP, Hoke and Anderson at this point and put them in any order.

No, you couldn't. There's no factual basis for it. I'm not going to waste my time presenting the entire resumes of each coach, but just look at the credentials:

Franklin hasn't coached a single game in the Big Ten. His wins in the SEC over the last two years consist of Georgia (8-5), Florida (4-8), Kentucky (2-10), Tennessee (5-7), Missouri (5-7), Auburn (3-9), Kentucky (2-10), Ole Miss (7-6), and Tennessee (5-7). He might turn out to be a great coach, but being ranked at #3 isn't actually based on anything - it's a prediction. He should be an asterisk on the list.

Pat Fitzgerald has had losing conference records three of the last four years, and five of his eight years total. Bo owns head-to-head on him, and coming off his best season in school history, they were a field goal away from going winless in the Big Ten. I get that they don't have the resources, fair point. I also get that they don't have the expectations, not a fair point. Surpassing lower expectations doesn't mean you're a better coach than another who doesn't reach higher expectations.

Gary Andersen seems to be a solid coach, but that's after one season. For a while they were two plays (one the official's fault) away from being undefeated on the season, but then they got spanked by Penn State and beat confidently by SC. Not much else to go off of, but he seems like a good one.

Kirk Ferentz has a losing conference record over the last four years, and is barely over .500 lifetime. They had a good, not great and not even really good, season last year after going 4-8. So kudos for turning it around, but Ferentz is the coach that got them to 4-8 in the first place. Once again, Bo has head-to-head. Still have head-to-head here as well.

Jerry Kill has done....what, exactly? His team had a decent season, but he wasn't even coaching for 75% of it. Jerry Kill has a long and successful coaching career, but is 17-21 at Minnesota even considering last year's success that he only had a fraction of a part of. Bo has head-to-head and it's not really even close.

Brady Hoke had a good first season, but has failed to win his division even once, and instead of getting better his teams have gotten worse, going from 11 wins, to 8 wins, to 7 wins. With all the resources in the world, and with the best recruiting in the conference, Brady Hoke has done next to nothing. Bo has head-to-head on him, and also made him look like an absolute fool in his own house.

Do any of those coaches you just listed, outside of Hoke, have the resources that Pelini does? Let me answer for you. No. If you want to compare Kill to Pelini, you can't look at simple records. To do so is mindnumbingly shortsighted. Franklin and Fitzgerald are incredibly limited by academic requirements at their schools (Vandy, not PSU for Franklin). It isn't a simple 1 to 1 comparison like you are trying to make it out to be. Pelini has a headstart on every coach on that list, other than Hoke, simply by having the red N on the side of the helmets (and all the prestige, facilities, and money that comes with it).

 

[Landlord]

Just further proof that no one respects us nationally, nor should they. It's what you get for pulling in "ok" recruiting classes, having one famous player in the NFL, not winning a conference championship/BCS game in 15 years. Our biggest media stories of the year were the tape release and the Iowa meltdown. The only people saying we are serious threat next year live in Nebraska.

 

[StPaulHusker]

He's saying Franklin doesn't have an impressive amount of wins over FBS teams finishing above .500.

I disagree, because he was at Vanderbilt. I do agree it's still a projection that Franklin will succeed at Penn State -- you just don't know. He's certainly promising, but Bo should have a better resume than either Franklin or Andersen at this point. They're just two of the top challengers at the #3 spot.

You don't think Bo has a better resume than either of these 2 coaches?

 

[StPaulHusker]

It seemed he was dismissing Franklin as a top three coach in the conference by saying his "signature wins" weren't all that big a deal, and I happened to see one from 2013 that caught my eye.

I would dismiss any coach ranked #3 in the B1G that hasn't coached one game in the conference and has 4 wins against FBS opponents with above 500 winning percentage.

I am not comparing him to Bo. I am comparing him to what the expectations of the #3 coach in the conference should be. And it includes more than 4 wins.

 

[Landlord]

Do any of those coaches you just listed, outside of Hoke, have the resources that Pelini does? Let me answer for you. No. If you want to compare Kill to Pelini, you can't look at simple records. To do so is mindnumbingly shortsighted. Franklin and Fitzgerald are incredibly limited by academic requirements at their schools (Vandy, not PSU for Franklin). It isn't a simple 1 to 1 comparison like you are trying to make it out to be. Pelini has a headstart on every coach on that list, other than Hoke, simply by having the red N on the side of the helmets (and all the prestige, facilities, and money that comes with it).

Yes, I realize that it is not a 1 to 1 comparison. But there isn't a comparison model that can accurately assign weight and scale to resources allowing us to compare them on equal footing, is there?

Would I bet my life that Bo Pelini is better than them all? No, absolutely not. But is there any compelling and objective evidence that says he is a worse coach than any of them? No, there really isn't.

 

[Junior]

Do any of those coaches you just listed, outside of Hoke, have the resources that Pelini does? Let me answer for you. No. If you want to compare Kill to Pelini, you can't look at simple records. To do so is mindnumbingly shortsighted. Franklin and Fitzgerald are incredibly limited by academic requirements at their schools (Vandy, not PSU for Franklin). It isn't a simple 1 to 1 comparison like you are trying to make it out to be. Pelini has a headstart on every coach on that list, other than Hoke, simply by having the red N on the side of the helmets (and all the prestige, facilities, and money that comes with it).

Yes, I realize that it is not a 1 to 1 comparison. But there isn't a comparison model that can accurately assign weight and scale to resources allowing us to compare them on equal footing, is there?

Would I bet my life that Bo Pelini is better than them all? No, absolutely not. But is there any compelling and objective evidence that says he is a worse coach than any of them? No, there really isn't.

So when you say "No you couldn't", what you mean is "Yes you could, depending on the metric you want to use".

 

[sd'sker]

Would I bet my life that Bo Pelini is better than them all? No, absolutely not. But is there any compelling and objective evidence that says he is a worse coach than any of them? No, there really isn't.

seems like you believed there was compelling and objective evidence that bo was a better coach than many of those coaches.

this is a list ranking coaches with many variables. obviously it is subjective, but it is telling that people outside the state believe we should be doing better as a program, no?

 

[Landlord]

So when you say "No you couldn't", what you mean is "Yes you could, depending on the metric you want to use".

Give me a legitimate metric that actually puts those coaches ahead of Bo in regards to head-coaching ability and I will retract my statement.

 

[zoogs]

You don't think Bo has a better resume than either of these 2 coaches? [Gary Andersen, James Franklin]

I actually don't know. Vanderbilt is a nobody program that went 2-10 in each of the two seasons before Franklin took over. In his second and third years, 2012 and 2013, he finished 9-4 and ahead of Bo Pelini's Nebraska in both the AP and Coach's polls. At Vanderbilt.

Gary Andersen took what I'm assuming was a nobody Utah State team to a 11-2 record in his last year there, finishing #17/16 in the Coaches/AP in 2012, and #21/22 at Wisconsin in 2013.

I would put Bo's resume as a defensive coordinator against anybody in the country. HC resumes are harder to compare. Bo's finished solidly, but hasn't been able to take Nebraska to the next level in six seasons here. These other coaches did a very impressive job working with nothing. Franklin's story at Penn State is yet to be written, and Andersen, while he didn't light it up in year one at Wisconsin, had a season basically like each of Bo's ever.

So, I don't know.

 

[Mavric]

Do any of those coaches you just listed, outside of Hoke, have the resources that Pelini does? Let me answer for you. No. If you want to compare Kill to Pelini, you can't look at simple records. To do so is mindnumbingly shortsighted. Franklin and Fitzgerald are incredibly limited by academic requirements at their schools (Vandy, not PSU for Franklin). It isn't a simple 1 to 1 comparison like you are trying to make it out to be. Pelini has a headstart on every coach on that list, other than Hoke, simply by having the red N on the side of the helmets (and all the prestige, facilities, and money that comes with it).

Fitzgerald was also incredibly limited in number of conference games won last year. So no it's not the whole story but it doesn't seem to be carrying as much weight as it should. If you want to go that route, how is Pelini behind Hoke? Better yet, how is anyone behind of Hoke?

 

[StPaulHusker]

You don't think Bo has a better resume than either of these 2 coaches? [Gary Andersen, James Franklin]

I actually don't know. Vanderbilt is a nobody program that went 2-10 in each of the two seasons before Franklin took over. In his second and third years, 2012 and 2013, he finished 9-4 and ahead of Bo Pelini's Nebraska in both the AP and Coach's polls. At Vanderbilt.

Well stated. But I would refer back to my post that Vanderbilt beat (2) 7-6 teams in 2012 as their ONLY wins against FBS schools to finish with a winning record. And (2) wins against 8-5 teams in 2013. I am not sure voter rankings really tell the whole story.