Gold Rush
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This year's Big Ten coach of the year has got to go to Bret Bielema at Illinois. I always thought of him as a good coach even back to the Wisconsin days but he has really turned it around for them. He has done an awful lot with Lovie Smith's cellar dwellars - I can't think of anyone who has done a better job.
Ryan Day at OSU and Jim Harbaugh at Michigan have the best teams but you wonder how much of that is from their savvy coaching moves or just from the talent they recruited.
Honorable mention should go to Mike Locksley at Maryland and Greg Schiano at Rutgers as both have improved a bit and taken a step forward. Also, Jeff Brohm at Purdue has them elevated a bit more than I thought.
So where does PJ Fleck fit in here? Losing to Purdue, Illinois and Penn St. knocks him down in the hierarchy but as usual, he does do some things very well. The Gophers may have been taken down but they are not out of this and could still very quietly sneak back into it and have a successful season with a run down the stretch. I think it will come down to how well the offensive line plays - if they play as they did vs. Rutgers and just hammer the other team they will do very well. If the Gophers were to end up 9-3 I think a lot of Gopher fans would be pretty happy (but definitely bitter sweet as they could have done even better)
I would put Franklin at PSU at about the same level, looking hot and cold and beating the teams he should while losing to the teams he should, too.
At the bottom end, Tucker at MSU has underachieved and two others (Frost at NU and Chryst at Wisconsin) have been fired and undoubtedly they finish at the bottom. Tom Allen at IU and Pat Fitzgerald at Northwestern really have done nothing much with inferior teams are out of the discussion.
Lastly, I have always thought of Kirk Ferentz at Iowa as a very good football coach and he has enjoyed a very good run there. I wonder if he is in his last year or two of coaching. He still has that very good defense he is living on but the offense has been terrible and his son is under a lot of scrutiny to say the least.
Big ten coach of the year though has got to go to Bielema at this point. And this could still change over the next few games.
Ryan Day at OSU and Jim Harbaugh at Michigan have the best teams but you wonder how much of that is from their savvy coaching moves or just from the talent they recruited.
Honorable mention should go to Mike Locksley at Maryland and Greg Schiano at Rutgers as both have improved a bit and taken a step forward. Also, Jeff Brohm at Purdue has them elevated a bit more than I thought.
So where does PJ Fleck fit in here? Losing to Purdue, Illinois and Penn St. knocks him down in the hierarchy but as usual, he does do some things very well. The Gophers may have been taken down but they are not out of this and could still very quietly sneak back into it and have a successful season with a run down the stretch. I think it will come down to how well the offensive line plays - if they play as they did vs. Rutgers and just hammer the other team they will do very well. If the Gophers were to end up 9-3 I think a lot of Gopher fans would be pretty happy (but definitely bitter sweet as they could have done even better)
I would put Franklin at PSU at about the same level, looking hot and cold and beating the teams he should while losing to the teams he should, too.
At the bottom end, Tucker at MSU has underachieved and two others (Frost at NU and Chryst at Wisconsin) have been fired and undoubtedly they finish at the bottom. Tom Allen at IU and Pat Fitzgerald at Northwestern really have done nothing much with inferior teams are out of the discussion.
Lastly, I have always thought of Kirk Ferentz at Iowa as a very good football coach and he has enjoyed a very good run there. I wonder if he is in his last year or two of coaching. He still has that very good defense he is living on but the offense has been terrible and his son is under a lot of scrutiny to say the least.
Big ten coach of the year though has got to go to Bielema at this point. And this could still change over the next few games.