Power ranking the Big Ten coaches entering the 2023 season

The Big Ten has as much head coaching talent as any Power Five conference, and the hierarchy seems to change every season. How high would Indiana’s Tom Allen have been after the 2020 season? How low would Jim Harbaugh have been? Michigan State’s Mel Tucker could have been elected mayor of East Lansing this time last year, and now his NFTs are being sold at yard sales.

Can’t wait to see how inaccurate these are entering 2024.

For these rankings, I wanted to factor in each coach’s overall, conference, and recent success. I perused blogs and fan posts to gauge a sense of the confidence behind each frontman and tried to assemble the most accurate rankings entering the 2023 season.

Let’s do it.

1. Jim Harbaugh - Michigan

Record at Michigan: 74-25 (Big Ten: 51-17)

Last season: 13-1 (Big Ten: 9-0)

CFP appearances: 2

Big Ten Championships: 2

Big Ten Championship appearances: 2

Reasoning: Harbaugh’s turnaround in Ann Arbor has been unprecedented for a Power Five coach seven years into his tenure. Harbaugh currently has the Wolverines on top of the conference mountain looking to the clouds of a national championship. There is no other option for the top spot.

2. Ryan Day - Ohio State

Record at Ohio State: 45-6 (Big Ten: 31-2)

Last two seasons: 11-2 (Big Ten: 8-1)

CFP appearances: 3

Big Ten Championships: 2

Big Ten Championship appearances: 2

Reasoning: Ryan Day is 1-2 against Harbaugh and Michigan, but remains undefeated against the rest of the conference since 2019. Day may have been born on third base, but the rest of the Big Ten coaches struggle to hit doubles.

3. Luke Fickell - Wisconsin (first season)

Record at Cincinnati: 57-18 (AAC: 35-11)

Last season: 9-3 (AAC: 6-2)

CFP appearances: 1

AAC Championships: 2

AAC Championship appearances: 3

Reasoning: While unproven at the Power Five level, Fickell will go down in history as the only coach to take a Group of Five team to the four-team College Football Playoff. I expect nothing but sustained success for him in Madison; at least until Ohio State has a vacancy.

4. James Franklin - Penn State

Record at Penn State: 78-36 (Big Ten: 49-30)

Last season: 11-2 (Big Ten: 7-2)

CFP appearances: 0

Big Ten Championships: 1

Big Ten Championship appearances: 1

Reasoning: James Franklin is what you get when cross an elite recruiter with an average head coach. This is not a knock because that formula has equated to three 11-win seasons under his guidance. What holds Franklin back from the top three is his 3-5 record against Harbaugh, 0-4 record against Day, and lack of CFP appearances.

5. Kirk Ferentz - Iowa

Record at Iowa: 186-115 (Big Ten: 115-83)

Last season: 8-5 (Big Ten: 5-4)

CFP appearances: 0

Big Ten Championships: 2 (Shared titles in 2002 and 2004)

Big Ten Championship game appearances: 2

Reasoning: The Godfather of zone running and the longest-tenured head coach in college football has not earned this longevity by being a porous coach. Ferentz has not had a losing season in 11 years and over the course of the last 15 seasons (excluding the Covid-impacted season where Iowa was 6-2), Ferentz is more likely to win 10+ games than win less than eight.

6. Matt Rhule - Nebraska (first season)

Record at Baylor: 19-20 (Big 12: 13-14)

Last season at Baylor: 11-3 (Big 12: 8-1)

CFP appearances: 0

Big 12 Championships: 0

Big 12 Championship appearances: 1

Reasoning: In three years, Rhule turned a Baylor program into a conference runner-up that was on the brink of the death penalty. His Carolina Panthers stint is concerning, but Rhule found ways to build winners out of dire programs at Temple and Baylor. I believe he will do it again at Nebraska.

7. Bret Bielema - Illinois

Record at Illinois: 13-12 (Big Ten: 9-9)

Last season: 8-5 (Big Ten: 5-4)

CFP appearances: 0

Big Ten Championships: 3 (at Wisconsin; Bielema shared the 2010 title with Michigan State before the creation of the conference title game and posted a 2-0 record in the title game in 2011 and 2012)

Big Ten Championship game appearances: 2

Reasoning: It took Bielema two seasons to get Illinois to eight wins. The Illini had not won that many games in a season since the Bush administration (2007). Bielema remains the last coach to lead a team not currently in the Big Ten East to a conference championship and if he does the same with Illinois, he could end up at the top of this list one day.

8. PJ Fleck - Minnesota

Record at Minnesota: 44-27 (Big Ten: 26-26)

Last season: 9-4 (Big Ten: 5-4)

CFP appearances: 0

Big Ten Championships: 0

Big Ten Championship appearances: 0

Reasoning: PJ Fleck is a solid coach and an excellent motivator, but has experienced mixed results in the Big Ten West. Fleck is 4-2 against Purdue, 3-3 against Wisconsin, 0-2 against a Bielema-led Illinois team and winless against Iowa. Couple these results with no division titles, and moving Fleck higher than eighth is difficult.

9. Pat Fitzgerald - Northwestern

Record at Northwestern: 110-101 (Big Ten: 65-76)

Last season: 1-11

CFP appearances: 0

Big Ten Championships: 0

Big Ten Championship appearances: 2

Reasoning: Sigh. Has Fitz lost his fastball? Prior to last season, it would be hard to find any rankings of Big Ten coaches with Fitzgerald outside the top five. But 1-11 — with losses to Southern Illinois and Miami (OH) — this far into a coaching tenure is deeply concerning. The only reason he is not ranked lower is because he has reached the Big Ten Championship twice in the last five years, and that is a feat only Michigan and Ohio State have replicated.

10. Mel Tucker - Michigan State

Record at Michigan State: 18-14 (Big Ten: 12-13)

Last season: 5-7 (Big Ten: 3-6)

CFP appearances: 0

Big Ten Championships: 0

Big Ten Championship appearances: 0

Reasoning: On the whole, the Thor franchise sucks, however, the third installment — Thor: Ragnarok — is a masterpiece that carries all of the water for the other three bad movies. Was Tucker’s 2021 season the Ragnarok outlier of his tenure, or can he find a way to replicate that magic and reaffirm his cultlike status in East Lansing?

11. Mike Locksley - Maryland

Record at Maryland: 21-28 (Big Ten: 11-27)

Last season: 8-5 (Big Ten: 4-5)

CFP appearances: 0

Big Ten Championships: 0

Big Ten Championship appearances: 0

Reasoning: Is Locksley on the verge of restoring the Terrapins to their early 2000s heights, or was last year the peak? Since taking over in 2019, Locksley has increased his conference win total by one each season. If that trend is going to continue, it will likely require a nine-win season in 2023, which hasn’t happened at Maryland since 2010 and has never happened for the Terps as a member of the Big Ten. Accomplishing this could skyrocket Locksley in next year’s rankings or open him up to bigger opportunities outside of College Park.

12. Ryan Walters - Purdue (first season)

No prior collegiate head coaching experience.

Reasoning: I literally have no idea what to expect from Walters, and this felt like a neutral place until we have some discerning evidence one way or another.

13. Greg Schiano - Rutgers

Record at Rutgers (second stint only): 12-22 (Big Ten: 6-20)

Last season: 4-8 (Big Ten: 1-8)

CFP appearances: 0

Big Ten Championships: 0

Big Ten Championship appearances: 0

Reasoning: Schiano’s first stint at Rutgers (2001-11) was nothing short of heroic, but it appears he will not be able to recapture lightning in a bottle. Conversely to Locksley’s increased conference wins, Schiano has regressed in each of his three seasons. He finally has his quarterback and his fate is directly tied to the right arm of Gavin Wimsatt.

14. Tom Allen - Indiana

Record at Indiana: 30-40 (Big Ten: 17-35)

Last season: 4-8 (Big Ten: 2-7)

CFP appearances: 0

Big Ten Championships: 0

Big Ten Championship appearances: 0

Reasoning: Should Allen be ahead of Schiano? Despite having a better roster the last two seasons, Indiana has lost consecutive games against the Scarlet Knights and appears to be trending down. Two years ago, Indiana went 0-9 in conference play, a dubious feat no other coach on this list has replicated in the Big Ten. In 2023, despite winning two conference games, the Hoosiers struggled to complete a forward pass in most games and now the team appears to be spiraling to an ultimatum on Allen as the leader of the program.