The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/653976
INSIDE MICHIGAN ATHLETICS Fran McCaffrey were fourth. "We looked at which programs have an elite coach in both spots, or who had an elite [coach] at one spot and a pretty good [coach] at the other one," Fox said when he joined The- Wolverine.com for a podcast. "Obvi- ously, there are a lot of schools out there that have a great coach in one but then an unproven coach or some- one on the hot seat. For instance, everyone can agree with Bill Self's credentials at Kansas, but then they have a first-year football coach that went 0-12. "So the way I thought about it was which tandem will keep fans really excited from the start of football sea- son through the end of basketball sea- son, and that's how we came up with our ranking." Fox ranked Harbaugh a slight step below Dantonio and Meyer because of his rivals' championship pedigrees — Dantonio has won three Big Ten titles in nine seasons and is coming off the 2015 conference crown, while Meyer has five league titles in 14 years dating back to his career at Utah in 2003-04 and won national champion- ships with Florida in 2006 and 2008, and with Ohio State in 2014. Harbaugh has two conference championships, both with the Univer- sity of San Diego in 2005-06, but has not succeeded yet in his five chances with Stanford and Michigan. The challenge for Fox was deciding b etw een Matta and Beilein. " T h a d M a t t a has won 10 con- ference games ev- ery year he's been at Ohio State," Fox said. "He's prob- ably the best re- cruiter in the con- ference. Beilein, in terms of X's and O's and imple- menting his sys- tem, is right there. And he's had a success rate at Michigan of get- ting to the NCAA Tournament that we haven't seen since the Fab Five days." ATHLONSPORTS.COM'S TOP BIG TEN COACHING DUOS Rk. School Football Basketball 1. Michigan State Mark Dantonio Tom Izzo 2. Ohio State Urban Meyer Thad Matta 3. Michigan Jim Harbaugh John Beilein 4. Iowa Kirk Ferentz Fran McCaffrey 5. Penn State James Franklin Pat Chambers 6. Indiana Kevin Wilson Tom Crean 7. Northwestern Pat Fitzgerald Chris Collins 8. Nebraska Mike Riley Tim Miles 9. Wisconsin Paul Chryst Greg Gard 10. Maryland D.J. Durkin Mark Turgeon 11. Purdue Darrell Hazell Matt Painter 12. Illinois Bill Cubit* John Groce 13. Minnesota Tracy Claeys Richard Pitino 14. Rutgers Chris Ash Eddie Jordan^ *Illinois fired Cubit and replaced him with Lovie Smith after Athlon's ranking March 2; ^ Rutgers fired Jordan following the conclusion of its basketball season March 10 and was conducting a national search for his replacement