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What 2026 Big Ten coach rankings say about conference's power shift

Knight Shift

Knight Shift

Heisman
May 19, 2011
89,553
87,522
113
Fickell should be lower, and Braun should be higher.

On Greg at #14 (writer must be a hater?):

"Schiano’s days back at Rutgers may be numbered given how his second go-round has yet to yield anything close to a breakthrough. His overall track record is strong, though, even if almost entirely tilted toward the six winning seasons he posted with the Scarlet Knights from 2005-11."


Time for a breakthrough season!
 
K

kupuna133

All-American
Jul 13, 2015
6,983
7,772
113
Solid rankings. Numbers 7-12 can be shuffled. Top 5 and bottom 5 are pretty accurate. Agree Braun should be higher. Probably somewhere in the 11-13 slot. Chesney can coach. If he doesn’t get it done at UCLA there will be other opportunities.
 
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cubuffsdoug_rivals

cubuffsdoug_rivals

Heisman
Apr 8, 2002
15,763
27,551
113
Knight Shift said:
Fickell should be lower, and Braun should be higher.

On Greg at #14 (writer must be a hater?):

"Schiano’s days back at Rutgers may be numbered given how his second go-round has yet to yield anything close to a breakthrough. His overall track record is strong, though, even if almost entirely tilted toward the six winning seasons he posted with the Scarlet Knights from 2005-11."


Time for a breakthrough season!
Click to expand...
Not only Fickell, but Rhule too. The writer talks about Schiano's track record being tilted mostly to his early record, the same can be said for Rhule (Baylor & Temple), and Fickell (Cincinnati). They've done less with more resources. It always comes back to Name on the front of the Jersey and perception.
 
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K

kupuna133

All-American
Jul 13, 2015
6,983
7,772
113
cubuffsdoug_rivals said:
Not only Fickell, but Rhule too. The writer talks about Schiano's track record being tilted mostly to his early record, the same can be said for Rhule (Baylor & Temple), and Fickell (Cincinnati). They've done less with more resources. It always comes back to Name on the front of the Jersey and perception.
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Agreed. Never saw Fickell deserving of being mentioned as a premier coach. Rhule had some success twice. Both have done less with more this go around. Rhule was the coach in that middle 5 (mentioned earlier) that I would shuffle back. But 2 coaches can’t be 12 hahahah
 
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Knight Shift

Knight Shift

Heisman
May 19, 2011
89,553
87,522
113
kupuna133 said:
Solid rankings. Numbers 7-12 can be shuffled. Top 5 and bottom 5 are pretty accurate. Agree Braun should be higher. Probably somewhere in the 11-13 slot. Chesney can coach. If he doesn’t get it done at UCLA there will be other opportunities.
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Agree. Something that is unsaid- programs that were worse have gotten better. Indiana is the extreme example, and Illinois is another example. UCLA's transition to B1G has been painful, but they were barely treading water after Chip Kelly left, and while Chip did OK, he must have seen the writing on the wall at UCLA- from Wikipedia: "[He] was 35–34 at UCLA with one bowl victory;[90] they were bowl-eligible only three times.[85] Under Kelly, the Bruins averaged their four worst season home attendance numbers since moving to the Rose Bowl in 1982,[91] including the 47,591 in his final season, which was also his second best figure at UCLA, behind his first season in 2018."

Three tiers: Top Tier (1-6); Mid Tier (7-12); and Lower Tier (13-18).

Being in the lower tier of B1G head coaches is not necessarily bad- Chesney needs to prove himself in the B1G. UCLA is a tough proving ground. Rhule belongs in the lower tier, as they are giving him too much credit for his past glory.
 
Knight Shift

Knight Shift

Heisman
May 19, 2011
89,553
87,522
113
Brian Kelly is an analyst this year. Putting his caustic personality aside, he will get another chance. Hypothetically, if he was hired at Purdue or Maryland or even Rutgers, wonder where he would be ranked in this list next year.
 
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Anon1754923206

Senior
Aug 11, 2025
642
497
63
Shelby65 said:
Depends on his other options, program bank … and don’t forget we don’t know if he and Zinn had any football or athletics interaction. I’m sure Tate has an opinion of him.
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At LSU it is quite likely Zinn had NO interaction with football or her impact was merely administrative. Woodward was the big decision maker and given his history and background I seriously doubt he relied on her. Did she learn from him? Most certainly.
 
Knight Shift

Knight Shift

Heisman
May 19, 2011
89,553
87,522
113
LotusAggressor_rivals said:
So how did he win there?
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At Notre Dame?
I never looked at his record, but at Notre Dame he was 8-5, 8-5, vacated, vacated, 8-5, 10-3, 4-8, 10-3, 12-1, 11-2 and 10-2.

At Rutgers, that would get him a statue and the stadium named after him. At Notre Dame, that's not enough.

At LSU, Orgeron was great up until 15-0 2019, abut he hit the skids in 2020 and 2021, going 5-5 and 6-6 (3-6 in SEC). He would still get a statue if this happened at Rutgers.

Kelly got things rolling at LSU going 10-4/6-2 and 10-3/6-2, but he slipped up and went 9-5/5-3 in year 3, and was fired in year 4 after going 5-3/2-3. He would get a statue at Rutgers if that was his performance.
 
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Anon1753410373

Freshman
Jul 24, 2025
71
51
18
Whittingham and Campbell living off of reputation having never coached a modern BIG game.

Not saying they won’t live up to it but it’s a guess at this point.
 
LotusAggressor_rivals

LotusAggressor_rivals

All-American
Oct 11, 2003
16,320
8,162
113
Knight Shift said:
At Notre Dame?
I never looked at his record, but at Notre Dame he was 8-5, 8-5, vacated, vacated, 8-5, 10-3, 4-8, 10-3, 12-1, 11-2 and 10-2.

At Rutgers, that would get him a statue and the stadium named after him. At Notre Dame, that's not enough.

At LSU, Orgeron was great up until 15-0 2019, abut he hit the skids in 2020 and 2021, going 5-5 and 6-6 (3-6 in SEC). He would still get a statue if this happened at Rutgers.

Kelly got things rolling at LSU going 10-4/6-2 and 10-3/6-2, but he slipped up and went 9-5/5-3 in year 3, and was fired in year 4 after going 5-3/2-3. He would get a statue at Rutgers if that was his performance.
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I would have thought that the facilities that he found lacking at ND would have prevented the level of success he achieved. Guess it was coaching.
 
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RUDivision

All-Conference
Jan 6, 2023
2,441
1,887
42
Solid list with some clear bias to the front of the Jersey but that historically (not always) accurate. Greg is only here because the board is too cheap to buy out his contract. Any other BIG program and he would be gone already.
 
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Knight Shift

Knight Shift

Heisman
May 19, 2011
89,553
87,522
113
LotusAggressor_rivals said:
Coaches have been bounced with much better records. Chryst at Wisconsin and the previously mentioned Brian Kelly are 2 examples.
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But Wisconsin is being patient with Fickell, maybe because they don't want to be fickle about firing Fickell, and more likely, because, like Rutgers, they would owe him a lot of money. Also, however, he proved himself at Cincinnati.
2022Wisconsin1–00–05th (West)W Guaranteed Rate
2023Wisconsin7–65–4T–2nd (West)L ReliaQuest
2024Wisconsin5–73–6T–12th
2025Wisconsin4–82–7T–14th
2026Wisconsin0–00–0
Wisconsin:17–2110–17
 
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