Nick Saban, Urban Meyer, and Jim Harbaugh are some of the best coaches in college football. Before these coaches became household names all of them started at smaller schools and work their way up the coaching ladder. Saban started his storied career at Toledo then after spending three years has Belichick defensive coordinator in Cleveland. Saban then became the head coach at Michigan State building his resume that led to coaching jobs at LSU, the Miami Dolphins then at Alabama. Urban Meyer started at Bowling Green, then Utah, Florida then Ohio State. Jim Harbaugh began his coaching career at San Diego then Stanford, San Francisco and currently is the head coach at Michigan. Below are five coaches that are currently at small schools in both power five conferences and outside the power five conferences. Given the historical success of each coach below; they should be household names soon. The coaches listed below could potentially replace these coaches.
- Doc Holiday of Marshall. Holiday
- Matt Campbell of Iowa State. Campbell amassed a 35-15 coaching record at Toledo before accepting the head coaching position at Iowa State. Campbell never won a conference championship at Toledo, but in his defense, he was competing against Northern Illinois and Jordan Lynch in the same division. (Jimbo Fisher of Florida State has been in the same boat the past few years as Florida State shares a division with arguably the best player in the nation the past few years in Deshawn Watson of Clemson) The rebuild job at Iowa State will take Campbell a little longer before a bigger school will offer due to the previous coach at Iowa State (Paul Rhoads) leaving the cupboard bare by having the silly notion that he can base his recruiting in the state of Florida. (Recruiting in Florida is not a bad idea, but not when you are Iowa State). With fertile recruiting grounds in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas Campbell should see results in the next few years. With Campbell’s Midwestern roots (and recruiting connections) Campbell could find himself in Lincoln coaching the Nebraska Cornhuskers
- Dino Babers of Syracuse. Babers is a part of the Art Briles coaching tree at Baylor and has brought the high-powered offense at his stops at Eastern Illinois and Bowling Green. Babers was 19-7 in two seasons at Eastern Illinois and 18-9 at Bowling Green winning three conference championships (two at Eastern and one at Bowling Green). Babers inherits a very experienced team at Syracuse. The Orangemen return 100% of the offensive starters and 80% of defensive starters (This is third behind LSU and UCF). That group finished 117th in passing last season. This should all change with Babers calling the shots offensively. Winning a conference Championship in the ACC is a tall order with Clemson, Florida State, Virginia Tech and Miami residing but a winning record and a bowl game is certainly obtainable for Babers. After a few seasons at Syracuse (results pending), Babers could find himself in the running for the Baylor head coaching position.
- Jeff Brohm of Western Kentucky. When Bobby Petrino took the job at Western Kentucky is was only a matter of time before he left for a higher profile program. Petrino is the Larry Brown of college football. To clarify Brown has coached at ten NBA teams and three college teams and Petrino has coached three college teams and one season in the NFL (if you can call it that). Western Kentucky had a backup plan in place and hired Jeff Brohm to be the offensive coordinator and unofficially named Brohm head coach in waiting. Brohm inherited a good program when Petrino left, but Brohm has improved his win-loss record every year he has been at Western Kentucky including a Conference USA championship last season.
The five coaches listed above all have an outstanding track record in terms of building a program and winning football games, and should be promoted to either bigger power five schools or be hired at a power five programs relatively soon. Saban and Meyer both started at smaller schools and the second promotion to a higher caliper school led to National Championships (Meyer from Utah to Florida and Saban from Michigan State to LSU). That type of success may not replicate due to the fact that Saban and Meyer remain in College Football but regularly competing for conference championships and being in the National Championship conversation is a nice ceiling to have.
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