This is a tad old and we had it up in Good Shizzy, but this Wall Street Journal article about the number of great coaches that have Ohio roots gives me too much wood not to put into a full-blown post.
Ohio is a state in a deep recession, laid low by the decline of manufacturing. And yet, the Buckeye state is to college football coaching what Silicon Valley is to technology: It's where the brightest minds come from.
The interactive graphic is money as well (though Zook is from way-too-close to Columbus). Now if only some of that coaching talent could make its way to one of the state's NFL teams...
Comments
I been trying to get Stew Mandel to address this issue in his mailbag for months. I think the article is spot on about the reasons behind the number of Ohio coaches. Great to see it spotlighted.
Awesome article. Thanks!
Stew is actually from Ohio as well (Cincinnati Sycamore).
Gee, this sounds familiar ... http://timesbulletin.com/main....
So I heard Herbstreit say a couple weeks ago how the NFL didn't interest Urban Meyer and that the only other job out there that he would covet would be the OSU job. How Urban idolized Archie and Woody growing up. He said that if Tressel ever moved on...
Would anyone else agree with me on trading the vest yesterday if it meant getting Urban Meyer this early in his coaching career?
Meyer did wear Archie's number in high school to honor him and OSU does appear to be one of his dream jobs, but JT has earned the right to leave on his own terms, so we're looking at another five years at least before we can even begin to think about that.
Meyere is a fantastic coach and I'd love to have him, but by the time Tressel does leave, there will probably be another wunderkind from Ohio burning up the collegiate coaching ranks.