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B1G Coach Grades at the Halfway Point

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Spartan13's picture
October 14, 2021 at 10:52pm
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With the season being halfway over and the hype around how good the B1G is I thought it would be a good time to look at each B1G coach and see where they are in the their season. Mainly looking at how good they are compared to expectations(vegas win totals.)

B1G East

  • Indiana(Tom Allen): 2-3 with losses to UC, Iowa, and PSU. Beat WKU and Idaho. After an incredible '20 season they have faceplanted this year and are in serious danger of missing a bowl game. I give Allen a D because not only have they lost to the 3 best teams they played but they blew a 2 touchdown lead to UC and were blown out by Iowa and PSU. They had a lot back from last year too with a 7.5 win total. They wont come close to that.
  • Maryland(Mike Locksley) 4-2 with wins over WVU and @Illinois, loses to OSU and Iowa. Fantastic start to the season before losing to two elite teams. They need to just win 2/3 over Minnesota, Indiana and Rutgers to make a bowl which would be incredible given how tough this schedule was. He gets an A in my book, getting Maryland to a bowl after playing 5 top 10 teams and WVU ooc would be a feat. Just have to find 2 more wins. 
  • MSU(Mel Tucker) 6-0, this is the easiest A+ of the whole thing and he should be the favorite for coach of the year. They had a 4.5 season win total and they have smashed it already. 9-3 is probably the floor for this team. Truly incredible what Tucker has gotten out of his team so far. 
  • Michigan(Harbaugh) 6-0 as well in what seems to be a resurgent year for Harbaugh. They smashed Washington and @Wisconsin while also beating @Nebraska. They also have a 9-3 floor despite a 7.5 win total and I think it is safe to say Harbaugh saved his job. He gets an A, and if he can go 10-2 beating MSU he should get a nice juicy extension and a NY6 bowl. 
  • OSU(Ryan Day): 5-1 with a home loss to Oregon and wins over @Minnesota, Maryland and @Rutgers. In my opinion its a B. The team seems to be rounding into form and over the last 3 weeks they have looked like the best team in the country. However the loss keeps this from an A. 
  • PSU(James Franklin): 5-1 with a win over Auburn, @Wisconsin, Indiana and a close loss @Iowa. Really impressive start to the season and while the Iowa loss will likely keep them out of any playoff conversation for now they should be pretty proud of the season they are having. Road losses to top 3 teams without your QB are about as good as Ls can be. Franklin gets an A- and getting to a NY6 would be very impressive with this schedule
  • Rutgers(Greg Schiano): 3-3 with a win @Syracuse and loses to OSU, MSU, and Michigan. They have the toughest stretch of the season out of the way and have a legit shot at a bowl with NW, Maryland, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin all on the schedule. To think Rutgers could go from 2-10 in 2019 to a bowl in year 2 under Schiano is ridiculous. And even the loses to Michigan/MSU are more respectable than they were before. Schiano easily gets an A. 

B1G West

  • Illinois(Bert Bielema): 2-5, just a terrible first year for Bert. Despite having like 15 super seniors and a season opening win against Nebraska they have since fallen to UTSA and nearly lost to Charlotte. Just a really bad team that isn't showing much hope right now. Bert gets a D
  • Iowa(Kirk Ferentz): 6-0, The other coach competing with Tucker for coach of the year. May be Ferentz best season of his career. They beat the best ISU team ever on the road. Beat a top 5 PSU team. And they demolished Indiana and Maryland. They now have a really easy stretch to finish the season and should come to Indy at 12-0. A+
  • Minnesota(PJ Fleck) 3-2, The Bowl Green loss is just tanking this season for Minnesota. They should be 4-1 with an easy path to a bowl game after crushing Colorado on the road. Instead they need to scrape together 3 wins to even get to 6-6. Beating Colorado and Purdue are good wins but I just cant get over the BG loss. Fleck gets a D
  • Nebraska(Scott Frost):3-4, really similar to Minny, I just cant get over this illinois loss. Nebraska's other 3 losses were by a combined 13 points to three top ten teams. They beat Northwestern by 50. However losing to Illinois is just inexcusable and could cost them a bowl game in a year with a brutal schedule. They need to go 3-0 against Minnesota, Purdue, and Wisconsin to make it to a bowl. They get a C- because they are actually a really solid team with how well they played in the other losses. 
  • Northwestern(Pat Fitzgerald): 2-3, Hope they have their west division trophy mounted somewhere pretty because this year is ugly. They are simply terrible and might not win another game until Illinois. Dont want to go too hard on Pat because hes a good coach and northwestern cycles up and down but this is a really bad down year. Pat gets a D. 
  • Purdue(Jeff Brohm) 3-2 This was probably the hardest for me because they have a really nice win over Oregon State, had a close loss to ND on the road and another close loss to Minnesota. Its hard to find 3 more wins on the schedule. Brohm need to go find whoever scheduled oregon state and Notre Dame in the same year and fire his ass because that ND game not being an easy win may cost them a bowl. Brohm gets a B-, I think the schedule is just too much for Purdue. 
  • Wisconsin(Paul Chrsyt) 2-3 the only F of this whole thing. I have no idea what happened to Wisconsin. The offense is literally one of the worst in the country(worse than most MAC offenses.) Might be a little scary for Wisconsin fans because I dont see the path forward right now, probably going to miss a bowl game this year and Chryst has to have a serious look in the mirror about his offensive philosphy because this is embrassing. 

Where do you agree or disagree?

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