BTN: Offensive-Minded Head Coaches Rule the B1G

Mavric

Mavric

Yoda
Staff member
Every head coach has a side of the ball he was “brought up in” and is associated with. Some come with an offensive background; others were raised on the defensive side of the ball.

In the Big Ten, offense has the edge, as eight of the 14 head coaches have an offensive background. And, aside from Michigan State’s Mark Dantonio—who is a defensive guy—the conference coaches with Big Ten titles all have come from the offensive side of the ball.

The Big Ten isn’t unique in the offensive influence of its head coaches. In four of the five Power Five leagues, head coaches with offensive backgrounds outnumber those with defensive backgrounds. The discrepancy in the Big 12 (9 to 1) and ACC (11 to 3) is huge. It isn’t so huge in the Pac-12 (7 to 5).

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Defense (6) Tom Allen, Indiana Chris Ash, Rutgers Mark Dantonio, Michigan State DJ Durkin, Maryland Pat Fitzgerald, Northwestern Lovie Smith, Illinois Offense (8) Jeff Brohm, Purdue Paul Chryst, Wisconsin Kirk Ferentz, Iowa P.J. Fleck, Minnesota James Franklin, Penn State Jim Harbaugh, Michigan Urban Meyer, Ohio State Mike Riley, Nebraska
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While I agree Riley is an offensive guy, his background is actually defensive. Was a DB for Bear Bryant and his first coaching jobs were on the defense culminating in a DC job at Northern Colorado in 1986. As recently as 2002 he was coaching DBs for the Saints. In fact the only time he was an offensive assistant was at USC before he took the Oregon State job for the first time.

 
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Yeah, he's kind of split. But he was the long-time play-caller at Oregon State so for the last 15+ years he'd be more on the offensive side.

 
Oh I agree he is more involved on the offensive side these days and definitely would be labeled offensive minded. It's just kinda funny the article talks about what side of the ball these coaches were "brought up in" because Riley was brought up on the defensive side on the ball but is obviously associated with the offense

 
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