Lets agree on this then. Anderson has inherited a program that has been to 3 straight Rose Bowls and is in far better shape than the one Bo took over. He will be held to the same standard. This is a guy who rightfully shouldn't have low expectations like Bo's first year. Revisiting the original purpose of the thread, who would you put 1-4 and why?
Agreed. At least 7 regular season wins and placing at least 3rd in the division seems to be a perfectly reasonable expectation for Wisconsin this year.
1. Urban Meyer - This is universally agreed upon, yes? His resume speaks for itself. One of the truly elite coaches in college football. If he's not on a list of coaches who have won X number of games per year for Y number of years, well that tells us pretty much everything we need to know about that arbitrary statistic.
2. Brady Hoke - BCS bowl winner, numerous deserved Coach of the Year awards, has been relatively successful at all his coaching stops. Has already gone further at Michigan than Pelini has at Nebraska. Teams show up prepared to play week in and week out. Only real blowout loss at Michigan was against Alabama.
3. Pat Fitzgerald - At a bottom-feeder program but doesn't run a bottom-feeder team. Coaches a team that's usually smaller, slower, and weaker than their opponents but can go toe-to-toe with the big boys most any week because he has them prepared to.
4. Mark Dantonio - Resume comparable to Pelini's. Pelini has the better winning percentage and head-to-head advantage, Dantonio has the conference title and 11-win seasons. He and Pelini are pretty much interchangeable, but I'm giving Dantonio the nod because his teams are usually better prepared. Not as susceptible to blowout losses.
5. Bo Pelini - Good winning percentage. Has won X number of games per year for Y number of years. 3 CCG participation trophies. 0-5 in postseason games over the last 3 years - I wonder how many coaches are on that list.
6-12. Argue amongst yourselves.