Where do coaches come from?
It’s no “Where do babies come from?” But it’s still a good question.
A survey in 2017 showed that Texas, Ohio and California would be a good answer because at that time 13 major college football coaches came from Texas and Ohio and California had produced 10 each.
It also showed that 28 of the 130 major college coaches were working in the same state where they were born.
So, where do the Big Ten’s football coaches come from?
It was mildly surprising to learn that Illinois is the home state of the most coaches with three – Northwestern’s Pat Fitzgerald, Minnesota’s P.J. Fleck and Illinois’ Bret Bielema.
Ohio and Michigan are next with 1.5. Ohio has Michigan State coach Mel Tucker and half of Jim Harbaugh since he was born in Toledo. Michigan has Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz and the other half of Harbaugh, who grew up in Ann Arbor.
Ohio State’s Ryan Day is from New Hampshire, Penn State’s James Franklin is from Pennsylvania, Indiana’s Tom Allen is from Indiana, Rutgers’ Greg Schiano is from New Jersey and Maryland’s Mike Locksley is from Washington, D.C.
Wisconsin’s Paul Chryst is from Wisconsin. Purdue’s Jeff Brohm is from Kentucky and Nebraska’s Scott Frost is from Nebraska.
Big Ten coaches have moved an average of 9.6 times in their careers. But something seems to draw many of them back to familiar places, to familiar things and to their families.
Only four of the 14 Big Ten coaches are more than 200 miles from where they grew up. Day is the farthest from home at 814 miles. On the other extreme, Chryst and Frost coach in their hometowns. Locksley is 15 miles from where he grew up and Fitzgerald traded a south side of Chicago suburb for one on the north side.
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