Along the winding road to college football success, a modest mid-west conference, with a tradition of coaching greats, has turned into the crossroads of the modern day coaching search.
The Mid American Conference (MAC), is exactly like its name implies; the middle of America. It also happens to be the middle grounds to American success, though. Dug into the heart of mid-western America, from Illinois to New York, and up to Michigan, the MAC holds a heavy list of starting places for some of college football’s greatest leaders in the history of the game.
Notre Dame’s Ara Parseghian, Michigan’s Bo Schembechler (left) and Ohio State’s Woody Hayes all once called the MAC home before their coaching greatness began at their respective universities. All three, incidentally, came from MAC school Miami of Ohio.
The current list of coaching greats surrounding FBS college football programs reads as impressive as the conferences’ coaching history does. Before Urban Meyer built Utah and won two national championships with Florida, he roamed the sidelines of Bowling Green. Before Brian Kelly led Cincinnati to two straight BCS Bowls, then accepted his dream job at Notre Dame, he built a dormant Central Michigan program. Missouri head coach Gary Pinkel led a Toledo team to four conference championship appearances, and a near undefeated season in 1995.
MAC ties can be found all over college football, with others who propelled themselves into larger positions that include Alabama’s Nick Saban, Ohio State’s Jim Tressell, Michigan State’s Mark Dantonio, Kansas’ Turner Gill, Wake Forest’s Jim Grobe, and Cincinnati’s Butch Jones.
The conference, whose coaches are some of the most under-paid in college football, produces some of the hungriest coaching prospects around. So it shouldn’t really come as a surprise when three of the biggest coaching vacancies in college football – Minnesota, Miami (FL), and Pittsburgh – came about at the end of the 2010 season, the MAC turned out to be one of the first places searched. In result, the MAC was the location of their programs future leaders.
Minnesota struck first, nabbing Northern Illinois head man Jerry Kill, who built up a Southern Illinois program before his three year stint at Northern Illinois. He then led the Huskies to a 10-3 record and MAC Championship appearance in 2010. Not bad for a team that went 2-10 in 2007, the year before Kill became the programs head coach.
Pittsburgh, whose head coach Dave Wannstedt, stepped down after six seasons, made a quick move to hire Miami of Ohio’s Michael Haywood (right). Haywood seemed like an unlikely candidate after a 2009 1-11 first season with the Redhawks. But he led Miami to a 9-4 record and MAC Championship this season. It was clear, following a 2-10 record in 2008 before Haywood arrived, the program just didn’t have the talent or the amount of coaching it needed in 2009.
Temple head coach Al Golden became Miami’s choice after a two week search that many believed would bring in a coach with a name to fit the programs heavy bill. Former Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Jon Gruden was rumored, so was former Auburn coach and current Texas Tech coach Tommy Tuberville, and Mississippi State’s Dan Mullen. In the end, however, the Hurricanes settled on the little known Golden. The 41 year old and former Penn State tight end, built up a Temple program from 0-11 the year before he arrived, to seasons of 9-4 in 2009 and 8-4 this season. The Owls 2009 bowl appearance was just their third in the programs history, and first since 1979.
All three coaches struck fans, program personnel and boosters the wrong way at the time of the hiring, but after school press conferences and familiarity with the three, everyone became aware of the hunger and drive in Kill, Haywood and Golden, much like that seen in the MAC’s history of coaching greats.
Whether or not the success of the past coaches from the MAC will follow the three who left the conference this season, remains to be seen. The tools are in place, and the desire to bring excellence back to their current storied programs is there, however.
History implies the three are likely to uncover success. Somewhere in a tiny midwest town, though, with a school too big for its boots, there lays another coach waiting in the crossroads of college football’s coaching carousel.
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