Big Ten Has Passed SEC Thanks To Coaching Advantage: Jake Crain
Jake Crain says Big Ten has out-coached SEC for 2-3 years, contributing to conference's title game drought.
Regardless of the outcome of Monday's National Championship game between the Indiana Hoosiers and Miami Hurricanes, it's clear that the Big Ten has become the new power in college football.
For years, the SEC dominated the sport thanks to inherent recruiting advantages, commitment to football, big brand names, and well, who knows, maybe a little extra, uh, something. But it's now been three straight years without an SEC team reaching the title game. The Big Ten is in a strong position to win its third straight championship, and the SEC's bowl and playoff game record this postseason was atrocious, to say the least.
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Then there's the coaching carousel. With a number of big name jobs coming open, who filled those jobs could go a long way towards determining which conference can stake its claim as the "best" moving forward. So who won out?
Jake Crain, host of the "Crain & Cone" show on On3, joined OutKick's Chad Withrow on "Hot Mic" to discuss.
Dan Lanning of the Oregon Ducks. (Photo by Robin Alam/ISI Photos/ISI Photos via Getty Images)
Big Ten Builds On Coaching Advantage With New Hires
Withrow explained why he thinks the Big Ten won the coaching carousel, comparing who SEC programs hire to the additions Big Ten teams made.
"The SEC, the biggest hire was one school rating another SEC school's coach," he said. "Outside of that, Ole Miss elevated a coordinator. Kentucky hired a coordinator, Auburn, Arkansas, Florida hired Group of Five head coaches. I'm not saying those guys aren't good coaches and won't have a ton of success, but look at what the Big 10 did. Matt Campbell is a no-brainer. Hire for Penn State with what he did at maybe the worst job in college football at Iowa State. Kyle Whittingham, are you kidding me? Perfect for Michigan and a proven winner and an older established guy. Pat Fitzgerald at Michigan State. I don't think there's any comparison that the Big Ten won in terms of resume of who they hired versus these SEC schools."
Crain went further, saying that these hires, and the staffs that Big Ten teams are able to attract, have helped level the playing field and now, put the SEC at a coaching staff disadvantage. While he did allow for the possibility that Jon Sumrall does a great job at Florida, or Alex Golesh is able to turn the Auburn program around, he acknowledged that it's impossible to argue with the resumes joining the Big Ten next year.
"If we're going off resume, if we're going off what we know about these guys at the Power 4 level, then I don't know how you don't look at Kyle Whittingham and Matt Campbell and Fitzgerald. And I don't know how you look at the whole conference to be honest with you and not think it's at least tied," Crain explained. "I think Big Ten Coaching has been better than SEC Coaching going on two to three years now. And that's not just head coach specific. That's filling out staffs because, at the end of the day, and this is something we talked about with Josh Pate, and he's right, the SEC coaches, they just go off agents to get these other guys.
"The Big Ten, it feels like they're going out to try and hire the best coordinators for their specific circumstance, the context of where they're at. And I think that's why we've seen the SEC struggle to get to the national title game, to be honest with you. They're getting out-coached."
With Nick Saban at Alabama, the balance of power in college football would always shift toward the SEC. But Kalen DeBoer, as good as he is, hasn't been able to sustain the invincibility Saban cultivated. Steve Sarkisian has helped bring Texas "back," but the Longhorns are far from an unstoppable force. Kirby Smart is one of the best handful of coaches in the sport, and Lane Kiffin has joined that list too. Mike Elko has finally turned Texas A&M around, at least last season. The SEC still has quality coaching.
But along with NIL leveling the playing field, Ryan Day, Dan Lanning, now Kyle Whittingham, Matt Campbell, Curt Cignetti, even Lincoln Riley, Matt Rhule, Bert Bielima, Kirk Ferentz, Jedd Fisch, Patt Fitzgerald…there's a lot of wins there. Even UCLA pulled James Madison's head coach to LA.
The SEC isn't going anywhere, with the talent they have in their backyard. But the Big Ten might just be getting warmed up, as the coaching gap continues to grow.
Check out the clip below: