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Now that we've chosen to go the Diddy "I'm Comin' Home" route with our new head coach hire, it got me curious about the track records of current FBS head coaches at their alma maters.

Here's the current list, as best I could find (I'm sure there are at least one or two omissions; feel free to add them to the list if you'd like):

MAC: Tim Lester (WMU), John Bonamego (CMU), Mike Neu (BSU), Paul Haynes (KSU)
Let's hope Lester can fare better than the others on this list (in fairness to Neu, he's only had one year of a rebuild up to this point).

P5: Jim Harbaugh (U-M), Pat Fitzgerald (NW), Paul Chryst (Wisconsin), Kirby Smart (Georgia), Barry Odom (Mizzou), Mark Richt (Miami), David Shaw (Stanford), Mike Gundy (Oklahoma State), Kliff Kingsbury (Texas Tech)
The majority on this list have done well for a number of years (Harbaugh, Fitzgerald, Chryst, Shaw, and Gundy). Richt did very well at Georgia - can he do the same at Miami long-term? Smart and Odom have only had one year so far (though neither impressed much in Year 1). Kingsbury may be the only long-term bust (IMO) on this list, and if nothing else he's brought a dynamic offense to Texas Tech.

Other G5: Troy Calhoun (Air Force), Bryan Harsin (Boise State), Matt Wells (Utah State), Scott Satterfield (Appalachian State)
Honestly, IMO, all four of these coaches have done a pretty good job at their alma maters.

Obviously, every individual case is unique, so nothing can be definitively applied to Lester here. Interesting to consider, though...

Utah State guy -- started out great in 1st two years (8-4 Top of Division, 9-4 2nd in Division (Haw Added Extra)). Won Bowls both those years.

Then the next two years, went 6-6 (lost bowl) -- and this year, 3-9. So I would say he's a definitely a clear Bust if they're not 7W next year, but so far he pretty much is. We'd certainly have a RIOT on our hands if Lester was the same at 4 years.

It is interesting to consider this. I would also say: How tied in were they with the Univ? Like, were they a QB or Team Captain?

Also, one would want to see the "slope". Like if you take a team like EMU -- and say they end up averaging 5.5W a season under their new guy... even if it's "just" that, that's a solid improvement. Whereas obviously he'd be burned at the stake at NIU in a short period of time.

I see KSU's coach was a DB @KSU back in the day. And he has them averaging 3W a season under him (not good).

BSU's Coach: Former QB for BSU, MAC Player of the Year in 1993. That will be interesting to see in comparison to Lester. He's not taking over a winning MAC team though, so you have to give him some time. BUT if he can make BSU a consistent 7-5 team fighting for the top, that's good (BSU's budget SUCKS, so he can only work with so much).

CMU's Coach: He played WR & QB for CMU, nothing special. And way back in the 80s. This brings up another notion: How LONG ago did you play VS you are a younger coach coming in? I would say a younger coach would show more out of his potential, IMO -- but also a riskier move being young like Reaching Out to Lester.

(01-19-2017 01:06 AM)toddjnsn Wrote:  Utah State guy -- started out great in 1st two years (8-4 Top of Division, 9-4 2nd in Division (Haw Added Extra)). Won Bowls both those years. Then the next two years, went 6-6 (lost bowl) -- and this year, 3-9. So I would say he's a definitely a clear Bust if they're not 7W next year, but so far he pretty much is.

Thanks. Didn't realize USU only won three games last season (I remember watching them early in the season beat Arkansas State pretty convincingly). Wells did have USU in the MWCC game his first season. If Lester can get us back to the MACC next season, that would be an excellent start.

One advantage that Lester has over all of the other MAC coaches on this list is that he does have previous college head coaching experience (even if it came at the lower levels). Bono and Haynes had never been head coaches prior to being hired at CMU and KSU. Neu's only head coaching experience prior to being named BSU head coach came in the Arena Football League.