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B1G Coaching Changes - Nebraska, Purdue, Wisconsin

June 22, 2023 by Staff

Nebraska, Purdue and Wisconsin are all hoping to fight their way to the top after varying degrees of struggle. But even with a new head coach, the odds of any of those three programs reaching the B1G summit this year are not in their favor.

Michigan and Ohio State have won the last six B1G titles, with the Wolverines taking the last two following a 4-year run by the Buckeyes.

Ohio State has slightly better odds than Michigan to capture the conference title in 2023, and both are among the top 4 favorites to land a spot in the college football playoff. Penn State is a distant 3rd.

The odds stand in the Buckeyes' favor, despite losing 3 players in the first round of 2023 NFL Draft, and 6 over-all.

Ohio State QB C.J. Stroud went to the Houston Texans with the No. 2 over-all pick, but still have the second-worst odds of reaching the NFL playoffs. OT Paris Johnson was taken 6th over-all by Arizona, and WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba was the No. 20 selection by Seattle.

Michigan had 9 players taken, but only one first-rounder as DT Mazi Smith went to Dallas with the No. 26 pick. The Cowboys snapped up another Michigan player in the second round with the No. 58 pick when the franchise selected TE Luke Schoonmaker. Two picks later, Cincinnati took cornerback CJ Turner.

Kicker Jake Moody went in the 4th round as he was drafted by the San Francisco 49ers. Believe it or not, it is not that uncommon for a kicker to be taken in the first four rounds. In fact, here's a list of the highest-drafted NFL kickers in history.

Penn State had 3 players taken in the second round with cornerback Joey Porter, Jr going to Pittsburgh, tight end Brenton Strange to Jacksonville, and offensive lineman Juice Scruggs to Houston.

By comparison, 2 'Huskers, 5 Boilermakers (including the starting QB Aidan O'Connell) and 3 Badgers were taken in the 2023 draft.

When it comes to conference championships, the Buckeyes lead the way with 63 combined won or shared titles while the Badgers have 62. But Big Blue has more outright championships with 44 vs. Ohio State's 39.

Nebraska has never won the title since entering the conference in 2011, but the 'Huskers did manage to advance to the second-ever conference championship game in 2012 where they were dismantled 70-31 by Wisconsin.

Purdue last shared the crown in 2000.

Wisconsin had a three-year run from 2010 through 2012. The Badgers shared the title with Ohio State and Michigan in 2010, and then beat Michigan State in 2011 in the very first conference championship game. Wisconsin repeated with its aforementioned win over Nebraska in 2021, but the Badgers were 3rd in the division and only made it to the title game because Ohio State and Penn State were both on probation.

Wisconsin has the 5th-most number of B1G titles with 22 won or shared crowns, just behind Illinois' 23 and Minnesota's 25.

Let's take a deeper look at the situation of each school.

Nebraska

Throughout its history, Nebraska ranks No. 5 for number of games played, No. 8 for wins, and No. 10 for win percentage. From 1970 to 1997, the 'Huskers never lost more than 3 games in a single season. Since 1998, however, the program has had 21 seasons of 4 or more losses, including the last 19 in-a-row.

On Saturday, November 26, 2022, Matt Rhule became the third official head coach since 2015. He replaces Scott Frost who was dismissed on September 11, the day after a 45-42 loss at home to Georgia Southern dropped the 'Huskers to 1-2. It was the 8th straight loss to FBS teams, all by single digits. Mickey Joseph was named interim head coach and went 3-6 for the rest of the season.

Rhule most recently was fired from his head coaching position with the NFL's Carolina Panthers. He was just 2 years + 5 games into a 7-year contract, but received a hefty $40 million buyout. Before trying to make the jump to the NFL, Rhule was extremely successful at turning around two college programs - Baylor and Temple - but spent very little time at either. He was with the Owls for just 4 seasons before accepting the job at Baylor, and just 3 seasons in Waco before leaving for Charlotte and the NFL.

At Baylor, Rhule's first season was a 1-11 disaster in 2017, but the results quickly improved with a 7-6 performance in 2018 and an 11-3 record in 2019. Unfortunately for Baylor fans, that performance caught the attention of NFL teams and Rhule was hired on January 7 as the new head coach at Carolina. At Baylor, Rhule repeated the turnaround success he had at Temple where his first team was 2-10, but his next three seasons saw the Owls go a cumulative 26-13.

Nebraska thought Frost would be the savior after he had spent just two years at UCF. Frost turned that program around from 0-12 in the year before he arrived in Orlando, to 6-7 in year one, to 13-0 and the program's self-proclaimed 'national title' in year two.

Unfortunately, Frost's reign of 4-year + 3 games in Lincoln produced woeful marks of 16-31 over-all and just 10-26 in B1G games.

Is Rhule the man who can restore Nebraska football to glory? He is vastly more experienced than Frost, and he comes from the defensive side of the football for which Nebraska used to have a tradition of excellence.

To lead the offense, Rhule plucked Marcus Satterfield from South Carolina. Satterfield is a familiar presence with Rhule as he also worked under him for one season with the Panthers, two with Baylor, and three with Temple.

Purdue

The Boilermakers only rank No. 52 in all-time win percentage.

The 6-season Jeff Brohm era ended with the school's first claim to first place in the West Division since the B1G went to a 2-division format in 2011. It is abandoning that format next year when UCLA and USC enter the conference.

Still, Brohm's record last was 8-6 and his 6-year mark was just 36-35, including 26-25 in the conference.

Brohm's tenure beat the garbanzo beans out the Darrell Hazell era which produced 3-1/2 years of depressing results that added up to a 9-33 record over-all, and just 3-24 in the conference.

Alas, Brohm left to return to his alma mater, Louisville. Brohm was the Card's QB in the early 90's under Howard Schnellenberger.

Purdue now turns to a guy who has never been a head coach and has a defense-minded background. Ryan Walters most recently served as the defensive coordinator at Illinois, and Missouri prior to that. At age 36, he became the 4th youngest head coach in the FBS. we was a Broyles Award finalist in 2022 after guiding the Illini defense to Top 10 national rankings in 17 different defensive categories.

Walters seemingly made a great move in hiring Graham Harrell as his offensive coordinator. He has been an OC since 2016 when he first got that opportunity at North Texas. three years later, he was at USC and he spent the 2022 campaign at West Virginia.

The reality is that Purdue is one of the "rest" of the B1G schools, as history has shown that the conference consists of Michigan, Ohio State and 'the rest'. As such, Walters' first goal will be to simply not fall too far down from the height that Brohm had managed to elevate the program.

Wisconsin

One of the biggest head-scratchers of the 2022 season was the early firing of head coach Paul Chryst from Wisconsin. Yes, Wisconsin was just 2-3 at the time of his dismissal, but Chryst had a 67-26 record over his 7-plus seasons in Madison, along with three Big Ten west division titles, a 43-18 mark in conference games, and a 6-1 bowl record.

The school finished the 2022 season with a 6-6 record as interim head coach Jim Leonhard guided the Badgers to a 4-3 finish.

Wisconsin ultimately may have upgraded the position with the hiring of Luke Fickell on November 27th. Sure, Cincinnati was his first head coaching gig, and the American Athletic Conference is a far cry from the B1G, but Fickell had an exceptional tenure with the Bearcats.