25 best college football coaches never to win a national title
- Head Coaching Record: 154-90-2 at Tampa 1972, Iowa State 1973-78, Ohio State 1979-87, Northern Iowa 1988, Colorado State 1989-92
- Closest He Came to Winning a National Championship: 1979; 11-1 lost the Rose Bow, No. 4 final ranking
- Notable: Four Big Ten Championships (1979, 1981, 1984, 1986), 1979 AFCA Coach of the Year, 1979 Big Ten Coach of the Year, College Football Hall of Fame (2002)
A well-traveled coach that gave more than half a century to the profession, Earle Bruce began his coaching career as a high school assistant in 1953. He spent more than a decade in the Ohio high school ranks before joining Woody Hayes’ Ohio State coaching staff in 1966, where he served for six seasons and helped the Buckeyes win two national championships.
Bruce earned his first head coaching opportunity at the University of Tampa in 1972, and went 10-2 before taking the head coaching job at Iowa State. He led the Cyclones to a 36-32 record in six seasons, which included three consecutive eight-win seasons from 1976-1978 before replacing Hayes as the head coach at Ohio State. Bruce’s first Buckeyes’ squad was his best, and finished 11-1 and No. 4 in the nation following a loss in the Rose Bowl after spending most of the season ranked No. 1.
Bruce compiled a record of 81-26-1 in Columbus before being fired in 1987. He then spent one year at Northern Iowa and four at Colorado State. One of Bruce’s assistant coaches while he was at Colorado State was Urban Meyer, who would go on to an extremely successful head coaching career of his own, which to date includes three national championships – the most recent with Ohio State in 2014.
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