Best college football coach in history from each state

Michigan: Bo Schembechler

The Great Lakes State has been home to multiple legendary programs, with Schembechler earning the title of its greatest head coach.

Schembechler played college football as an offensive tackle between 1949-1952 at Miami Ohio under Woody Hayes, with the two later becoming huge rivals. After five different stints as an assistant over the next decade, including two different stints at Ohio State, Schembechler took his first head coaching gig at his Alma Mater in 1963.

Miami went on a successful five-year run under Schembechler, helping him take a more prestigious job at Michigan in 1969. The Wolverines had dipped a bit since the glory days of the 1940s, but went 8-3 in Schembechler’s first season and earned a berth in the Rose Bowl.

That started a run of nine straight finishes in the top 10 including five more appearances in the Granddaddy of Them All, although Michigan would lose each one. Schembechler finally broke through with a Rose Bowl win in 1980 with a 10-2 season and would compile five more top 10 finishes with three additional trips to Pasadena before retiring in 1989.

A national championship eluded Schembechler, but a 194-48-5 career mark in Ann Arbor with 13 Big Ten titles speaks for itself. Lloyd Carr, Bennie Oosterbaan and Biggie Munn are among the coaches in the state’s history to win national championships, but Schembechler outpaces the field due to his staying power.

Minnesota: Bernie Bierman 

Minnesota is hoping P.J. Fleck can return some glory to the proud program, but matching Bierman’s accomplishments will be a major challenge for anyone.

A native of Springfield in Minnesota, Bierman stayed in-state to play halfback for the Golden Gophers from 1913-1915. Bierman began his head coaching career at Montana four years later and later led Tulane to three straight Southern Conference championships before returning to hid Alma Mater in 1932.

Minnesota was a solid yet not dominant program at the time of Bierman’s arrival but quickly took off with three straight unbeaten seasons between 1933 and 1935, including a pair of national championships with two straight perfect campaigns. Bierman completed the three-peat in 1936 despite losing a game and would win two more titles in 1940 and 1941 before enlisting in the U.S military.

The Hall of Famer would return to Minnesota after World War II, although the program didn’t perform at quite the same level leading up to his retirement in 1950. Even so, a record of 93-35-6 with four national championships was a remarkable accomplishment, and the Golden Gophers have won just one title since.

Minnesota fell off rapidly in the early 1960s, although Jerry Kill and Tracy Claeys helped bring the program back to respectability heading into the Fleck era. Murray Warmath earns an honorable mention for winning the 1960 title with the Golden Gophers as part of a solid career, but Bierman’s tenure represents the glory years for Minnesota.