College football coaches who should have stayed in school

Urban Meyer is attempting to carry his college mastery to the NFL. Several have tried to accomplish this, only to come up short. This group of coaches, which includes a host of national championship winners, serves as a reminder how difficult this jump can be.

A Wisconsin lifer, Blackbourn only coached in The Badger State. He took the Packers' reins in 1954, after four seasons at Marquette. Several Hall of Famers -- from Bart Starr to halfback Paul Hornung to tackle Forrest Gregg to center Jim Ringo -- arrived during Blackbourn's four-year tenure. However, no winning seasons ensued, with Green Bay's resurrection not occurring until Vince Lombardi's 1959 arrival. While Blackbourn went just 17-31, Lombardi rehired the longtime high school coach as a scout years later. 

A handful of Pac-8/Pac-10/Pac-12 coaches have fallen short of NFL success. Brooks spent time as a Rams assistant in the early 1970s but entrenched himself at Oregon for most of the next 25 years, coaching the Ducks for 18 seasons. After their 1994 Rose Bowl bid, Brooks accepted an offer to return to the Rams as their first St. Louis-era head coach. Brooks' tenure started well, with the Rams upsetting the Brett Favre-led Packers and going 4-0 in 1995. The Rams' 1996 Jerome Bettis trade and ensuing selection of troubled running back Lawrence Phillips burning the franchise. Brooks finished with two losing seasons.

Millennials surely know Devine better as the coach who steadfastly refused to play Rudy Ruettiger, but Devine only arrived at Notre Dame -- as the 1993 film also notes -- after a stint with the Packers. Devine became a head coach at 30, being tabbed to lead Arizona State, and spent 13 seasons at Missouri. He joined the Packers in 1971, inheriting some of Lombardi's former stalwarts. Despite Starr's retirement, Devine led the 1972 Packers to an NFC Central title. QB play, however, keyed Green Bay's ensuing downfall. 1974's disastrous trade for John Hadl preceded Devine's exit and a lengthy Packers swoon. 

Erickson's two national titles at Miami surpass every other coach's "The U" work, and up until the last of his six NFL seasons, he kept the Seahawks and 49ers out of the basement. The Seahawks hired Erickson in 1995, and he went 8-8 in three of his four seasons in a tough AFC West. The Washington native also oversaw a Pro Bowl season from a 41-year-old Warren Moon, but owner Paul Allen, who took over midway through Erickson's tenure, fired him for Mike Holmgren in 1999. Erickson's two 49ers years (2003-04) came at a transition point, the second one transpiring after the team lost Terrell Owens and Jeff Garcia. It ended in a 2-14 finish.

Holtz spent more than 40 years on the sidelines at various colleges but did try the NFL for one fall. After four seasons at N.C. State, his first big-school head coaching opportunity, Holtz agreed to coach the Jets in 1976. In what doubled as Joe Namath's final season in green and white, Holtz proved ill-suited for the pros. Holtz went 3-10 as Jets coach and attempted college-y gimmicks -- chiefly a Holtz-composed Jets fight song, which at least sounds like harmless fun -- that failed. He left the Jets with one game remaining, accepting an offer to coach Arkansas, later admitting he was out of place in the NFL.

Entering the NFL with considerable hype as an offensive guru, Kelly initially succeeded. The ex-Oregon coach's fast-paced attack helped drive the Eagles to 10-6 and the 2013 NFC East title. Nick Foles tied an NFL record with seven TD passes in a game (by the third quarter) that season, and despite Mark Sanchez replacing an injured Foles in 2014, the Eagles went 9-7. The bottom fell out in 2015. The Eagles gave Kelly personnel power. A host of moves followed, including trades of Foles and LeSean McCoy. Fired late that season, Kelly landed in San Francisco. The 49ers made him their second straight one-and-done HC following a 2-14 slate.

Kiffin's popularity has risen in the years since his Raiders ouster, but Al Davis pulled the plug on the young coach quickly. Cycling through coaches in his final years, Davis hired USC's 31-year-old offensive coordinator in 2007. Kiffin encountered a poor draw, being stuck with one of the worst busts in NFL history (JaMarcus Russell, whom Kiffin did not want to draft). Kiffin only received 20 games, during which he went 5-15 and greenlit a 76-yard Sebastian Janikowski field goal try, before being fired four games into the 2008 season. Amid a near-15-year Raiders playoff drought, Davis tore into his coach in a press conference involving an overhead projector. 

While Hue Jackson, Rod Marinelli, and John McKay receive the brunt of the judgment, a fourth coach has gone winless in the post-merger era. Yes, Kush's 0-8-1 record came during 1982's strike-shortened season, but the longtime Arizona State coach is better known for driving John Elway to avoid the Colts. Because of the Stanford phenom's refusal to play for Kush (11-28-1 with the Colts), the 22-year Sun Devils HC was stuck with a shoddy QB situation -- which featured 1982 top-five pick Art Schlichter, whose value tanked much quicker than Russell or Ryan Leaf's -- and left before the end of the 1984 season for a USFL job.

Rod Rust's one-year 1990 tenure left the Patriots at a franchise low point, and MacPherson could not revive them. The energetic Syracuse coach led the Orangemen to multiple 10-win seasons in the '80s. Well-liked in New England as well, MacPherson coached the Pats to a 6-10 mark -- up from their 1-15 disaster under Rust -- in 1991. But the franchise experienced rampant quarterback trouble and went 2-14 in 1992. MacPherson's dismissal led to the Bill Parcells hire, the Drew Bledsoe No. 1 overall draft choice, and the sad demise of Pat the Patriot. 

While at Florida and Ohio State, Meyer won three national titles. Linked to the NFL in previous years, Meyer found a Jaguars team willing to give him final say on football matters. That prompted a 2021 leap, leading to an infamous season. Meyer went 2-11 in 2021, becoming the first rookie head coach in 43 years to be fired before season's end. Meyer feuded with assistants, berated and allegedly kicked his kicker, passed on traveling home with his team after an October game (leading to a memorable bar scene) and showed a lack of NFL comprehension on many occasions. This cavalcade of missteps stunted No. 1 pick Trevor Lawrence's growth. If it is not the worst coaching tenure in modern NFL history, it is close.

Peterson spent 11 seasons at Florida State, guiding the Seminoles to multiple bowl games, and developed Fred Biletnikoff ahead of his Raiders run. This led to the Broncos and Oilers aggressively pursuing Peterson, who accepted a lucrative Oilers contract in 1972. Unfortunately, Peterson's brief stay became one of the worst in NFL annals. An offensive innovator in Tallahassee, Peterson went 1-18 in Houston. Ex-Chargers coach-turned-Oilers GM Sid Gillman diminished Peterson's power, and owner Bud Adams fired him midway through the 1973 season, the franchise's second straight one-win year. Gillman took over in the interim.

Thirty-one years after Holtz, Petrino followed a wildly similar playbook. Two one-loss seasons in four years at Louisville led the Falcons to hire Petrino in 2007. This was certainly a bad time to join the Falcons, with Michael Vick prison-bound and Matt Ryan not yet in Atlanta. Petrino signed on to coach Vick, whose dogfighting scandal soon rocked the league. The rookie coach bailed on the Falcons with the same 3-10 record Holtz had in New York. Arkansas again provided a soft landing, poaching Petrino with three games left in the Falcons' season.

Prothro spent 16 seasons coaching at Oregon State and UCLA. He guided both to the Rose Bowl in the 1960s. He coached two California-based NFL teams in the '70s; neither venture worked out. Prothro started off strong, leading the 1971 Rams to a winning record, but became caught in a historically strange situation. The Rams and Colts' owners traded franchises in 1972, leaving Prothro with new owner Carroll Rosenbloom, who fired him after the '73 season. The Chargers gave Prothro (35-51-2) a shot in 1976 but fired him four games into the 1978 season, upon trading for Don Coryell's rights. 

Rhule's turnarounds at Temple and Baylor generated extensive NFL interest by 2020, when the Panthers outbid the Giants for his services. The Giants passed on matching David Tepper's outlandish offer -- a seven-year, $62 million proposal. Given top decision-making authority, Rhule was unable to replicate his rejuvenation formula with Carolina. The Panthers cycled through QBs, turning to a new starter in each of Rhule's three seasons, and went 11-27 under Rhule. That said, the Panthers bottoming out a year after firing Rhule -- who sued the team for back pay -- shined a spotlight on Tepper for the team's mess.

Saban's two-year Dolphins tenure featured long-term consequences. The LSU national championship-winning coach agreed to a Dolphins deal in 2005. Saban had NFL experience, as the Browns' defensive coordinator under Bill Belichick in the early '90s, but built up his reputation in college. The Dolphins went a not horrendous 15-17 in two Saban seasons, and even though he denied he was leaving for Alabama before eventually doing so, Saban losing out on Drew Brees in a 2006 free agency battle defined the coach's Miami stay. An unsatisfactory offer helped send Brees to New Orleans. He and Saban fared well henceforth. The Dolphins have not.

An 11-year head coach at Rutgers, Schiano had produced some of the downtrodden program's best seasons -- including an 11-2 mark in 2006. More of a disciplinarian than predecessor Raheem Morris, Schiano went 11-21 in two years with the Bucs (2012-13). A blockbuster Darrelle Revis trade did not move the needle. Schiano drew the ire of Tom Coughlin after the Bucs defensive line bull-rushed a Giants team in victory formation in 2012, and QB Josh Freeman spiraled from starter to surprise in-season release under Schiano. His defenses did rank in the top 12 in each season, and the team missing the playoffs each year until Tom Brady's 2020 arrival also pointed to bigger issues than its coach. 

Washington owner Dan Snyder not only canned Marty Schottenheimer for Spurrier, but he also made the Fun 'n Gun architect the NFL's highest-paid coach at $5 million per year in 2002. While Spurrier excelled in the USFL and elevated Florida to the 1996 national championship, neither of his Washington teams ranked in the top 20 in passing yards. In Spurrier's defense, he lacked a viable quarterback, working primarily with Patrick Ramsey. But his second season, a 5-11 showing, provided evidence this Snyder expense would not work out. Spurrier resigned after the '03 season and returned to the college ranks.

A three-time national champion at Oklahoma, Wilkinson did not coach between his final Sooners season (1964) and his Cardinals hire (1978). He landed in a bad situation. The ownership meddling that irked Hall of Famer Don Coryell continued, but unlike Coryell, Wilkinson could not elevate St. Louis into a contender. Hired at 61, Wilkinson went 9-20 in less than two seasons leading the Cards. A quarterback dispute, with ownership wanting the coach to start overmatched first-rounder Steve Pisarkiewicz over veteran Jim Hart, led to Wilkinson's ouster late in the 1979 season.