247Sports ranks Top 20 college football coaches as players, 9 B1G names mentioned

The transition from playing football to becoming a head coach is one that’s fairly common today. Guys who played the game tend to work their way up the coaching ladder and take on roles at the high school, college or professional level.

Right now, there are several head coaches at the college level who were excellent players during their collegiate years. That’s especially in the B1G.

Recently, 247Sports ranked the top 20 coaches as college players. Nine names on that list are either current B1G head coaches, played college football in the league, or both. Four of those individuals ranked in the top 10.

Here was 247Sports’ rankings that included B1G names:

• No. 1: Pat Fitzgerald, Northwestern — LB, Northwestern
• No. 2: Jim Harbaugh, Michigan — QB, Michigan
• No. 5: Scott Frost, Nebraska — QB, Nebraska
• No. 9: Lovie Smith, Illinois — S, Tulsa
• No. 14: Kevin Sumlin, Arizona — LB, Purdue
• No. 16: Luke Fickell, Cincinnati — NG, Ohio State
• No. 18: Frank Solich, Ohio — FB, Nebraska
• No. 19: Jeff Brohm, Purdue — QB, Louisville
• No. 20: P.J. Fleck, Minnesota — WR, Northern Illinois

You can view 247Sports’ complete top 20 rankings — and their explanations behind each ranking — by visiting the website.

Dustin Schutte

Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB