With Jim Harbaugh set to take command at Michigan, the Big Ten suddenly finds itself leading the nation in an interesting category: College football coaches who are also played at the school. Harbaugh joins Paul Chryst, the former Wisconsin quarterback who was just hired after Gary Andersen left the Badgers for Oregon State, and Pat Fitzgerald, the All-American linebacker from Northwestern who has been running his alma mater's program since 2006.
In the five power conferences of college football, there will be seven coaches with this distinction next season. Frank Beamer (Virginia Tech), Mike Gundy (Oklahoma State), David Shaw (Stanford) and Kliff Kingsbury (Texas Tech) are the others. Here's a closer look at this select group:
In an interview with the Wisconsin State Journal, Fitzgerald passed along some advice for Chryst that should also serve Harbaugh well: "The biggest challenge that he and his wife are going to have is making sure everybody understands that they should buy season tickets and not expect free ones."
There are other coaches outside of the power five conferences who are working for the school where they played. This includes Bryan Harsin of Boise State and Troy Calhoun of Air Force.