Cradle of Coaches

A really interesting article on how Ohio is the "Heart of It All," if by "all" you mean college football coaches, and not, say, steelworking, auto manufacturing, job creation, an educated population, winning NFL teams, etc. etc.

There were 3 stats that jumped out at me from this article. First, that Ohio has 8 1-A football schools, which is a huge number for a school it's size. Second, that Ohio has the third largest football-playing population in the country, which helps explain how it has remained a recruiting hotbed despite the fact that the state's population has continually dropped in the last thirty years. Finally, it is stunning that 14 of the last 18 head coaches in the BCS Title Game either grew up, began their coaching careers, or both, in Ohio. It's amazing that one state could have such a powerful impact in a sport that seems dominated exclusively by Florida and Texas in pop culture.

The list of names really is incredible: Brown, Shula, Noll, Schembechler, Hayes, Stoops, Meyer and others. I highly recommend the article.