Top 10 college football legends who should be head coaches

October 5, 2014; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers inside linebacker Patrick Willis (52) during player introductions before the game against the Kansas City Chiefs at Levi

These former college football legends should make a return to the college scene and patrol the sidelines as a college head coach.

Regardless of the sports, most great players traditionally don’t make for great head coaches. Just look at Wayne Gretzky’s 143-161-24 record in four seasons as the head coach of the NHL’s Phoenix Coyotes or Magic Johnson’s 5-11 record as the interim coach of the Los Angeles Lakers.

College football is no different where the two best coaches in the game weren’t game-changing talents. Nick Saban played defensive back at Kent State and Urban Meyer was a better baseball player than he was a defensive back at Cincinnati. Sure, there was Steve Spurrier who won a Heisman at Florida and is one of the best coaches of all-time, but Spurrier is the exception to the rule and not the standard.

But who could be the next Spurrier and backup a stellar college football career with a second stint in college as a head coach?

I picked 10 former college football legends who I believe to have the makeup and qualities to be a potential great coach.

I had two qualifiers to be eligible for this list. First, you have to be a retired football player. Just like the College Football Hall of Fame stipulates that you can’t be playing in the NFL, you can’t be playing on Sunday’s and be a head coach in college football. So this is not a place where you’ll see me wax poetic about why Peyton Manning, Colt McCoy or Tim Tebow would kill it in college.

Secondly, I wanted to put great players in the spotlight so each of the players on the list are former All-Americans.

After reading through the list, please continue the conversation and add your voice to the story by leaving your thoughts in the comments section below.

Without further ado, here are 10 former college football legends who should return to the college game as head coaches.

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