Ranking the 25 best head coaches in college football history

12. Bernie Bierman

Minnesota’s golden age came in the Depression era leading up to World War II. The Golden Gophers captured five national championships in an eight-year span between 1934 and 1941. All of the success was due in large part to the arrival of an alumnus as head coach. Bernie Bierman had already spent five forgettable seasons at Montana and Mississippi State before taking over at Tulane in 1927. In five years, he turned Tulane into a Southern Conference powerhouse and nearly won the 1931 national title.

By year three, he had also worked his magic at Minnesota. The Gophers won the first of three straight national titles in 1934. That year they outscored opponents 270 to 38 en route to a perfect 8-0 record.

They replicated the feat the following year, holding opponents to only 36 points all season. A third straight title came in 1936 despite losing 6-0 at Northwestern. After a losing season in 1939, the Gophers opened the 1940s with 16 straight victories and two more national titles in 1940 and 1941.

Bierman left Minnesota to coach the Iowa Pre-Flight team in 1942 at the beginning of the war. He returned to the Gophers in 1945 after the war, but could not recapture the magic of the 1930s. Bierman left after 1950 having seen his winning percentage plummet. In his first ten years at Minnesota, Bierman lost 12 total games; in his last six years from 1945 to 1950, he lost 23.