College Football: 10 toughest coaching careers to follow

7. Bernie Bierman (Minnesota)

Bernie Bierman is one of the less-heralded coaching titans of the sport, his Minnesota teams winning a share of five national titles between 1932 and 1950. Bierman was a halfback for the Golden Gophers in his playing days, and his link to the university drew him to leave a strong Tulane team after the 1931 season to return to the sideline at his alma mater.

Bierman won three straight national championships between 1934 and 1936, and followed that up with two more titles in 1940 and 1941. World War II took him away from the Twin Cities. Bierman served a year coaching Iowa Pre-Flight before leaving the gridiron for more active duty until the end of the war.

Once the war ended, Bierman returned to Minneapolis to take over the Golden Gophers once again. In a way, Bierman found that he was himself a hard act to follow, as the coaching legend struggled to recapture the successes of his first stint with the team. Unable to finish better than third in the Big Ten in his final six seasons, Bierman left the team in 1950.

His successor, Wes Fesler, never had the disposition to truly emerge from Bierman’s shadow. The former Ohio State coach left Columbus for Minneapolis in 1951, lasting just three years before giving way to Murray Warmath. Bierman, a man of little emotion, was the personification of Minnesota football that proved exceedingly difficult to live up to for future coaches.