10 college football coaches who were better off as big fish in little ponds

College football coaching is an artform. Going from lower levels to assistants at a higher level or just the Group of Five or FCS straight to a Power Five job is always an impressive climb.

The best coaches in college football had to put in the work at lower levels to reach the top.

But it's not always sunshine and roses for those who rose through the ranks. Sometimes coaches prove to be much better at the Group of Five or FCS levels -- that happens more often than not. But there are instances of superstar Group of Five or FCS coaches not panning out in the Power Five (now Power Four).

Today, we're going to take a look at the 10 "big fish" college football coaches who were much more effective in smaller ponds.

10. Brady Hoke

Although he's technically retired now, Brady Hoke was very much better off at the Group of Five level than he ever was at Michigan.

Hoke also had two games as an interim coach at Tennessee in 2017 and the Volunteers were 0-2 in those contests. At Michigan, he made a BCS bowl in his first season, going 11-2 but it was all downhill from there. He never won more than eight games in the three seasons after that and ended his career with the Wolverines with a 20-18 overall record. He was also just 12-12 in Big Ten play.

Although his career at San Diego State ended the same way it started (with a 4-8 season), he did have his best season as a head coach with the Aztecs in 2021 with a 12-2 record.

If not for that one 11-2 season at Michigan, he would have been one of the most disastrous Group of Five to Power Five hires in recent memory.

9. PJ Fleck

This may be a stretch, but PJ Fleck was a superstar head coach at Western Michigan before taking the Minnesota job back in 2017.

At Western, he turned the entire program around, going 1-11 in his first season and then wrapping his tenure up with a 13-1 record before leaving for Minnesota. He finished his final three years in Kalamazoo with a 29-11 record and probably could have held out for another year for a better job but he was ready to take the leap.

So far at Minnesota, he has a 50-34 overall record which isn't bad, by any means, but he's just 29-32 in Big Ten play so it's clear that a lot of his wins are coming during non-conference play.

Fleck has won the games he's supposed to, but he's had just one season with more than nine regular-season wins and just three seasons with a winning record in Big Ten play and he's been there for seven years. Not ideal.

It would have been interesting to see what kind of program he would've built if he just stayed at Western Michigan and kept dominating the MAC.