Big 10 Midseason Coaching Report: Bielema Overperforming, Riley on the Hot Seat, and More

By: Mike Huesmann

For each of the P4 conferences and the G5 as one, I will release a midseason report. Each conference will have a coach who, through the first half of the season, has: overperformed, underperformed, is on the hottest seat, and one for whom the jury is still out on, meaning we need to see how the second half of the season goes before jumping to conclusions. There will also be MVC (most valuable coach). This MVC is for preparation and in-game coaching, not offseason stuff such as roster building in recruiting and the portal. A coach is only eligible to be picked for one category so we won't have any repeats. Yesterday we kicked off with the SEC Midseason Coaching Report .

Overperforming

Bret Bielema, Illinois

Illinois is 5-1 with their lone loss on the road at Penn State. The schedule gets a lot tougher, but I’m only grading to this point. In August, if you’d have said they’d be 5-1 through that schedule, anyone would have taken it. They haven’t always looked great, but they are getting wins .

Underperforming

Ryan Walters, Purdue

Walters will go into year three, next year, on the hot seat. This Purdue team is 1-5 with no FBS wins. They aren’t doing many things right , the defense is non-existent, but they at least put up a fight yesterday against Illinois. They may not win a conference game this year.

Hottest Seat

Lincoln Riley, USC

There will be some in USC camps who will want to pay him a severance and say, “ hit the road .” I don’t think it happens this year, unless he really runs afoul of the wrong people. Lincoln’s heavy contract, I think, puts him on the 2025 hot seat with a small chance of losing his job this year. It would take a terrible end to this season for him to be out. We might not see any Big 10 teams change coaches this offseason, making this category more speculative.

Coldest Seat (most job security)

Kirk Ferentz, Iowa

The powers that be, namely boosters and financial supporters in Iowa City, have his back, and he isn’t going anywhere. He won his 200th game this season, which is an elite list. The Hawkeyes are 4-2 this year with respectable losses to Iowa State and Ohio State, both potential playoff teams. This will be the 12th bowl appearance in a row for Ferentz.

Jury Still Out (we need to see how the 2nd half of the season goes)

Mike Locksley, Maryland

Locksley has been solid at Maryland. They have progressively improved and have won at least seven games in three consecutive years. He’s never been spectacular though, and I do wonder if the boosters and Maryland people may eventually want more. This year the Terps are 3-3 and do not look good . They are 0-3 in the Big 10 and haven’t beaten anybody who’s on their level. I am curious how the remaining six games go, if it ends poorly, 2025 may be a must win season.

MVC (Most Valuable Coach)

Curt Cignetti, Indiana

He’s probably the national coach of the year to this point. It is remarkable that he has the Hoosiers at 6-0, I don’t care what the schedule is. He did it at JMU, now he’s doing it in Bloomington. This team hadn’t won six games in a year since the 2020 COVID year, now they did it to start a season.