all comes down to coaching. Ohio State has been on a serious run of excellence in coaching hires.
Woody Hayes (HOF, all-timer coach) to Earle Bruce (81-26-1 in 9 years - 75% win pct) to John Cooper (couldn't beat MI, but he was 111-43-1 at OSU- 72% winning pct % ain't terrible) to Jim Tressel (83% win pct%, 1 NC, 3 NC appearances, dominated Michigan) to Urban Meyer (one of the GOAT football coaches- 90% win pct% & 1 NC at OSU) to a young up and coming hot-shot Ryan Day (92% win pct%-).
Ohio State has knocked it out of the park with it's coaching hires. Even their two "bad coaches" Bruce & Cooper won 75% & 72% of their games while at OSU. There isn't another school that even comes close to that kind of consistency and track record in hiring football coaches.
Meanwhile Michigan's last 3 coaches?
RichRod - 40% win pct. OUCH.
Hokie - 60% win pct.
Harbaugh - 69% win pct.
Harbaugh isn't even winning at the same clip as the coaches OSU fired for not winning enough. Crazy.
I mostly agree but not completely.
Coaching is definitely important but there are limits. I think Wisconsin has had just about as good of coaching as they possibly could have hoped for from Alvarez-present and they've been very good but not "tOSU good". Personally, I don't think that is because Alvarez wasn't as good as Cooper/Tressel/Meyer/Day. I think Alvarez was much better than Cooper and at least in the same ballpark as Tressel but Wisconsin's underlying situation simply isn't as good as Ohio State's. Great coaches at tOSU win NC's. Great coaches at UW win league titles . . . unless Ohio State, Michigan, or Penn State has a great coach at the same time in which case they mostly finish second.
You listed Ohio State's last five coaches and they all have winning percentages north of 72% then attributed that to Ohio State just basically being REALLY lucky in their last five coaching hires. I'm not so sure. They definitely did REALLY well with Hayes, Tressel, and Meyer but did they really hit five straight homeruns or is Ohio State's underlying situation a big factor here?
Personally, I think that Ohio State's underlying situation is a big factor.
As of 2020 here are the States that the most NFL players graduated from HS in and the P5 schools in those states:
- 194 Florida - UF, FSU, Miami: 65 per P5 school
- 192 Texas - Texas, aTm, TxTech, TCU, Baylor: 38 per P5 school
- 170 California - USC, UCLA, Cal, Stanford: 43 per P5 school
- 134 Georgia - UGA, GaTech: 67 per P5 school
- 71 Ohio - tOSU: 71 per P5 school
- 60 Alabama - Bama, Auburn: 30 per P5 school
- 60 Pennsylvania - PSU, Pitt: 30 per P5 school
- 59 Louisiana - LSU: 59 per P5 school
- 59 North Carolina - UNC, Dook, Wake, NCST: 15 per P5 school
- 57 New Jersey - Rutgers: 57 per P5 school
Resorted by most NFL players per P5 school in the state:
- 71 Ohio
- 67 Georgia
- 65 Florida
- 59 Louisiana
- 57 New Jersey
- 43 California
- 38 Texas
- 30 Alabama
- 30 Pennsylvania
- 15 North Carolina
Now I'm not saying that Ohio State is in absolutely and indisputably the best possible situation. Alabama, for example, has the advantage of being solid at home and adjacent to or near other top talent states Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, and Texas.
That said, Ohio State's underlying situation is REALLY good. Ohio State is the unquestionable #1 football program in a state with a LOT of talent. In that regard, Ohio State is unique. Other schools such as LSU are the unquestionable #1 football program in their states but their states have less talent. Other schools such as UF/FSU/Miami have more talent in their states but they have more in-state competition for that talent.
I think that creates a REALLY solid underlying situation for Ohio State. Any reasonably competent recruiter in Columbus is going to get the bulk of Ohio's talent and any reasonably competent coach with that talent is going to win at least around 70% of their games (long term, not necessarily every year).
My thinking is that it generally takes a great coach to win NC's or go say .800+ at Ohio State but any reasonably competent coach will end up around .700 because the underlying situation is just THAT good.
One note, Alabama:
Right now the Tide are OBVIOUSLY #1 in the state of Alabama but that can and has changed. When they have mediocre coaches, Auburn is able to challenge that. That is a threat that Ohio State simply doesn't face. Even when Ohio State has mediocre coaches there still isn't another school that can seriously challenge Ohio State's in-state supremacy.