Record at time of hire: 33-11; Record at Ohio State: 205-61-10
Previous schools:
- Denison Big Red: 1946-1948
- Miami (Ohio RedHawks): 1949-1950
Arguably the greatest champion outside of Nick Saban has a resume similar to Josh Heupel’s. Woody Hayes took over the Denison Big Red just after the war, so it’s hard to truly measure what he inherited, but he was two years removed from Red Armstrong, who went 6-2-1 in 1942 and 6-1-1 in 1944. There was no team in 1943.
As a result, Hayes’ three-year run at Denison was after inheriting at least a winning program, although going 9-0 and 8-0 his final two seasons was taking it to another level. What he did at Miami, though, more parallels what Josh Heupel did.
Hayes inherited a team that had just gone 7-1-1 and won the MAC title it’s one year under George Blackburn. He actually showed regression his first year, going 5-4, but he then went 9-1 and won the MAC again in 1950.
That was enough for Ohio State to take a chance on him, and the rest is history. In 28 years there, Hayes won five national championships and 13 Big Ten championships. Heupel doesn’t need to repeat that as Tennessee football’s head coach, but it is intriguing that Hayes had a similar background when he was hired at such an elite school.