The 2023 football season is now upon us and fans are chomping at the bit for football to start and to see their favorite team’s take the field. It is also the last year fans will see the Big Ten as we now know it, with 14 teams, before the incoming additions of USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington.

Taking a look at this upcoming season, the conference may be the most competitive it has been in a long time from top to bottom.

In this series, we have ranked the top offenses in the Big Ten, HERE, the top defenses, HERE, now we will rank the head coaches of the conference:

14. David Braun (Northwestern)

This is slightly unfair, given the circumstances that Braun had to take over the head coach position, but for the purpose of the rankings Braun has no head coaching experience and no FBS coaching experience.

13. Ryan Walters (Purdue)

12. Tom Allen (Indiana)

11. Greg Schiano (Rutgers)

Schiano had a very good first run in Piscataway and it was looking like he was building a solid roster this time around. Unfortunately, things have not gone to plan thus far and Schiano has gone just 12-22 so far in his return to Rutgers.

10. Mel Tucker (Michigan State)

2021 was great, Tucker went 11-2 and looked like he was going to be a special hire in East Lansing. The problem? He followed it up with a 5-7 campaign and needs to have a strong 2023.

9. Mike Locksley (Maryland)

8. Matt Rhule (Nebraska)

Rhule is an interesting candidate, he is very highly thought of in the football world. The thing is, he is only 47-43 in seven seasons as a college football head coach. So he will stay in the middle of the pack.

7. Bret Bielema (Illinois)

Bret Bielema is a solid coach that has started to build Illinois into a respectable program, along with a solid career coming into his latest stop.

6. P.J. Fleck (Minnesota)

5. James Franklin (Penn State)

4. Kirk Ferentz (Iowa)

3. Jim Harbaugh (Michigan)

This may cause some anger, but Harbaugh comes in at No. 3. While Michigan has been the team to beat the last two years, there has been some past uncertainty with Harbaugh.

2. Luke Fickell (Wisconsin)

1. Ryan Day (Ohio State)

Story originally appeared on Spartans Wire