It's not easy jumping from college to the pros.
For coaches, it's rare to find overwhelming success at both levels because each division requires a different set of skills. Sure, both jobs are technically just "head coach" of a football team. But in college, you have to recruit and manage dozens of teenage student-athletes. The focus shifts more to schemes and gameplans in the NFL.
Jim Harbaugh will be the latest to try and figure it out as he begins his second NFL coaching stint with the Los Angeles Chargers. He is fresh off winning a national championship at Michigan, and he made a Super Bowl with the San Francisco 49ers in the 2012 season.
Earlier this offseason, ProFootballTalk's Mike Florio and Chris Simms each drafted their three best coaches to make the jump from college to the NFL. Here's how it played out:
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Simms: Jimmy Johnson
The first pick was an obvious one for Simms. Johnson went 29-25-3 in five seasons at Oklahoma State before jumping to Miami in 1984. Over five seasons with the Hurricanes, he went 52-9 with two Orange Bowl wins and a national title.
Johnson jumped to the NFL with the Dallas Cowboys in 1989. While his first season was a struggle at 1-15, he quickly turned the team into a perennial contender. Dallas made the playoffs in his third year before winning consecutive Super Bowls in his fourth and fifth seasons and then walking away. Johnson later coached the Miami Dolphins for four seasons, making three playoff appearances.
NFL
Florio: Pete Carroll
With the second pick, Florio looked to the recently-ousted Pete Carroll. He began his head coaching career with the New York Jets in 1994, where he only lasted one season. Then, there were three seasons with the New England Patriots where he went 27-21 before being replaced by Bill Belichick.
That led Carroll back to the NCAA, where he was an assistant earlier in his career. Carroll took over USC in 2001 and went 97-19 over nine seasons with four Rose Bowl wins, two Orange Bowl wins and two AP national championships.
Carroll returned to the NFL again in 2010 with the Seattle Seahawks. His second NFL tenure was an immediate success. Seattle won the Super Bowl in 2013 and Carroll stayed in town for 14 years, never winning fewer than seven games in a season.
Simms: Tom Coughlin
Coughlin was an NFL assistant for years, including serving as New York Giants wide receivers coach when Simms' father Phil was their starting quarterback from 1988-90. Then, he left to become head coach at Boston College. Over three seasons with the Eagles, Coughlin went 21-13-1 with a Carquest Bowl win in his final game.
His NFL return began in Jacksonville with an expansion franchise. Coughlin was the Jaguars' first head coach and he turned them into instant contenders. The Jags made the postseason in four of their first five seasons, including two AFC title game appearances. Coughlin spent eight seasons in Jacksonville, going 68-60.
Coughlin is best remembered for his run as the Giants head coach, though. He took over Big Blue in 2004 and stayed for 12 seasons, winning two Super Bowls against Belichick and the Patriots. Over 20 total NFL seasons, Coughlin went 170-150 with 12 postseason victories.
Florio: Paul Brown
Brown is best known for his NFL résumé, but his head coaching career actually began at the amateur level. From 1941-43, Brown went 18-8-1 as Ohio State's head coach, earning the school's first national championship in 1942. Then, he spent two seasons leading the Great Lakes Navy Bluejackets before jumping to the pros.
Brown then became the Cleveland Browns' head coach, GM and part-owner in 1946, where he built the team into a powerhouse. Cleveland went 111-44-5 in 17 seasons under Brown, winning three NFL championships and four All-America Football Conference championships.
After leaving Cleveland, Brown helped create the Cincinnati Bengals, where he again served a three-headed role of coach, president and owner. He went 48-36 in eight seasons with the Bengals, and the franchise is still owned by his son Mike to this day.
Simms: Jim Harbaugh
After retiring from the NFL as a player in 2001, Harbaugh immediately went into coaching. By 2004, he was the head coach at San Diego. The Toreros went 7-4 in his first season, then 11-1 in each of the next two. Harbaugh bounced for Stanford in 2007, taking over a team that went 1-11 the year prior. By 2010, the Cardinal went 12-1 and won the Orange Bowl.
Harbaugh then tried his hand at the NFL, joining the 49ers for 2011 and beyond. While that run only last four seasons, Harbaugh did go 44-19-1 over that span with a Super Bowl loss and two other NFC title game appearances.
The Michigan alum then returned to his alma mater in 2015 and stayed for nine seasons. The Wolverines made the College Football Playoff in his final three years, culminating in a national championship in 2023 as he finished his tenure at 86-25. Harbaugh will return to the NFL sidelines this season with the Chargers, a franchise he played for from 1999-2000. If he can win a ring with L.A., he would join Johnson, Carroll and Barry Switzer as the only coaches to win a national title and Super Bowl.
Florio: Bill Walsh
Two stints at Stanford bookended Walsh's historic NFL run with the 49ers. He went 9-3 and 8-4 in two seasons with the Cardinal before jumping to the NFL. In the pros, he won three Super Bowls in 10 seasons with San Francisco and went 92-59-1.
Walsh walked away from the 49ers after his third Super Bowl win and appeared to be done with coaching. But after four years off, he finally got back into it with Stanford. Walsh lasted three seasons, going 10-3 in 1992 before two sub-.500 campaigns.
