Conversations about over- and underrated things happen all the time. Usually they are about players or teams, but what about an entire program or franchise?
Without further ado, let’s dive into some of the most underrated programs in the history of college football.
Purdue
Purdue’s golden days were in the late 1990s and early 2000s with the best coach in the school’s history, Joe Tiller. The only other coaches who could potentially claim that crown are Jim Young, who resigned after five seasons, during which, he led Purdue to three consecutive nine-win seasons, and Jack Mollenkopf, who coached the team for 14 years during the 1950s and 1960s, only ever having one season with a losing record.
The program lays claim to alumni like Drew Brees, Bob Griese, Len Dawson, Jim Everett, Mike Alstott, and Rod Woodson, and with players like those, you would think that Purdue would be respected more. However, given the downturn the program has taken recently with the coaching tenures of Darrell Hazell, Danny Hope, Jim Toletto, and Fred Akers (with stints before and after by Tiller and Jeff Brohm), Purdue has become somewhat of an afterthought in the Big Ten.
For a program with as much success as Purdue has had over the years (especially in the early and middle decades of the 20th century), they are most certainly underrated as a program today.
Auburn
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Nowadays better known for playing little brother to Alabama, it wasn’t too long ago that Auburn was one of the premier programs in the country. Two-time national champions in 1957 and 2010, Auburn has a rich football history with coaches like Ralph Jordan, Mike Donahue, Pat Dye, Terry Bowden, Tommy Tuberville, Gene Chizik, and Gus Malzahn; potentially the worst coach in the history of the school was their most recent one, Bryan Harsin.
Boasting alumni like Willie Anderson, Kevin Greene, Bo Jackson, and Cam Newton, Auburn has had several Hall of Famers (and Hall of Fame talents, in the case of Jackson and Newton) come through the school throughout the years, and in recent years, it has almost turned into a sort of “Kicker U,” with players like Anders Carlson, Daniel Carlson, Rob Bironas, and Cody Parkey coming out of Auburn.
The program has never had the talent that other schools in the area like Alabama, Georgia, and LSU have historically had, but their prolonged success (with a total record of 770-455-43) in an area notoriously difficult for recruiting due to the existence of more prestigious schools like those previously mentioned is nothing to scoff at, and honestly should be respected more than it is.
Washington
Laying claim to one national championship, which came in 1991 (and was shared with Miami), Washington may not look like a traditional powerhouse. Ask anyone on the West Coast, however, and they’ll tell you differently.
One of only two teams to make it into the College Football Playoff from the Pac-12 since the playoff’s inception in 2014, Washington has recently been pretty good, especially under the coaching tenures of Steve Sarkisian, Chris Petersen, and Kalen DeBoer (we’ll all collectively agree to forget the tenures of Tyrone Willingham and Keith Gilbertson). Add in the (relatively) recent coaching stints of Jim Owens and Don James, the two greatest coaches in the school’s history, and Washington has been a powerhouse since the late 1950s.
With historical alumni like Warren Moon, Hugh McElhenny, and Arnie Weinmeister, all of whom are Hall of Famers, and recent players like Puka Nacua, Trent McDuffie, Kaleb McGary, Taylor Rapp, Vita Vea, Budda Baker, and Marcus Peters, the Huskies have a good mix of historical success and current relevance. Here’s to hoping that Washington finally gets some of the respect it deserves.
Wisconsin
Despite never having won a national championship, Wisconsin is and has traditionally been a major power in the Midwest. The Badgers haven’t suffered a losing season since 2001, and with an all-time record of 734-507-52, they have historically been a very solid team.
The best coach in the program’s history is probably Barry Alvarez; he took the team from being mediocre over the 30 years before his arrival to being the perennial contenders they are today. Between 1962 and 1993, they never finished the season ranked in the AP Poll, but before (and after) they were and have been a regular appearance on the lists.
Boasting alumni like Mike Webster, Joe Thomas, Elroy Hirsch, J.J. Watt, and Russell Wilson, the Badgers have a strong history of preparing players for the NFL, and in recent years, they have taken an informal title of being one of the biggest offensive line producing schools in the country, with players like Tyler Biadasz, Ryan Ramczyk, Rob Havenstein, Travis Frederick, Kevin Zeitler, and Thomas all spending their college days as Badgers. Given the competition over recruits in that part of the country (historically they have had to deal with traditional powerhouses like Michigan, Ohio State, and Nebraska, among others), it is extremely impressive that Wisconsin has been able to carve out its rich football history.
Oklahoma State
The Cowboys are best known today for being able to pull off an upset at any time, somewhat like Purdue. However, for a time, they were one of the premier programs in the country, and they have historically been a solid team.
For the first half of the 20th century, the Cowboys were regularly unspectacular, but an overall decent team. Never straying too far from .500 (except for 1945, when they went undefeated and finished the season ranked fifth in the country), their fortunes would begin to change with the tenures of coaches, Jim Stanley, Jimmy Johnson, and Pat Jones in the 1970s and 1980s. However, once a scandal broke in 1988 relating to recruiting violations, the team would fall back down into the depths of the Big 12 throughout the 1990s, before Les Miles was able to bring the program back up during his four-year stint as head coach in the early 2000s. Mike Gundy, the current head coach and former quarterback of the Cowboys during the 1980s, has managed to make the team a force to be reckoned with since 2006, his second year with the program.
With alumni like Hall of Famers Barry Sanders and Thurman Thomas, and other great players like Kevin Williams, Dez Bryant, Leslie O’Neal, and Jamal Williams, it is clear to see that the Cowboys are a great team both currently and historically. While they aren’t a traditional powerhouse, they are certainly better than what their current public perception would suggest.
Stanford
The 1926 National Champions have fallen on hard times recently, but for a long time, especially in the 1970s, 1990s, and the 21st century (until about five years ago), the Cardinal were a major player in the college football landscape. Coaches like Pop Warner, Walter Camp, Andrew Kerr, John Ralston, Clark Shaughnessy, Jack Elway, and Bill Walsh have all called Stanford home, all of whom except Elway and Walsh are members of the College Football Hall of Fame, and Walsh is regarded as one of the greatest coaches in NFL history.
Alumni like John Elway, James Lofton, John Lynch, Richard Sherman, Andrew Luck, and Christian McCaffrey help provide to the school’s rich football history, as do rivalries with historic teams like Cal-Berkeley, USC, and Notre Dame.
Here’s to hoping that the Cardinal are able to turn it around soon, because college football is much better when Stanford is good and providing exciting games with their rivals, especially USC and Notre Dame, who are good now and look to continue to be into the near future.
Syracuse
Since the early 2000s, the Orange haven’t been very good, but throughout most of the 20th century, they were one of the best programs on the East Coast. Having won a single national championship in 1959, the program shouldn’t be mistaken for a team with a history like Alabama or Oklahoma have, but they still have been an extremely good team, and one that is much better than the basement dwellers in the ACC that they are currently known for being.
College Football Hall of Fame Coaches like Howard Jones (of USC fame), Clarence Munn, Ben Schwartzwalder, and Dick MacPherson have helped make the program as storied as it is, even if the program hasn’t had much success outside of a few years under Paul Pasqualoni and Dino Babers in the 21st century. An all-time record of 696-520-41 is pretty good, too.
Famous alumni like Hall of Famers Jim Brown, Marvin Harrison, Larry Csonka, Art Monk, and Floyd Little, recent players like Donovan McNabb, Dwight Freeney, and Chandler Jones, and the first black Heisman Trophy winner in history, Ernie Davis, all play into the legend that is Syracuse football.
Appalachian State
Appalachian State is probably best known today for knocking off Michigan in a historic upset in 2007 and for being successful since they moved up to the FBS level in 2014. However, even when they were at the FCS level, Appalachian State has always been fairly successful.
A three-time national champion at the FCS level in 2005, 2006, and 2007, the Mountaineers are the only program in modern history to win three straight national titles and have all of them be undisputed. Additionally, the aforementioned upset of Michigan happened during the third season in this stretch, and all these helped to make Appalachian State a household name even before they went to the FBS.
Since they joined the FBS in 2014, they have had a .500 record or better in every single season, and they have been bowl-eligible in every season except for 2014 (when they went 7-5 but were ineligible for the postseason because it was their first season in the top tier of college football). Add in their five 10-win seasons in a seven year span since then, and the Mountaineers have definitely acclimated well to the pressures of college football’s top division.
West Virginia
West Virginia’s all-time record of 687-464-41 may not seem like it shows a ton of success, but the Mountaineers have historically been a strong team, even if they’ve never had the pure dominance of a traditional powerhouse. The program was at its strongest when Hall of Fame head coach Don Nehlen was at the helm in the 1980s and 1990s, but West Virginia has also enjoyed strong periods in the 1920s, 1950s, late 1960s/early 1970s, and from about 2005 to the present.
Other than Nehlen, College Football Hall of Fame inductees like Bobby Bowden, Frank Cignetti, and Greasy Neale also called West Virginia their stomping grounds and have added to the legacy of Mountaineer football. Add in Hall of Fame alumni like Chuck Howley, Sam Huff, and Joe Stydahar, as well as other great players like Marc Bulger, Jeff Hostetler, Geno Smith, Adam “Pacman” Jones, and Pat McAfee, and it’s easy to see why West Virginia has such a rich history.
The Mountaineers lost many of their major rivalries during the conference realignment period in the early 2010s, with West Virginia joining the Big 12 and traditional rivals like Pittsburgh, Syracuse, and Virginia Tech joining the ACC. However, the Backyard Brawl, as the game is known, between West Virginia and Pittsburgh was renewed in 2022, and the two teams have additional meetings scheduled out to 2032; hopefully, after the current deal is completed, the two teams can agree to continue to play each other each year, or at least on a regular basis, because college football is better when major rivalries like this one are played.
Fresno State
Even though they have only been in the FBS since 1969, Fresno State has carved out a legacy as one of the best Group of Five teams in the country. In the early years of the program, they had some success under coaches like James Bradshaw, Clark Van Galder, and Cecil Coleman, but it wasn’t until the 1980s under Jim Sweeney that they had prolonged success, which has lasted pretty much until today; since Sweeney took over in 1976, the team has only had 14 seasons were they weren’t bowl eligible.
In that period, the worst coach they have had was probably Tim DeRuyter, but even he had an 11-win season in his second year with the program, in 2013. Additionally, Fresno State has been ranked in the AP poll at some point during the year for five of the last seven seasons, showing that they have the power to recover from a poor coaching choice if need be.
As far as alumni are concerned, Fresno State, despite having a relatively recent ascent to the top tier of college football, has a lot of famous graduates, including Henry Ellard, Davante Adams, Derek Carr, Trent Dilfer, and Logan Mankins. The Bulldogs have a very solid history of good-to-great football, especially when you consider that their competitive period began relatively recently in the grand scheme of college football.
