College Football Coaches' Rankings–SEC and Independents

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These rankings are a combination of several factors including longevity, coaching skills (recruiting, player development, game planning), and impact on winning. For a full explanation of the data that was used for these rankings, see “Behind the Rankings” at the end of these lists.

Because change in winning percentage, as well as experience as a head coach, counts in these ratings, many times new coaches will “sink to the bottom” as there is no data to use for evaluation purposes.

Independents

There is really no point in doing independent “rankings” so to speak, as there are only three teams without conference affiliations. Here are the coaches, and some information about them:

Rich Ellerson, Army. 2009 will mark Ellerson’s first season with the Black Knights. He will employ a triple option attack similar to one that has been successful at Air Force and Navy.

For the past eight seasons, Ellerson coached at Cal Poly, where he captured three conference titles, and finished the season ranked on the FCS level three times. He finished his career there with a .622 winning percentage.

Ken Niumatalolo, Navy. Building on the previous success and flexbone scheme of former coach Paul Johnson, Niumatalolo was able to lead Navy to an 8-5 record and an appearance in the EagleBank Bowl.

During his playing days, he ran an option offense at Hawaii, and his offensive coordinator was none other than Paul Johnson. Some speculated that Niumatalolo knows the intricacies of the flexbone better than anyone. 

Charlie Weis, Notre Dame. Weis arrived in South Bend and appeared ready to lead the Irish back to national prominence. His first two squads earned BCS bids. 

The past two seasons, however, have seen unprecedented failure. Weis is just 10-15 over that time, including the 3-9 disaster in 2007. Everyone knows that the Irish must demonstrate remarkable improvement this season, or Weis will be shown the door.

SEC

Though not quite as impressive as last season, this year’s crop of SEC coaches is still one of the more talented conference line-ups in recent memory.  There are four coaches with national championships, and youthful energy has been added in the form of Kiffin, Chizik, and Mullen.

1. Urban Meyer, Florida. There is no questioning his success at each stop in his career. His teams have claimed two of the past three national titles, and in between, his QB won a Heisman. 

Meyer is now 44-9 at Florida (83-17 overall). Equally impressive, Meyer is 11-1 versus arch rivals Georgia, Tennessee, and Florida State. The shadow of Spurrier appears be getting shorter with each passing victory.

2. Nick Saban, Alabama. Just behind Meyer, Saban led last season’s resurgence of Tide football, and based on recruiting, this appears to be just the beginning.

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