Offense vs. Defense: Who Makes the Best Head Coach in College Football?

Listening to the local sports radio show here in Birmingham, Ala., Dunaway and Brown, the subject came up about who makes a better head coach, an offensively minded coach or a defensively minded coach?

So I looked at the current top 25 and what head coaches had offensive backgrounds and which coaches had defensive backgrounds. It was interesting what I found, and the results may surprise you.

Let's take a look at how the offensive background coaches stack up to the defensive background coaches around the nation. I only used their backgrounds before they became head coaches, so their previous head coaching positions are not listed.

COACHES WITH AN OFFENSIVE BACKGROUND

Mark Richt, No. 3 Georgia Bulldogs (75-19)

(East Carolina OC; Florida State OC)

Urban Meyer, No. 4 Florida Gators (70-16)

(Ohio State TE, WR; Illinois St, QB, WR; Colorado St. WR; Notre Dame WR)

Gary Pinkel, No. 5 Missouri Tigers (125-74)

(Washington TE; Bowling Green WR; Washington WR; Washington OC)

Les Miles, No. 6 LSU Tigers (64-27)

(Colorado OL; Michigan OL; Oklahoma State OC; Dallas Cowboys TE)

Mack Brown, No. 7 Texas Longhorns (189-99)

(Iowa State WR; Iowa State OC; LSU QB; Oklahoma OC)

Mike Leach, No. 11 Texas Tech Red Raiders (68-37)

(Valdosta OC; Kentucky OC; Oklahoma OC)

Jim Tressel, No. 13 Ohio State Buckeyes (75-17) *only counting wins at OSU

(Akron QB, RB, WR; Miami (OH) QB, WR; Syracuse QB, RB)

Skip Holtz, No. 15 East Carolina Pirates (56-40)

(Colorado State WR; Notre Dame WR; Notre Dame OC; South Carolina OC, QB)

Mike Bellotti, No. 17 Oregon Ducks (106-52)

(Weber State OC; Oregon OC)

Mark Mangino, No. 19 Kansas Jayhawks (39-37)

(Oklahoma OC, OL)

Bill Stewart, No. 21 West Virginia Mountaineers (1-1)

(Asst. at North Carolina, Marshall, Navy, Arizona State, Air Force; West Virginia. QB, ST)

Tommy Bowden, No. 23 Clemson Tigers (87-46)

(Florida State DB; Auburn RB; Florida State TE; Duke OC, QB; Alabama WR; Kentucky OC; Auburn OC)

Dennis Erickson, No. 24 Arizona State Sun Devils (160-67)

(Idaho OC; Fresno State OC; San Jose State OC)

Bobby Bowden, No. 25 Florida State Seminoles (301-87) *only counting wins at FSU

(Florida State WR; West Virginia OC)

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