College Football 2012: SEC Gets a Nod for the Best Coaches, but Not by Much

Being a college football head coach is a tough job. They have the media obligations, glad-handing with boosters and fans, schmoozing of high school coaches, monitoring of players' off-field activities and avoiding of NCAA violations. That's all before they sit down to watch film to evaluate recruiting targets, evaluate their own players or design a game plan. Basically, they have a lot on their plate.

Despite the long hours and plenty of travel miles, it is a job that folks still sign up to do. Perhaps it is the paycheck that we've seen escalate in the age of television blowing up budgets. More likely it is the lust for glory, the push for success, to have their name in the lights and to be in the elite discussion of coaches who were able to beat the odds and succeed at the highest level of college football.

Whatever their reasons, some coaches are better at achieving success than others. A quick look around the landscape shows plenty of transition, a lot of head coaches on the hot seat and some conferences in better shape than others.

6. Big East

The problem for the Big East is twofold: money and expansion. Greg Schiano is the latest Big East success story to leave the league, following Brian Kelly and Randy Edsall in taking a bigger payday outside of the league.

Dana Holgorsen, a rising star in the field, is out of the league thanks to expansion, while TCU's Gary Patterson never got a chance to coach in the Big East, as TCU opted in and opted out in a matter of months.

Now Charlie Strong stands as the big fish in the pond, as he has helped elevate Louisville after the Steve Kragthorpe disaster.

Doug Marrone at Syracuse is a guy that's quietly working to improve his squad. The Orange took a step back last season, going 5-7, but their physical manhandling of West Virginia stands as a positive. Skip Holtz is a quality coach who is trying to get South Florida on track and win consistently. On a positive note, I am looking forward to what Paul Chryst can do at Pittsburgh.

5. ACC

Frank Beamer is the gold standard of the ACC—the same Frank Beamer whose teams have gone 1-4 in BCS bowls since joining the ACC. Put simply, the Hokies are the class of the ACC and just another team when they get out onto the big stage.

Dabo Swinney and Paul Johnson have both been to one BCS bowl. Swinney got embarrassed this past season, and the Yellow Jackets have the 2009 Orange Bowl on their list of bowl losses under Paul Johnson.

Jimbo Fisher has yet to get over the hump, Al Golden is staring at a rebuilding project and Mike London is quietly improving Virginia.

Jim Grobe has a BCS bowl bid to his name, and he did it at Wake Forest, a testament to his coaching ability. David Cutcliffe is still searching for that elusive six-win season to put Duke in the postseason. Tom O'Brien is a quality football coach at NC State. Frank Spaziani and Randy Edsall are both captaining disaster ships at the moment, and things are not exactly looking great for 2012.

Larry Fedora, the new kid on the block, has one good season at Southern Miss to his credit, and how he fares at North Carolina will be something to watch.

4. Pac-12

Here's the thing about the Pac-12: At the top it is beautiful. Chip Kelly and Lane Kiffin are among the nation's best coaches, and David Shaw did an admirable job of standing in for Jim Harbaugh. We'll see how Shaw handles things as the Harbaugh aspect of the program leaves and it truly becomes his car to drive.

Jeff Tedford has been up and down as a head coach, while Kyle Whittingham is trying to find his stride with the Utes in a new league. Steve Sarkisian is slowly rebuilding Washington, while Colorado, under Jon Embree, is in the midst of one of the game's more sizable rebuilding projects.

After that we have a lot of question marks. We know Mike Leach can coach. We know Rich Rodriguez can coach. We have at least reason to believe that Todd Graham and Jim Mora can coach. How the new coaches handle their new situations will be a sign as to where this league can go in the landscape, both in success as a conference and as individual teams.

Oh, and we must not forget about Mike Riley. For a long time he was the hidden gem of the Pacific Northwest. Then the last two years happened. The Beavers missed two bowl games in a row, and there are not a lot of positive vibes about a turnaround coming out of Corvallis for the 2012 season.

3. Big Ten

Brady Hoke gets a gold star for getting the Wolverines into a BCS bowl in his first season at the helm. Bret Bielema has taken the Badgers to the Rose Bowl in each of the last two seasons. Mark Dantonio is a coach who just continues to pump out wins for the Michigan State Spartans.

Pat Fitzgerald is a big plus at Northwestern, even with that program's obvious limitations. Danny Hope got Purdue to a bowl game and a win over Western Michigan. Bo Pelini just saw his contract extended at Nebraska as he continues to post nine-win seasons.

Jerry Kill and Kevin Wilson both have tough roads ahead of them as they try to build some success at Minnesota and Indiana, respectively. Kirk Ferentz, at Iowa, is also attempting to re-engineer more success. The Hawkeyes are not bad, but Ferentz has retooled his staff in an effort to get more productivity out of his ballclub.

Then you have the "newcomers" to the block: Tim Beckman at Illinois, Bill O'Brien at Penn State and Urban Meyer at Ohio State. Three different coaching backgrounds, three different situations and all three are looking to win ballgames.

Illinois struggled under Ron Zook after a banner year in 2008; now Beckman looks to generate some consistency. At Penn State, O'Brien is replacing a legend in the midst of a difficult public relations time, and he comes to one of college football's top jobs with no head coaching experience.

As for Urban Meyer, we all know his pedigree. Everything he's touched has turned to gold in a relatively short period of time. We'll see if he can work that same magic at Ohio State. People, fans, coaches and players are excited about the prospects of Meyer. We'll see when the Buckeyes take the field this fall.

2. Big 12

Just one new hire helps the Big 12 get to the second spot. Throw in the additions of Holgorsen and Patterson and the league is an absolute bear on the coaching map.

Bob Stoops knows success. Mack Brown knows success. Mike Gundy is showing his chops in the last couple seasons. Bill Snyder has proved that he still has it on the sidelines. Art Briles is one of the many offensively brilliant minds in the league.

Paul Rhoads is in a tough spot, but he is outperforming his predecessor at getting wins in Ames, Iowa. Tommy Tuberville expects to have the Red Raiders back on their bowl track this season. Neither of the coaches will push into the elite ranks, but they are getting it done in solid fashion.

The lone new face on the sidelines is Charlie Weis, a familiar face to college football fans after his stints at Notre Dame and last year at Florida. We're still not exactly sure what Kansas' goal was with the hire, but Weis is the guy it has, and we will see if his team enjoys a decided schematic advantage in Big 12 play.

1. SEC

There are two first-year coaches in the SEC: Hugh Freeze at Ole Miss, who steps in to replace Houston Nutt, and Kevin Sumlin at Texas A&M.

Freeze comes off a great season at Arkansas State, and he's familiar with the area and the conference. It should be interesting to see how he works at one of the nation's toughest jobs. Sumlin at Texas A&M is going through a double transition, as he steps up to the BCS level from Houston and changes to the SEC for A&M's debut season.

Gary Pinkel, one of the most well-respected coaches in the nation, is going through the conference transition as well. His Missouri Tigers will be playing new teams, new schemes and doing a lot of it very far from their regional footprint.

Derek Dooley at Tennessee is really the lone coach on the hot seat in the SEC, and he enters the season with promise on the offense. Joker Phillips is just battling to get Kentucky to a bowl game, which is all he really has to do in his position. Will Muschamp has his work cut out for him at Florida, but as we've seen from the NFL draft, he also has to restock the cupboards.

Dan Mullen is making Mississippi State fans happy. Steve Spurrier is taking the Gamecocks to levels of success that no one who watched this team play in the 1990s thought possible. Mark Richt has Georgia back into the Top 10 for the season and is recruiting like a madman. Les Miles is coming off a BCS appearance with an SEC championship and a team ready to get back into the BCS title game.

Nick Saban is the creme de la creme across the nation—a coach who recruits better than anyone and wins the week from a preparation standpoint. He really is among the greatest that we have seen in this era.