College Football Coaches' Rankings–SEC and Independents

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.

In 13 years of coaching, Saban has compiled a career record of 105-50-1, and is credited with rebuilding Michigan State and LSU prior to arriving at Alabama via the NFL.

3.  Steve Spurrier, South Carolina.  Most of his success came at Florida, where Spurrier’s record versus the SEC was an astounding 82-12 in 12 years. He won the 1996 National Championship, and is the only Heisman winner to coach a Heisman winner.

His Florida teams changed the way football was played in the SEC. He is still regarded as an offensive innovator, though this mantle has slipped due to the inefficiency of the Gamecock offense.

Still, his 28 wins at South Carolina are the most for the program in any four year period.  There have also been notable wins of Florida, Georgia, Clemson, and Tennessee, but there is a lack of consistency. Also, he won an ACC title at Duke in 1989. 

4. Mark Richt, Georgia. Only missing the national championship ring, Richt has been a steady leader for the resurgence of Georgia football. He has won two SEC titles in his eight seasons. 

He has also posted six seasons with 10+ wins, as well as five Top 10 finishes. His teams have also won six of their last seven bowl games, and Richt is an impressive 82-22 in Athens.

5. Les Miles, LSU. Miles’ team won the 2007 national title, before staggering to an 8-5 record last season. There was talk that the Tigers won the ’07 title in spite of, rather than because of, Miles. Before LSU, however, he laid a foundation for success at Oklahoma State. The Cowboys, under Miles, posted three straight winning seasons. That was a first for the team since 1988.

2009 will be an opportunity for Miles to prove his critics wrong.

6. Houston Nutt, Mississippi. The Head Rebel led his team to a surprising 9-4 mark last season, in his first year on the job. Nutt’s teams generally win, as he is 89-58 in 12 years of coaching at Boise State, Arkansas, and Ole Miss.

He has failed to have a winning record just three times in that span. In 2009, Ole Miss is projected to be among the Top 15 in the nation, and so this will be a chance for Nutt to shine in the spotlight.

7. Rich Brooks, Kentucky. Brooks’ Wildcats teams have exceeded expectations in the past three seasons, going 23-16 with three consecutive bowl trips. The program had not experienced three straight winning seasons since 1956. 

Brooks is also responsible for building the Oregon Ducks program, where he won 89 games in seventeen seasons (2^nd all-time at Oregon behind his pupil, Mike Bellotti).

8. Bobby Johnson, Vanderbilt. Consistently overlooked across the nation, Johnson has turned Vanderbilt into a painful team to play. The program went to their first bowl since 1982 last season.

Although he is just 27-56 in seven seasons in Nashville, the Commodores have been much more competitive for the past three seasons, winning 16 games.

9. Bobby Petrino, Arkansas. Petrino, if he stays at the program, has the opportunity to rapidly move up these rankings. His first season (5-7) was disappointing, but his squad played much better over the second half of the year.

Overall as a coach he is 46-16, and some have pegged this season’s Razorbacks team as the SEC West “darkhorse.”

10. Gene Chizik, Auburn. He gets a slight nod over the SEC other new head coaches because he has previous head coaching experience. The downside is that he was just 5-19 in two seasons at Iowa State.

Chizik’s hiring of Gus Malzahn is sure to bring excitement to the Plains, if the personnel can adapt to the wide-open scheme. Expectations are always high for the Tigers, and Chizik will need to quickly prove that the Tigers made the right move.

T11. Dan Mullen, Mississippi State. Mullen has won two national championships as offensive coordinator at Florida. As the head man however, he faces one of the most difficult jobs in the SEC. There will be growing pains as he attempts to implement the offense, but Miss State was a bowl team just two seasons ago.

The biggest challenge for Mullen will be recruiting. Ole Miss is currently the “it” team for in-state recruits, and in the surrounding areas. He will battle LSU, Alabama, Texas, etc. for athletes. This is a difficult sale.

T11. Lane Kiffin, Tennessee. Certainly the splashiest hire in the SEC this off-season, Kiffin must prove he can back up his brash mouth and attitude. He has succeeded in making the Vols the talk of the nation.

On the field, Tennessee with any semblance of offense can be successful. The problem might be, however, that the new puppy has poked the big dogs with a stick. The Vols will definitely take the Gators, Gamecocks, Tide, and Dawgs best shots.

Behind the Rankings

These rankings are not simply my arbitrary opinion, but rather a combination of objective and subjective elements to determine the value of each coach in the country. Ratings were calculated using the following:

Head Coaching Experience (up to four points): Years of previous head coach experience

Previous Titles (up to two points): One point for national titles (.5 if won with different school), and one point for conference championships (.5 if won with different school)

Performance over time (up to three points): For coaches with less than five years at a school, the coach’s winning percentage at the school is compared versus their previous five seasons winning percentage. For coaches with more than five years at a school, their overall winning percentage is compared to their percentage over the last three seasons.

Coaching Skills (up to 12 points): This is much more subjective. How well does a coach recruit, motivate, and develop his players? At what level is he able to game plan, make adjustments, etc?