Every Power 5 College Football Conference's Perfect Coaching Staff
Earlier this week, Andy Staples of Sports Illustrated was asked in his weekly mailbag if money and the right coach could make any program into a national title contender.
Why stop there? Why not hire a perfect coaching staff? So, that's what we've done here.
In the following slides are every Power Five conference's perfect head coach, offensive coordinator (or, as the case may be, co-coordinators) and defensive coordinator, plus a few leftovers.
They are, after all, the ones making the big decisions. Selections were based on wins, recruiting, offensive/defensive stats and player/coach/program development. Also keep in mind that head coaches could take a coordinator's spot as well.
ACC
1 of 5
Head Coach: Jimbo Fisher
Uh, hello, the guy has won more games per season in the last five years than any other head coach in the country. At least that's what FSU's spring prospectus notes (via Bud Elliott at TomahawkNation.com):
"Florida State head coach Jimbo Fisher, who has won 58 games in his first five years as a head coach, leads the nation in wins per season among head coaches with five or more years of experience. Fisher’s total gives him an average of 11.60 wins per year, just ahead of Washington’s Chris Peterson, who is averaging 11.11 victories a year.
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The "Is Florida State back?" question eventually became a parody of itself, but Fisher has actually transformed the Seminoles back into the national power it was in the 1990s under Bobby Bowden. He's an underrated coach of college quarterbacks and a relentless recruiter (the Seminoles have finished with a top-10 class, per 247Sports composite rankings, every year since 2010).
Offensive Coordinator: David Cutcliffe
This easily would have been Chad Morris, but he left Clemson to become the head coach at SMU last November. Kurt Roper, if he was still at Duke, would have been a good choice too. There weren't a ton of potent offenses in the ACC in 2014. Georgia Tech was the only member ranked among the top 25 scoring offenses (37.9 points per game); Florida State, second in that category in the ACC, ranked 35th overall (33.7 points per game).
But let's go with Duke head coach David Cutcliffe. The longtime Tennessee assistant has a solid reputation as a quarterbacks guru, having developed Peyton and Eli Manning. He's done a remarkable job of getting Duke bowl eligible and, frankly, relevant in the ACC.
Defensive Coordinator: Bud Foster
Now this is a no-brainer. Virginia Tech defensive coordinator Bud Foster is almost as synonymous with the Hokies as head coach Frank Beamer. Tech has ranked among the top two scoring defenses in the ACC in six of the last seven years. The only year (2010) in which the Hokies did not finish in the top two, they still allowed just 20.6 points per game.
Put it this way: Foster was one of the few defensive coordinators to actually slow Ohio State last season. Granted, the Week 2 Buckeyes were nothing like the ones we saw in the national championship, but it was an impressive game plan all the same.
Other Assistants: Dabo Swinney, Steve Addazio, Garrick McGee, Bobby Petrino, Brent Venables, Rick Trickett.
Big Ten
2 of 5
Head Coach: Urban Meyer
There's a fairly strong push for Jim Harbaugh here even though he's yet to coach a game at Michigan. Taking the San Francisco 49ers to the Super Bowl and Stanford to the Orange Bowl is beyond impressive. His resume speaks for itself. But, for those same reasons, it's too early to call him the Big Ten's best coach.
Besides, Ohio State's Urban Meyer is coming off a national championship and has lost just three games in three years. Heading into 2015, the Buckeyes should be runaway favorites to repeat as national champs. What else could you possibly want?
Meyer has won everywhere he's been and is 9-2 in postseason games.
(Yes, there was much consideration given to Mark Dantonio of Michigan State.)
Offensive Coordinator: Jim Harbaugh
If Harbaugh can't be the Big Ten's perfect coach, he'll have to settle as the offensive coordinator. Of course, working for Meyer would be an interesting dynamic, but in this world, two headstrong coaches work together to make football magic.
Harbaugh is a quarterback guy who knows how to develop the position. He's done a run-heavy, pro-style attack at Stanford and a run-based, read-option attack at San Francisco. He's had success with both, showing a lot of versatility.
Defensive Coordinator: Dave Aranda
Pat Narduzzi from Michigan State would have been the natural choice, but he's finally taken a much-deserved promotion and is now the head coach at Pitt. With Narduzzi gone, let's go with Dave Aranda from Wisconsin.
There are a couple of good, present options as well. Bob Shoop from Penn State put together the Big Ten's best defense in 2014. So why Aranda? He's been in the conference a year longer with consistent results. According to Aranda's bio, "The Badgers have allowed an average of 18.6 points per game over the last two seasons, the sixth-best mark in the FBS during that span."
The fact that first-year coach Paul Chryst was able to keep Aranda was his first big victory. “Dave is the first person I spoke to when I got the job," Chryst said in January, via Brent Sobleski of CollegeFootballTalk.com.
Other Assistants: Luke Fickell, Bill Cubit, Bob Shoop, James Franklin, Herb Hand, Pat Fitzgerald.
Big 12
3 of 5
Head Coach: Bill Snyder
They don't call him "The Wizard" for nothing. There may not be a coach in the country who gets more out of what he has—or is a better at game-day preparation—than Kansas State head coach Bill Snyder.
This is actually an excruciating decision. Snyder, along with Oklahoma's Bob Stoops, are the deans of the Big 12. Baylor's Art Briles has lifted a doormat program to the brink of playing for a national title. TCU's Gary Patterson has reinvented his program into a national power as well.
However, Snyder turned around what was literally the worst college football program of the time into a respectable program—and then turned that into a conference contender. In 2012, Snyder had his Wildcats at No. 2 in the BCS rankings in mid-November with eyes on a national title appearance. His coaching tree includes Stoops and Iowa State offensive coordinator Mark Mangino.
Offensive Coordinators: Doug Meacham and Sonny Cumbie
Doug Meacham and Sonny Cumbie carry the co-coordinator titles at TCU. They can be separated, to be sure, but they've done beautiful, wonderful offensive football things together. And, well, there are no rules here.
Meacham and Cumbie transformed the Frogs, not just as an offense but as a program. Gary Patterson is a defensive guy who went out of his comfort zone to cater to the offense and a style of play that's counterintuitive to his nature.
Did the results ever pay off. The Frogs ranked No. 2 nationally with 46.5 points per game. Quarterback Trevone Boykin went from a possible position change to a Heisman contender. Give me these two co-coordinators any day of the week. They're going to be head coaches in the not-too-distant future, anyway.
Defensive Coordinator: Vance Bedford
In addition to being one of the Big 12's better providers of sound bites, Texas defensive coordinator Vance Bedford knows how to coach up a defense. In 2014, Texas led the Big 12 in yards per pass attempt allowed (5.7) and gave up just less than 24 points per game.
Considering the Longhorns defense had been a joke in the two years leading up to his arrival with head coach Charlie Strong, that was a spectacular turnaround. It's no secret that Texas' defense was the primary reason, if not the only reason, it got to six wins last season.
Now that Bedford's best players are gone—cornerback Quandre Diggs, defensive tackle Malcom Brown and linebacker Jordan Hicks—he'll be challenged to get results out of a relatively young group.
Other Assistants: Art Briles, Gary Patterson, Bill Bedenbaugh, Paul Rhoads, Mike Gundy, Charlie Strong.
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Pac-12
4 of 5
Head Coach: David Shaw
Don't let the disappointing 8-5 showing in 2014 fool you. Stanford's David Shaw has emerged in the past few years as one of the best head coaches in college football. From 2011 to 2013, the Cardinal won at least 11 games per season and won back-to-back Pac-12 championships.
There's been a lot of turnover among Pac-12 coaches in recent years, for better or worse. Entering his fifth season, Shaw is the longest-tenured head coach at his current school in the conference other than Kyle Whittingham at Utah.
Though his conservative play-calling nature has cost him before, most notably in the 2014 Rose Bowl against Michigan State, Shaw is a brilliant offensive mind with an NFL background. He's also done a remarkable job of developing assistants who have gone on to be promoted elsewhere.
Losing assistants can actually be a compliment, and it certainly is here.
Offensive Coordinator: Rich Rodriguez
By now, it's clear that Rich Rodriguez was not necessarily the problem with Michigan. Michigan was the problem with Michigan.
In any case, Rodriguez is a brilliant offensive mind who is credited with the development of the zone-read, which he ran to perfection at West Virginia. At Arizona, he's been able to implement more efficient passing attacks into his offense, making it that much more dangerous.
There are almost too many great offensive minds in the Pac-12 to name. Some are listed below, but we'll give Rodriguez the nod in a close race with Washington State coach Mike Leach.
Defensive Coordinator: Tom Bradley
First-year UCLA defensive coordinator Tom Bradley is new to the Pac-12, but he has an extensive resume as a defensive coach. A longtime Penn State assistant and defensive coordinator from 2000 to 2011, Bradley spent last season as West Virginia's defensive line coach.
According to his UCLA bio, "Bradley guided the Nittany Lions to six consecutive top 15 finishes in both total and scoring defense (2004-09)." With Bradley, West Virginia finished fifth in the Big 12 with 83 tackles for loss. Though he wasn't the coordinator, the Mountaineers were noticeably better on defense than they had been in the previous two seasons.
Other Assistants: Mike Leach, Scott Frost, Chris Petersen, Sonny Dykes, Noel Mazzone, Jeff Casteel.
SEC
5 of 5
Head Coach: Nick Saban
When you've won three national championships at one place, and four overall, you tend to be No. 1 on everyone's list of best coaches. It's going to take another spectacular run from Urban Meyer at Ohio State to dethrone Alabama's Nick Saban as the best coach in college football.
Other than his first season at Alabama in 2007, Saban has led the Tide to at least 10 wins every year. His coaching tree is expansive and includes guys like Jimbo Fisher and Will Muschamp.
Saban and his staff recruit as well as (if not better than) any other staff in the country. The Tide's 2015 class was the program's fifth straight No. 1 class on 247Sports' composite rankings.
Offensive Coordinator: Lane Kiffin
Auburn fans pushing for Rhett Lashlee won't be happy. Actually, they'll probably be furious.
But, man, if Alabama offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin can't call plays. No, this isn't a matter of him being an unsuccessful head coach or disliked in what feels like a dozen different area codes. This is about Kiffin as a coach drawing up X's and O's, creating mismatches and calling creative plays.
He does that extraordinarily well.
In 2014, Kiffin's first with the Tide, Alabama finished second in the SEC with 36.9 points per game (1.4 points ahead of Auburn, for what it's worth). He also increased the team's total yardage by about 30 yards per game and the number of long passing plays of 10 yards or more.
Kiffin became best known for seeing touchdowns before they actually happened, but that's a credit to the stuff he dialed up.
Defensive Coordinator: John Chavis
Give Texas A&M head coach Kevin Sumlin this much: He knows if you can't beat 'em, you might as well hire 'em.
When Sumlin hired defensive coordinator John Chavis away from SEC West rival LSU, it was seen as one of the biggest hires of the offseason. No matter LSU's record, Chavis has had A&M's number. The Aggies led the SEC in scoring in 2012 and '13, and they have averaged at least 35 points per game in all three years they've been in the SEC.
In the past three meetings against LSU, A&M has never scored more than 20 points. LSU has continuously had one of the top defenses not only in the SEC but in the country under Chavis.
There are plenty of great defensive coordinators in the SEC. Will Muschamp at Auburn and Kirby Smart at Alabama come to mind instantly, but the longtime Tennessee and LSU assistant gets the nod here.
Other Assistants: Gus Malzahn, Will Muschamp, Steve Spurrier, Kevin Sumlin, Rhett Lashlee, Jeremy Pruitt.
Ben Kercheval is a lead writer for college football. All quotes cited unless obtained firsthand. All stats courtesy of cfbstats.com.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
