The 10 Most Clutch College Football Head Coaches
When the game is late and the score is close, it takes a strong will and great confidence to come out on top. Coaches look for this in their players, but the coaches themselves must be able to make the right decisions during crunch time as well.
For those who do, they become known as being "clutch."
This doesn't just mean being able to win most of the one-score games their teams are involved in, but also to have the ability to make such games seem less stressful than they are. Same with those games that go to overtime or are against ranked teams.
With a calm demeanor and an intense focus on the task at hand, you'd think they're calling plays during the first quarter of a spring scrimmage instead of the final minutes of a big game.
Using this criteria, we've selected the 10 most clutch coaches in college football, detailing some of their most notable exploits in big-game situations.
Mark Dantonio, Michigan State
1 of 10
Michigan State's rise to become one of the most consistent programs in the country has a lot to do with the talent that Mark Dantonio and his staff have brought to East Lansing. But how Dantonio has molded those players into ones who handle tense situations is as important as anything else.
The Spartans won both of their one-score games in 2014, holding off a late charge from Nebraska during regular-season play and making a massive comeback to beat Baylor in the Cotton Bowl. Both situations involved being able to buckle down at the right time and not letting the stress become too much to handle.
"I just credit our team's belief system," Dantonio told Chris Vannini of CoachingSearch.com. "I keep saying over and over we win because of chemistry on our football team, and chemistry is something that is almost magical at times or exists. It's intangible, I guess is what I'd say. It's a feeling of belief in each other, and that's what we have. We don't give up on each other. Consequently, they don't give up in the game. We just keep playing hard. And that's what we've been able to accomplish."
Dantonio is 13-12 in one-score games over the past five years, splitting the 22 games against ranked opponents his teams have faced in that stretch. When it comes to extra time, though, Dantonio has reigned supreme with a 3-1 record.
Dave Doeren, North Carolina State
2 of 10
Dave Doeren has quickly gotten North Carolina State back on track in his two seasons since coming over from Northern Illinois, leading the Wolfpack to a nine-win performance in 2014 that included a bowl win. He accomplished this by winning all three of his team's one-score games last season, starting with a one-point victory in the opener against Georgia Southern that set the tone for the year.
Doeren was equally adept in close games at his previous school, Northern Illinois, where he was 9-3 during his two seasons with the Huskies that featured a trip to the Orange Bowl.
His performance with NIU helped land the North Carolina State job, and that hire is already paying off for a program that was 14-14 in one-score games under previous coach Tom O'Brien.
Jimbo Fisher, Florida State
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Florida State might have come up short in its quest to win a second straight national title last season, but that doesn't minimize in any way the work that Jimbo Fisher has done to ensure the Seminoles are playing their best in clutch situations. This was evident during 2014's wild run to the playoffs, where it seemed like FSU was behind in almost every game.
It was pretty close to that, as FSU trailed in more than half of its games and ended up taking all but the last one against Oregon in the Rose Bowl. The Seminoles had seven one-score results, all victories, beating Clemson in overtime (without quarterback Jameis Winston) and claiming the ACC title by just two points.
This was diametrically opposed to the 2013 Seminoles, who just blew everyone away en route to the championship.
"Last year's team was dominating, this year's team is more amazing," Fisher said to the Associated Press after holding off Georgia Tech in the ACC title game (via ESPN).
With FSU going through a massive talent overhaul for 2015, losing 11 players to the NFL draft, look for Fisher to tap into his clutch gene to get his younger team through tough times.
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
Mark Hudspeth, Louisiana-Lafayette
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Mark Hudspeth's head coaching career at the FBS level has been as successful as any other coach in the upper division, but because it's been all at Louisiana-Lafayette, he doesn't often get the attention. But four consecutive nine-win seasons and an 11-3 mark in games decided by eight points or less warrant recognition.
Hudspeth has also been able to win what essentially is his program's most important game each year, the New Orleans Bowl. The Ragin' Cajuns have represented the Sun Belt Conference in that game every season, and with plenty of home fans in attendance, they've claimed all four contests.
The one thing Hudspeth and UL-Lafayette haven't been able to do is break through and beat a power-conference opponent, though there have been some close calls. In 2011 the team lost by eight at Arizona and the following season had a lead at Florida in the second half before falling by seven.
This season the Cajuns get a chance to win at Kentucky to open the season, a game that could push Hudspeth toward a bigger job with a victory.
Urban Meyer, Ohio State
5 of 10
Urban Meyer had a reputation for being a clutch coach at his previous stops at Utah and Florida, but it was unknown if he'd be able to do the same at Ohio State. After this past season, where the Buckeyes bounced back from a troubling early loss to run the table and win a national title, the argument has been settled.
While most of the games during OSU's push weren't close, in the toughest ones Meyer had a game plan in place that made it so any tense moments were handled with expertise. How else can you describe showing no drop-off after having to switch quarterbacks right before the postseason and then responding with a shutout (of Wisconsin in the Big Ten championship) and then two wins as underdogs in the playoffs?
OSU did have three single-score wins last season, all of which were either on the road or at a neutral site: at Penn State (in overtime), at Minnesota (in the snow) and against Alabama in the Sugar Bowl.
Brian Kelly, Notre Dame
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Until Notre Dame went on its late-season slide in 2014, losing five of six after a 6-0 start, Brian Kelly was on pace to become the king of clutch.
Narrow wins in October over Stanford and North Carolina extended his streak to 13 consecutive victories in games decided by one score or less. The Fighting Irish then dropped three straight contests of that sort, first the thrilling game at Florida State and then home stinkers to Northwestern and Louisville.
Notre Dame ended winning a three-point game over LSU in the Music City Bowl, and that upped Kelly's record in one-score outings to 19-5 over the past five seasons. A 3-3 mark in those games in 2014 and a lineup that's nearly intact coming back for this year should make Notre Dame a tough out when things are on the line.
Gus Malzahn, Auburn
7 of 10
Before the 2014 season began, Athlon Sports dubbed Gus Malzahn as the most clutch coach in college football. With an 11-1 mark in close games during his brief career, the only loss being the last-second defeat to Florida State in the national championship game, Malzahn had shown both at Arkansas State and Auburn that he had a knack for pulling out tight ones.
This distinction might have been worthy of an asterisk, though, since the wins over Georgia and Alabama in 2013 both came as the result of fluke plays in the final moments.
"Two of Malzahn's most dramatic wins—the Prayer on the Plains against Georgia and the Kick Six against Alabama last season—had little to do with great X's and O's acumen," Athlon Sports' David Fox wrote.
Some additional good fortune came about in order for Auburn to win two of its three one-score games in 2014, as missed kicks by Kansas State and the just-before-the-goal-line fumble by Ole Miss' Laquon Treadwell enabled the Tigers to claim those wins. But credit is still warranted for being in the position to win those games, regardless of how they ended up getting decided at the end.
Nick Saban, Alabama
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Don't let the 7-7 record in one-score games since 2010 fool you: Nick Saban is one of the coaches you'll want on the sidelines during crunch time.
Sure, Alabama's two losses in 2014 were games in which it led in the second half before getting beat, first at Ole Miss and then in the Sugar Bowl semifinals to Ohio State. But don't forget the overtime victory at LSU, when after allowing the Tigers to take the lead with 50 seconds left, Saban and his staff orchestrated a stress-free push down the field for the tying field goal and then controlled the extra period.
That was one of three close wins for the Crimson Tide last year, along with the one-point triumph at Arkansas and the grind-it-out victory over a then-unbeaten Mississippi State team.
You don't win three national titles at two different schools without possessing the ability to lead a team through tough and tight games.
Bill Snyder, Kansas State
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Bill Snyder was elected into the Hall of Fame this past January, an honor that was the product of his long service to college football that includes 187 wins in 23 seasons at Kansas State. Many of those victories wouldn't have happened if not for what Snyder was able to do with his players, especially late in games when his experience and know-how became very valuable assets.
In the past five seasons, Snyder's Wildcats teams have played 24 games decided by one score or less. He won 17 of those, including three last year (such as road wins over Iowa State and Oklahoma), and that accounted for nearly 40 percent of K-State's wins during that timespan.
Not a program that regularly gets the top-tier recruits, Snyder has still managed to win because he has his teams ready to deal with stressful situations.
Steve Spurrier, South Carolina
10 of 10
The Head Ball Coach is coming off his worst season at South Carolina in several years, and it was one where his team lost more close games than it won. Some might consider this a sign that Steve Spurrier is slipping, but those critics would forget how his Gamecocks knocked off Georgia and rallied to beat Florida on the road in overtime.
Spurrier also managed to motivate a disappointed and underachieving team to a win in the Birmingham Bowl over Miami (Florida), a game they all could have easily mailed in.
None of this is a just-this-season development, as throughout Spurrier's career his teams have been able to pull out big victories in the final moments. At South Carolina in particular, he's had several games that have come down to last-second field goals, and most have gone his way.
He split a pair of those in overtime in 2014, losing to Tennessee and then beating Florida, but the season before the Gamecocks' OT win at Missouri threw a monkey wrench into the SEC East standings.
Follow Brian J. Pedersen on Twitter at @realBJP.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
