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)

Record for Offensive Coaches: 1,501-674; Winning Percentage: .690 %

COACHES WITH A DEFENSIVE BACKGROUND

Pete Carroll, No. 1 USC Trojans (78-14)

(Buffalo Bills, Minnesota Vikings DB; New York Jets DC; 49ers DC)

Bob Stoops, No. 2 Oklahoma Sooners (100-22)

(Kansas State DC, DB; Florida DC)

Bret Bielema, No. 8 Wisconsin Badgers (21-5)

(Kansas State DC; Wisconsin-Madison DC)

Nick Saban, No. 9 Alabama Crimson Tide (101-48)

(Michigan State DC; Houston Oilers DB; Cleveland Browns DC)

Tommy Tuberville, No. 10 Auburn Tigers (106-53)

(Arkansas State DE; Miami, (FL) DC; Texas A&M DC)

Jim Leavitt, No. 12 South Florida Bulls (70-44)

(Kansas State DC, LB)

Bronco Mendenhall, No. 14 BYU Cougars (31-10)

(Northern Arizona DC; Oregon State DC; Louisiana Tech DB; New Mexico DC; BYU DC)

Jim Grobe, No. 18 Wake Forest (78-72)

(Marshall LB; Air Force LB)

Kyle Whittingham, No. 20 Utah Utes (24-14)

(Idaho State DC; Utah DC, DL)

Ron Zook, No. 22 Illinois Fighting Illini (38-38)

(Florida DC; Pittsburgh Steelers ST; Kansas City Chiefs DB; New Orleans Saints DC)

Record by Defensive Coaches: 647-320; Winning Percentage .670 %

So what did we learn after reading the stats? Well, it looks like there isn't a real difference in an offensive or defensive minded head coach in terms of winning percentage. The offensive coaches had a .690 winning percentage versus the defensive coaches with a .670 winning percentage. So there isn't any real difference in the success of an offensive or defensive minded head coach at this level.

There were 15 coaches with an offensive background versus 10 coaches with a defensive background, and the top 10 was split with five offensive coaches and five defensive coaches leading the way.

Some schools are traditionally offensive schools and some are defensive schools, so really finding a coach that best fits in the character of the school is what is important, not whether he has an offensive or defensive background.

Just a note: Joe Paterno was not included in this study because he has coached his entire career as a head coach at Penn State, so there wasn't any background that I found for Paterno.