Auburn Football: Power Ranking All the Coaches in School History
The Auburn Tigers have a long and rich football history.
Sure, they won the National Championship in 2011, but they have been winning for a very long time.
Great coaching is one of the biggest keys to success in any sport, but the importance of a good head coach in the sport of football is often times understated. The coach must be able to organize, motivate, manage and ultimately will his team on to victory; especially in the NCAA where academics play such a big part in success.
With all this in mind, let's take a look at a list power ranking all of Auburn's head football coaches since the beginning of their football program in 1892.
23. Billy Bates (1903)
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Coached for a year at Auburn, so let’s put him high up on the list how about it!?
Note: Many of these coaches do not have pictures associated with them, so in those cases you get to read my commentary and look at pictures of Auburn glory instead!
22. D. M Balliet (1893)
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D.M. only coached one game for the Tigers. Hey, he had an undefeated season: 1-0.
21. G.H. Harvey (1893)
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G.H. finished off D.M.’s season.
I guess first names were not cool back then.
20. Willis Keinholz (1907)
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Hey! Yet another Auburn coach who stuck around for a year!
Trendy...
19. Dave Morey (1925-1927)
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Morey’s record at Auburn was 10-10-1. Mediocrity at its best, but he was a head coach at Auburn so on the list he must go!
18. Chet Wynne (1930-1933)
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This man coached the Auburn Tigers coming out of the Great Depression, which is impressive in my book.
17. Jack Meagher (1934-1942)
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Times were tough. America was still recovering from the Great Depression, but the show had to go on, and Meagher was Auburn's man for a while!
Meagher did an admirable job leading the Tigers to a 48-7-10 record during his tenure.
16. Carl Voyles (1944-1947)
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Voyles is high up on the list because there is really not much I can say about him. He coached the Tigers after WWII.
15. Earl Brown (1948-1950)
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Brown only won three games as head coach for the Tigers, but he was on board when the Auburn-Alabama rivalry started back up.
We all love the Iron Bowl, so let’s give it up for Earl!
14. Terry Bowden (1993-1998)
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Currently the head coach at the University of North Alabama. More notably he is the son of coaching legend Bobby Bowden.
Bowden resigned from the head coaching position at Auburn.
13. George Bohler (1828-1829)
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Bohler coached both football and basketball for the Tigers.
3-11 record with the football team.
12. Doug Barfield (1976-1980)
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Barfield was lukewarm with a 27-27-1 record, but he went 0-5 against Alabama.
That’s kind of a no-no.
11. F.M. Hall (1894)
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Again with the initials!
F.M Hall only won one game, but apparently it was impressive enough to get a good chunk of the buildings on campus named after him. If only it was that easy nowadays, eh?
10. George Petrie (1892)
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This was Auburn's first head football coach.
Petrie was a history and Latin teacher when he organized the football team in 1892.
Being the first coach is great and all, so welcome to the top 10, George.
9. Robert Kent (1902)
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Kent spent one year with the Tigers, so there’s not much to talk about here. Even though rumor has it that Kent was actually the coach during the infamous “War Eagle” experience. Freaky...
8. Boozer Pitts (1923-1924, 1927)
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Homeboys first name is Boozer, which would put him at least in the top five in my book, but as far as his record and time at the school: Boozer's the Pitts…
Get it.
But, Boozer is pretty epic in his own right. According to my sources, he actually was sentenced to three years in jail for cutting the break cables to Georgia Tech's team buses.
Upon his release from the clink, Auburn fans actually loved him enough to give him one more run, but that resulted in an 0-4 season.
Classy man, that Pitts.
7. Billy Watkins (1900-1901)
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The word on Watkins is that he was fond of gambling and riverboats. What more could you ask for in a head coach?!
6. Tommy Tuberville (1999-2008)
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Tuberville led Auburn to a 13-0 season in 2004.
His most impressive stat, though, is his six straight wins over Alabama.
That gets you points real fast on this list!
5. Gene Chizik (2009-Present)
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Chizik is off to a great start so far.
One National Championship and a Heisman Trophy winner under his belt, and I would expect him to be right near the top of this list if it were to be done again one day in the future.
4. Pat Dye (1981-1992)
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Career record of 153-62-5 really speaks for itself.
Dye was also inducted into the College Football Hall Of Fame in 2005.
3. Mike Donahue (1904-1906, 1908-1922)
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Auburn's youngest coach had a pretty impressive resume. He was the starting quarterback at Yale for two years and was the first quarterback to ever be filmed during a game.
I guess he also had a hook for a hand...
Don’t look at me; I can’t make this stuff up!
Donahue left for a year and came back to lead the Tigers to a long stretch of prosperity.
Auburn had undefeated seasons in 1913 and 1914.
His team outscored opponents 193-0 in the 1914 year.
This guy's a legend.
2. Ralf "Shug" Jordan (1951-1975)
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Good ole "Shug" is the longest tenured coach of Auburn at 25 years. Naturally he’s won more games than any other Tiger coach, including the 1957 National Title.
The stadium in which the Tigers play in is actually named after the guy, so obviously he had to be in contention for the No. 1 spot!
But, he’s been beat…
1. John Heisman (1895-1899)
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Not sure if the name rings a bell for you, but supposedly there is some trophy given out every year with his name on it!
I guess it’s kind of important.
Heisman coached Auburn to two undefeated seasons and left with an overall record of 12-4-2.
His number may not be the best, ironically of course, but come on, I've gotta give the No. 1 spot to The Heisman!
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