Coach rankings response: Ryan Day at No
Who are the top 10 coaches in college football?An uncomplicated concern, but one that generated a vast array of opinions.In asking our
reporters for their top 10, we left the parameters open, permitting them to weigh the elements they believed was necessary– from previous accomplishments to potential future success– nevertheless they saw fit.No matter how you slice it, Kirby Smart of Georgia is the current standard-bearer. Not a surprise there. However after that, things got interesting.With points assigned based on our press reporters’votes (10 points for first place, 9 for second location and down to one point for 10th place), here are the complete rankings.1. Kirby Smart, Georgia(100 points)2.
Kalen DeBoer, Alabama (62)
3. Kyle Whittingham, Utah (56 )
4. Dabo Swinney, Clemson (50 )
5. Mike Norvell, Florida State (
49 )6. Dan Lanning, Oregon (37 )
7. Steve Sarkisian, Texas (35 )
8. Lane Kiffin, Ole Miss (29 )
9. Lance Leipold, Kansas (28 )
10. Ryan Day, Ohio State (27 )
Likewise getting votes: Brian Kelly,
LSU( 23); Lincoln Riley, USC (20 ); Kirk Ferentz, Iowa (7 ); Luke Fickell, Wisconsin (7 ); Eliah Drinkwitz, Missouri (6); Mack Brown, North Carolina (3 ); Mike Gundy, Oklahoma State (3 ); Jonathan Smith, Michigan State (3 ); Deion Sanders, Colorado (2 ); Curt Cignetti, Indiana (1 ); Chris Kleiman, Kansas State (1 ); Jon Sumrall, Tulane (1 )Is DeBoer, with just two
years at a power conference school, worthwhile of being No. 2? Is Swinney, who has an outstanding performance history at Clemson but has slipped the previous couple of years, still amongst the leading four coaches in the nation? Ohio State’s Day, with a 56-8 career record, is No. 10? LSU’s Kelly and USC’s Riley do not even crack the top 10? We needed responses, so we asked a few of our citizens about which result
stunned them the most, and to safeguard a few of their choices that varied from those of their colleagues.What ranking shocked you the most?Chris Low: Ryan Day may not be an obvious top-five choice, however he’s at least somewhere in the area. To see him hardly move into these rankings at No. 10 was incredibly surprising. Yes, he has actually lost to rival Michigan three straight years, but he’s not the very first elite coach to have a rough stretch versus a competitor. Keep in mind, Smart was 1-5 versus Nick Saban.Day held things together for Ohio State in 2018 as acting head coach when Urban Meyer was suspended. Considering that being promoted to change Meyer in 2019, Day has actually won two Big Ten championships and posted 11-plus triumphes every year except the 2020 COVID season. His Buckeyes lost a heartbreaker to ultimate nationwide champ Georgia in the 2022 playoff. There are numerous coaches ranked ahead of Day who have not accomplished nearly what he has or matched his consistency in five seasons as Ohio State’s coach.Editor’s Picks 2 Related Adam Rittenberg: People may not like Brian Kelly personally, however the facts extremely show that he’s a top 10 coach. He two times took Notre Dame to the four-team College Football Playoff, went
34-6 at Cincinnati with an undefeated season, won the SEC West in his first year at LSU, has 13 finishes in the AP top 20 and owns two Department II national titles. I like a few of the young coaches in this leading 10, but they haven’t achieved a fraction of what BK has in his career.David Hale: Dan Lanning looks like a fine coach. He commanded an elite defense en route to a nationwide title as Georgia’s defensive coordinator in 2021 and has been an extraordinary 22-5 in two seasons as Oregon’s head male. What’s to argue with? Well, 2 years and no conference titles is a little a thin résumé for the No. 6 coach in the country, isn’t it? His group was torched by Georgia in 2022, lost a rivalry game to Oregon State that exact same year, and has actually been not able to fall Washington in conference. The Ducks’ most excellent win outside the Pac-12 was a 1-point win over a shorthanded North Carolina in the 2022 bowl game.Indeed, here’s the list of Lanning’s wins over groups that ended the year ranked in the AP top 25: 2022 Utah (by 3 ), 2022 UCLA and 2023 Liberty. Again, no knock on Lanning, who would been an upgrade at nearly every program in the nation. But No. 6? I require to see a bit more before we start putting him into the exact same conversations with Swinney, Whittingham and
Norvell.Harry Lyles Jr.: Dabo Swinney at No. 4 feels high to me, offered his objection to adapt to today’s game. I think he’s a great coach, and what he has done at Clemson is legendary work. They need to build a big statue of him on that campus at some point. However if you aren’t willing to do all the necessary things to compete at the greatest level of the game, you can’t be top five.
There’s an excellent argument you can’t be leading 10 either, especially when one considers what those listed below Swinney have actually done and are doing.Bill Connelly: Honestly, Kalen DeBoer at No. 2 is neither surprising nor unjust. He has actually been excellent at essentially every football job he has ever had. However it’s pretty funny to consider the second-best coach in college football inheriting a task in which he has almost no possibility of matching his predecessor’s achievements. The weight of expectation will make DeBoer’s tenure in Tuscaloosa definitely fascinating to follow.Kyle Bonagura: The criteria for choice was up for analysis, but I’m having a hard time thinking of how Deion Sanders received any votes unless it was a light-hearted giant effort with the defense of privacy. In Sanders’debut season, Colorado went 1-8 in the Pac-12 and finished in last place.Defend your vote Kyle Whittingham at No. 2 How’s this for continual excellence? Whittingham made nationwide coach of the year honors in 2008( 13-0; beat Alabama in the Sugar Bowl )and 2019(11-3; in CFP contention till the Pac-12 title game ). He has actually directed the Utes to top-20 surfaces in three years and developed a program that was the Pac-12’s most consistent over the past 6 years. To have that level of success at a place without the resources of the programs in the sport’s upper tier is beyond remarkable. It’s reasonable to question what heights he might have reached if he was blessed with some of the advantages of the blue-blood schools.– Bonagura Dan Lanning at No. 3 When I made my list, I didn’t just take a look at what coaches had carried out in the past. I considered who I would want training my team in the modern landscape, and whatever that comes along with it. That’s why my No. 3 coach was Lanning, who had one of the most enjoyable groups to see last year.I think Lanning’s course to being a head coach is substantial. He has actually seen how two of the very best coaches– Nick Saban and Kirby Smart– do it, and he was the coordinator for some of the best defenses we have actually ever seen at Georgia.
Now, he has Oregon in terrific
position to win the Huge 10 in its very first year in the conference. Just as important, it appears as if he’s made Eugene a best location not simply for employees, however for transfers also. We’re also discussing somebody who might have been Alabama’s very first option to change Saban.
I believe Lanning would have ranked higher had he taken that job, based on how high we have Kalen DeBoer( whose ranking is fine by me).– Lyles Brian Kelly at No. 3 Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire. Perhaps it’s just me, but winning– and doing so at every level over 3 years– counts for something. Kelly won 2 Department II national championships at Grand Valley State, won 2 Big East titles at Cincinnati, and took Notre Dame to a BCS national championship game and 2 more CFP appearances. Most just recently, he guided LSU to the 2022 SEC championship game in his first season in Baton Rouge.Kelly has also proven he can turn around downtrodden programs rapidly.(See Central Michigan and Cincinnati.)Even Notre Dame had not won more than 7 games in the 3 seasons prior to Kelly’s arrival in 2010. So
anyone who didn’t have Kelly in their leading 10 either hasn’t been taking note, doesn’t particularly like him or is too young to appreciate the difficulty of coaching at a high level over an extended period of time. I’ll take tested compound over flash each time.– Low Lincoln Riley at No. 5 Riley has underwhelmed a bit at USC, and it’s fair to question whether he will find out the protective piece of a championship formula. However if we’re putting several offense-centric coaches in the top 10– DeBoer, Norvell, Lanning, Sarkisian, Kiffin– why end the guy with 3 Heisman Trophy-winning quarterbacks and a runner-up in Jalen Harms? Oklahoma led the FBS in scoring (43.7 PPG)and offense(533 YPG)during Riley’s time as coach and offending coordinator. USC is connected for the nationwide lead in scoring average( 41.6 PPG)and ranks second in passing offense(334.3 YPG) throughout Riley’s tenure. How is he not in the top 10 once again?– Rittenberg Dabo Swinney at No. 3 Well, the shine’s off Swinney, it would
appear. After 2 nationwide titles and 6 straight playoff appearances, Clemson has reversed course and, while doing so, sullied Swinney’s reputation as a miracle worker. Certainly, it’s been a dismal three years in which Clemson is– checks notes– 30-10 with an ACC title and the eighth-best record amongst power conference programs in that span.What? Yeah, that’s how terrific Swinney has actually been. The standard is so amazingly high that even a stretch in which only a little handful of groups have been much better is thought about a failure. Yes, Swinney has kept a few of the most recent shifts in the sport’s landscape at arm’s length, however despite the criticism and, yes, the missed playoffs, he has still
churned out NFL talent, won a bunch of games and located Clemson, once again, to win the ACC and go back to the new, expanded postseason.– Hale Swinney out of the leading 10 All of it depends on the statute of constraints, right? If we’re judging coaches by their résumés, Swinney must be second on the list at worst. It’s hard to beat two national titles and 7 ACC championships. However while he remains an excellent head coach, it
‘s exceptionally difficult to make the case that he has been anywhere near one of college football’s 10 best over the previous three years. Clemson has ended up 14th, 13th and 20th in the previous three last AP polls and has pulled back from nationwide title contention to one conference title in 3 seasons and wins in the Cheez-It and Gator Bowls.Swinney’s rejection to adjust to the development in roster management, and his insistence on continuing to build through high school recruiting, is endearing in a way, however it has made
Clemson far less nimble than other leading programs when it concerns plugging holes from year to year. And right now, it appears that Clemson is merely a top-15 or top-20 program. A lot of still aspire to that, however it’s an undeniable disappointment for a program that when made six straight CFP looks. Make no mistake: If we had ranked 15 coaches, I would have had Swinney on the list. But it has actually been a minute since he was a top-10 coach.– Connelly Ryan Day out of the leading 10 Considering my top 10 consisted of Lance Leipold, Kyle Whittingham and Curt Cignetti, it’s quite clear I have a thing for the coaches who produce big things from more difficult jobs. Day may have prospered at Kansas, Utah or James Madison too, however all we understand is that he inherited a group that had averaged 11.3 wins each year over the previous 12 seasons(and 12.2 over the previous six )and has, in 4 full seasons, averaged 11.5. Not simply anyone could do that, and Day is plainly an excellent head coach. But simply winning a lot of games at Ohio State doesn’t make you one of the 10 finest.– Connelly Kalen DeBoer at No. 10 Perhaps I’m a pessimist. Or, a minimum of, someone who’s seen too many can’t- miss out on hires miss out on marvelously( Jimbo Fisher, Scott Frost, Chip Kelly, Tom Herman, and so on, etc ). Yes, DeBoer is a remarkable coach who has actually won all over he’s been at almost every level of college football. He had Washington
a few plays away from a nationwide title last year. He’s great. But … he has coached 2 years at a power conference school, and now he’s transferring to a program where the requirement is, shall we say, a little bit lofty.He has never had to recruit in the SEC. He has never ever been under the microscopic lense that features being the Alabama head coach. He has actually never had to showcase his offense versus the type of physically dominant opposition he’ll see almost weekly in 2024. And, of course, he has actually never had to follow a legend, and that alone is an exceptionally high task. Should we be surprised if it all exercises? Of course not! Once again, DeBoer is excellent. However the names
I have ahead of him– Smart, Swinney, Whittingham, Norvell, Kiffin– have done it longer, remain in more stable positions and have actually enjoyed great success in their own rights.– Hale