Rank 'Em: Greatest college football coaches
List Ranker - Rank 'Em: Greatest college football coaches - ESPN
List Ranker - Rank 'Em: Greatest college football coaches - ESPN
(VOTE) Greatest College Football Coaches Ever
- Thread starter 0LDSCH00L
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Voted. Right now Coach Bryant is a fairly comfortably #1 and Coach Saban is #11. I voted Coach Saban #7 but in 5-7 years would rank him much higher.
Kinda surprised Bob Devaney (Nebraska) isn't on that list. I'd put him above many of the coaches on that list.
My rankings (from those listed)
1. Bryant
2. Paterno
3. Bowden
4. Wilkinson
5. Hayes
6. Schembechler
7. Rockne
8. Osborne
9. Royal
10. Saban
11. Switzer
12. McKay
13. Meyer
14. Spurrier
15. Beamer
16. Brown
17. Carroll
18. Johnson
19. Holtz
20. Tressel
1. Bryant
2. Paterno
3. Bowden
4. Wilkinson
5. Hayes
6. Schembechler
7. Rockne
8. Osborne
9. Royal
10. Saban
11. Switzer
12. McKay
13. Meyer
14. Spurrier
15. Beamer
16. Brown
17. Carroll
18. Johnson
19. Holtz
20. Tressel
That list is a joke. My #2, General Neyland didn't even make the list, yet MACK FREAKING BROWN did!! Even Mrs. Brown couldn't honestly vote for Mack without snickering.
I didn't even list Bo, Beamer, Granny, Tressel, Brown, Carroll and Osborne.
I didn't list Osborne because to me, his main claim to fame is that he pioneered the use of steroids in CFB.
I didn't even list Bo, Beamer, Granny, Tressel, Brown, Carroll and Osborne.
I didn't list Osborne because to me, his main claim to fame is that he pioneered the use of steroids in CFB.
Royal was very low on the list when I voted. So was McKay and Bud Wilkinson. I think this may be because they are before most voter's time. I wonder if the average Bama fan understands how influential Royal and McKay were to both Coach Bryant and Alabama.
There is no way Beamer can be on this list. I like him and think he is a good coach, but he's lost every big game he's ever coached in.
Here was my ranking of those who were mentioned - surprised about some of those who made the list, and as mentioned by others, some of those who didn't. I also expect CNS to rise up my list in the near future, pending possible additional accomplishments.
(Win % - counting ties as a half-win, NC)
1. Bear Bryant (.7800, 6)
2. Knute Rockne (.8811, 5)
3. John McKay (.7486, 4)
4. Barry Switzer (.8368, 3)
5. Tom Osborne (.8355, 3)
6. Bud Wilkinson (.8258, 3)
7. Woody Hayes (.7594, 3)
8. Darrell Royal (.7490, 3)
9. Urban Meyer (.8189, 2)
10. Joe Paterno (.7468, 2)
11. Bobby Bowden (.7431, 2)
12. Nick Saban (.7154, 2)
13. Pete Carroll (.8362, 1)
14. Jim Tressel (.7516, 1)
15. Steve Spurrier (.7165, 1)
16. Jimmy Johnson (.6992, 1)
17. Mack Brown (.6692, 1)
18. Lou Holtz (.6508, 1)
19. Bo Schembechler (.7752, 0)
20. Frank Beamer (.6685, 0)
(Win % - counting ties as a half-win, NC)
1. Bear Bryant (.7800, 6)
2. Knute Rockne (.8811, 5)
3. John McKay (.7486, 4)
4. Barry Switzer (.8368, 3)
5. Tom Osborne (.8355, 3)
6. Bud Wilkinson (.8258, 3)
7. Woody Hayes (.7594, 3)
8. Darrell Royal (.7490, 3)
9. Urban Meyer (.8189, 2)
10. Joe Paterno (.7468, 2)
11. Bobby Bowden (.7431, 2)
12. Nick Saban (.7154, 2)
13. Pete Carroll (.8362, 1)
14. Jim Tressel (.7516, 1)
15. Steve Spurrier (.7165, 1)
16. Jimmy Johnson (.6992, 1)
17. Mack Brown (.6692, 1)
18. Lou Holtz (.6508, 1)
19. Bo Schembechler (.7752, 0)
20. Frank Beamer (.6685, 0)
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It's Bear #1, Rockne #2, and then the rest don't matter so much. Of all the sports "Best Ever" rankings, nowhere is #1 and #2 so obvious than for college football coaches.
Yeah - that ranking is based purely on the objective measurement of what they've accomplished so far, not really on how good I think each is/was at coaching, which is a pretty subjective determination. Who is the better coach? I'd agree that its almost definitely Saban. And over the coming years (maybe by this time next year), if you and I are correct, the objective measurement of his resume of accomplishments should validate our subjective opinions. But based purely on what each has accomplished so far, Meyer probably has the slightly better resume based solely on win %.
Folks,
Jimmy Johnson has ZERO BUSINESS on this list. Nada. What's that you say? He won a national title? Well so did Bobby Ross. So did Bill McCartney, and neither one of them is on this list. Jimmy Johnson INHERITED a good team from Howard Schnellenberger and then handed off a corrupt program to Dennis Erickson.
And why isn't Dennis listed here? He only won TWICE AS MANY national titles as Jimmy. He played for 2 more, and he rebuilt Oregon State. Not that Erickson is an all-time great, he's not, I'm just saying.
Shouldn't even be here:
Bo
Jimmy Johnson
Barry Switzer
Frank Beamer
Mack Brown is DEBATABLE although you have to give him credit for all those 10-win seasons at Texas.
Who should replace the four I listed?
Bob Neyland
Wallace Wade
Bob Devaney
Eddie Robinson (let's not be racist, and I'm a white guy)
Adolph Rupp (just seeing if you're paying attention)
Here they are:
1) Bear Bryant
2) Knute Rockne - Rockne was fine, but he was only 43 when he died. We cannot assume his success would have continued, and many coaches don't even get going good until they're 43.
3) Lou Holtz - look, I don't like the guy. But look at what he has done everywhere he's been. The guy took William and Mary to a bowl game. Took Minnesota to a bowl game. Won a national title with the Irish in his third year after the darkest period in Notre Dame history post-WW2. And turned South Carolina from an East doormat to a respectable foe. The guy took dead teams and made them winners in 2-3 years each time. And unlike Terry Bowden, it continued in later years most of the time.
4) Bobby Bowden - gotta give the devil his due. Fourteen consecutive top five finishes ESPECIALLY in the 1980s and 1990s is insane. But he did it.
5) Bud Wilkinson - before my time but is credited with running the early wishbone.
6) John McKay
7) Darrell Royal
8) Nick Saban - give him 5 years and he might be in Rockne's neighborhood
9) Urban Meyer - yes, he has a better winning pct than Nick. But he also got those against weaker competition at Utah, and Nick was fixing a decade-long problem at both LSU and Alabama. Could move higher if he returns
10) Joe Pa
11) Visor Boy - yes, he did a great job revolutionizing SEC football with the offenses. But it always seemed to me that his teams tended to underachieve in big games. Somehow his 1992 team with Shane Mathews lost FOUR TIMES including a rout to MSU. His 1994 team blew a 31-3 lead on FSU in the final 11 minutes and then lost to those same Noles in a bowl game. His 1995 team was considered the best in the land and then got pulverized by Nebraska. It's not that they lost - they didn't even show up. In 1996, they lost their one IMPORTANT regular season game to FSU and afterward SOS whined like a baby about hits on his QB. The guy somehow lost to a mentally distracted Alabama team in 1999 - TWICE, including a rout in the SECCG. And he flopped in the 9/11 make-up game in 2001. I'd like to rate him higher, but he flops in big games. Even his national title was only gained because Nebraska somehow managed to lose to an overwhelmed Texas team.
12) Woody Hayes - I didn't want him on here at all after the Charlie Bauman incident, but he's worthy.
13) Tom Osborne - if he hadn't put together that great four-year run at the end, I would include him with the four duds (five including Mack Brown) I took off the list. Osborne notoriously lost every single big game Nebraska played in until Tommie Frazier came along. He blundered away the 1983 national title against an overmatched opponent, lost a rematch with OU in the late 1970s, couldn't beat Florida State to save his life in four bowl games, got shut out by Miami in an Orange Bowl, somehow lost in 1992 to Iowa State, who hadn't beaten Nebraska in three decades, and blew a shot at a three-peat by somehow getting shut out by Pat Tillman's Arizona State team and then bungling away the first-ever Big 12 title game. I know some selective amnesiacs will say, "But Bear Bryant didn't win a bowl game from 1967-1974." Unlike Osborne, however, Bear already had THREE national titles before that dry spell as well as extenuating circumstances (no black players for the early part of that run). And Bear had to rebuild Alabama; Osborne got a gift from Bob Devaney.
14) Pete Carroll
15) Jim Tressell
I'm not rating those other questionable cases.
Jimmy Johnson has ZERO BUSINESS on this list. Nada. What's that you say? He won a national title? Well so did Bobby Ross. So did Bill McCartney, and neither one of them is on this list. Jimmy Johnson INHERITED a good team from Howard Schnellenberger and then handed off a corrupt program to Dennis Erickson.
And why isn't Dennis listed here? He only won TWICE AS MANY national titles as Jimmy. He played for 2 more, and he rebuilt Oregon State. Not that Erickson is an all-time great, he's not, I'm just saying.
Shouldn't even be here:
Bo
Jimmy Johnson
Barry Switzer
Frank Beamer
Mack Brown is DEBATABLE although you have to give him credit for all those 10-win seasons at Texas.
Who should replace the four I listed?
Bob Neyland
Wallace Wade
Bob Devaney
Eddie Robinson (let's not be racist, and I'm a white guy)
Adolph Rupp (just seeing if you're paying attention)
Here they are:
1) Bear Bryant
2) Knute Rockne - Rockne was fine, but he was only 43 when he died. We cannot assume his success would have continued, and many coaches don't even get going good until they're 43.
3) Lou Holtz - look, I don't like the guy. But look at what he has done everywhere he's been. The guy took William and Mary to a bowl game. Took Minnesota to a bowl game. Won a national title with the Irish in his third year after the darkest period in Notre Dame history post-WW2. And turned South Carolina from an East doormat to a respectable foe. The guy took dead teams and made them winners in 2-3 years each time. And unlike Terry Bowden, it continued in later years most of the time.
4) Bobby Bowden - gotta give the devil his due. Fourteen consecutive top five finishes ESPECIALLY in the 1980s and 1990s is insane. But he did it.
5) Bud Wilkinson - before my time but is credited with running the early wishbone.
6) John McKay
7) Darrell Royal
8) Nick Saban - give him 5 years and he might be in Rockne's neighborhood
9) Urban Meyer - yes, he has a better winning pct than Nick. But he also got those against weaker competition at Utah, and Nick was fixing a decade-long problem at both LSU and Alabama. Could move higher if he returns
10) Joe Pa
11) Visor Boy - yes, he did a great job revolutionizing SEC football with the offenses. But it always seemed to me that his teams tended to underachieve in big games. Somehow his 1992 team with Shane Mathews lost FOUR TIMES including a rout to MSU. His 1994 team blew a 31-3 lead on FSU in the final 11 minutes and then lost to those same Noles in a bowl game. His 1995 team was considered the best in the land and then got pulverized by Nebraska. It's not that they lost - they didn't even show up. In 1996, they lost their one IMPORTANT regular season game to FSU and afterward SOS whined like a baby about hits on his QB. The guy somehow lost to a mentally distracted Alabama team in 1999 - TWICE, including a rout in the SECCG. And he flopped in the 9/11 make-up game in 2001. I'd like to rate him higher, but he flops in big games. Even his national title was only gained because Nebraska somehow managed to lose to an overwhelmed Texas team.
12) Woody Hayes - I didn't want him on here at all after the Charlie Bauman incident, but he's worthy.
13) Tom Osborne - if he hadn't put together that great four-year run at the end, I would include him with the four duds (five including Mack Brown) I took off the list. Osborne notoriously lost every single big game Nebraska played in until Tommie Frazier came along. He blundered away the 1983 national title against an overmatched opponent, lost a rematch with OU in the late 1970s, couldn't beat Florida State to save his life in four bowl games, got shut out by Miami in an Orange Bowl, somehow lost in 1992 to Iowa State, who hadn't beaten Nebraska in three decades, and blew a shot at a three-peat by somehow getting shut out by Pat Tillman's Arizona State team and then bungling away the first-ever Big 12 title game. I know some selective amnesiacs will say, "But Bear Bryant didn't win a bowl game from 1967-1974." Unlike Osborne, however, Bear already had THREE national titles before that dry spell as well as extenuating circumstances (no black players for the early part of that run). And Bear had to rebuild Alabama; Osborne got a gift from Bob Devaney.
14) Pete Carroll
15) Jim Tressell
I'm not rating those other questionable cases.
Yeah, the list had several names that didn't belong. But, also, I can't understand why Bud Wilkenson is so low on the list. I guess a lot of fans don't know their history.
Yes, there are some great coaches missing and some that shouldn't be included, but in order to get people to respond the site had to put mostly coaches who coached during the internet period. How many people who have grown up with the internet ever heard of Rockne, Wilkinson or McKay, like any poll it is flawed.
Agree with Selma's take on Osborne. He was gifted a top 5 program and, if anything, underachieved a bit up until the end when he sold his soul to the devil to win a few titles (i.e. brought in a bunch of thugs and let them run amuck). Plus he made a living of the North Texas' of the world and in the Big 8 he pretty much had one tough game a year for the better part of his career. Also, I'm all for lowering the ranking of the corrupt coaches such as Switzer and Johnson.
Thanks for your kind words.
I try to set my biases on the shelf as much as possible. I hate OU, Texas, and Nebraska, but I've got to give Darrell Royal and Bud Wilkinson their due. You summarized my point with Osborne. I never had much respect for Nebraska under TO because I always thought they: a) ran up the score but nobody ever called them out on it; and b) played cupcakes before it became fashionable. They played in the Big Eight back when most of us called it "The Big Two and the Little Six."
You know how there's a lot of people who think that 1983 Cornhusker team was a juggernaut the likes of which we'd never seen in college football? I was 14 that year, and the hype killed me because I couldn't understand how it was that none of the voters could see what I thought was pretty obvious.
Do you remember that powerful schedule they played that year?
Penn State (rebuilding after losing a bunch of seniors to the previous year's national championship)
Wyoming (7-5 in the WAC)
Minnesota (1-10, and the Cornshuckers showed their class by hanging 84 points on the hapless bums)
UCLA (OK, a decent foe)
Syracuse
Oklahoma State (semi-decent)
Missouri
Colorado (rebuilding)
K-State (the biggest joke in the first 120 years of college football)
Iowa State (hung 72 points on them)
Kansas
Oklahoma (not a great Sooners team and the Cornhuskers still needed some timely help from the refs to keep them unbeaten)
In those games with nobodies - Colorado, K-State, Iowa State, and KU - Nebraska scored 69, 51, 72, and 67 points to go with their 84 against the Gophers. Everybody looked at that and talked about how impressive they were. But Missouri scored 59 on CU and OK State got 40, so this was hardly a top-notch defense. And Iowa put up 51 on ISU. And now chew on this - Iowa State, a 4-7 team with no history of greatness, scored 49 on K-State that year.
You read that correctly - little-known Iowa State only got 2 fewer points than Nebraska did against K-State. To make it better, K-State only scored 2 points more against ISU's pathetic defense than they did against Nebraska.
Finally as I noted earlier, Bob Devaney handed Osborne the team in 1973. A team that had won the national championship in both 1970 and 1971, a team that every year from 1962-72 won 9 games all but twice and never had a losing season.
Who couldn't have taken over that juggernaut and kept it going? Well, Mike DuBose maybe, but anyway.
Know what Osborne's record was against eight-win non-conference foes?
As long as you have Bear Bryant number 1, I can deal with the rest of the list. In fact, not having CPB number 1 is a violation of TF's policies. 
I'm pretty sure Auburn fans will disagree. No one included Doug Barfield in the elite group... heeheehee
heeheehee
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